racing skis radius & length?

There is plenty of chat here about how we've moved on beyond straight skis, which are now laughed at like a bad joke. Well, for me as a beginner, going down from 180cm to 170 cm, and getting skis with more sidecut did make turning easier.

But I have just watched the Garmisch round of the World Cup downhill. And it looks to me from the TV pictures that the skis are very nearly straight. Their sidecut is pretty similar to my ancient first generation carvers, and they are longer.

What is the reason for this? Are the racers required to use rather long, straight skis to make the race more difficult? Or do longish, straightish skis actually work better for good skiers?

they do have shape, just a lot less than you see on a recreational ski, mostly for stability at over 90KPH and to satisfy the rule gods at FIS who decide what will give the best and safest means of getting down the mountain at that speed

the difference is best seen if you go into a shop which sells both production and race room skis for GS, the production ski will have a load more shape to make it easier to turn without the requirement to be tracvelling at mach 4 .... i skied a few race room skis last week and a few production versions, i was also testing boots and whilst i could happily ski the production GS skis on the pair of slaomon Quest boots i was trying i switched to my full race Head Raptor to even think about going for a run on the factory skis

Thanks. It must be interesting to try out these skis.

Today I watched some of the giant slalom, also there skis look fairly straight.

did you try the atomic one they had stashed behind the tent last week?

i most certainly did... made certian that i had the race boots on for it too :D :D :D

now who is this????

i am in bormio for the season-was chatting to you (i think) last week beside the salomon tent-you had a jacket on with your logo on and a few of the kids from ambition have been to see you once or twice i think?

still trying the think who it is, send me a PM if you want to remain anon on here...i am guessing soemone from ambition but who?

Innsbrucker - those skis are most certainly not straight.