damaged skis

i used my own skis last year for the time bought them of ebay ,when i tried them out at zell it felt like i had never skied before 2 left feet syndrome,but after getting them edged & waxed they ,i mean i was brilliant! :lol: but during the week i must of hit something hard because i have a deep gauge out which looks like it has gone to the base thingy and being numb nuts have left it all this time to ask can it be repaired and how, and also at 6ft2 what poles size do i need i tried my friends last year they were 135 mm and it felt weird not at all comfy what do you suggest reduce the lengh of my arms perhaps

It's time to take your skis into a ski dealership that has a servicing workshop. Holes and gouges can be easily filled with p-tex, but it's so much easier if the right tools are used. The shop will give your skis a nice service and a fresh coat of wax and edge them, so they will be ready to ski this season.

I have friends who are 6'2" and they use 135 poles. To check that yours are the right length turn the pole upside down and hold underneath the basket, and your arm should form a right angle like an L (sort of) when put on the ground. If you can't decide, you might wish to consider adjustable touring poles.

Concur with Bandit, get the skid serviced, will be as good as new.

On the pole issue, I am 6' 2", 1350 poles would be about right. I choose to use 1250s. My reason is that when I pole plant, towards the ski tips, it helps with keeping the weight forward. Maybe not good for everyone, but it is right for me.

If you are 6' 2", you may have, how can we say, a certain weight about you, say 12 stone plus? Should you be any heavier than this, I would be inclined not to think about touring poles. Particularly if you ski reasonably quickly.

The force on the pole is a function of your body mass x the square of your velocity. I am not sure that touring poles are designed for this.

Please correct me bandit. I don't know a lot about touring poles.

Dave Mac wrote:
The force on the pole is a function of your body mass x the square of your velocity. I am not sure that touring poles are designed for this.

Please correct me bandit. I don't know a lot about touring poles.

I ski with touring poles every day, they're more than able to withstand the force I place on them and like a lot of free rando skiers I use more force than the average piste skier.

Dave Mac, now don't you go all technical on me :lol:

Modern touring poles seem pretty tough to me. It seemed worth suggesting to tomski that if he really can't get comfy he could try several different lengths of pole ( adjustables) until he's happy :D

ise, having seen you ski a bit, I think that you do a pretty firm pole plant all the time. Can't recall you you bending/breaking any of your touring poles, perhaps you should try harder :D

Now I really feel inadequate (thanks Dave Mac)...

I've skiied all these years being insufficiently aware of the square of my velocity... 8)
(sounds like something Ian Dury could have written).

But back to tomski - the correct length poles will be the ones that feel just right for you.

bandit's described the traditional way of estimating pole length - although I think modern skis/technique benefit from a slightly shorter pole. I'm 5'11 and used to ski with 125cm poles when on skinny skis, but now find closer to 120cm are right.

As bandit says, adjustables are your best bet if you're not sure. Most hire shops have adjustables available nowadays so worth hiring a pair for a few days to play around with the length.

hi admin, thanks for that i too feel more natural with a 125mm even though it seems i should be looking at 135,but i will take your advise and hire some to try different settings,glad to see i wasnt the only confused one ,i did not think there would be so much to learn when i started skiing 3 yrs ago but its all fun, and skiing has made life fun again something to look forward to all the time ,and gr8 chat sites like j2ski keeps me informed and some of the comments crack me up, (my missus thiks im boring going on this site every night ,any chance admin could set up a exchange wives for ski holidays section ) :lol:

Dave Mac wrote:
The force on the pole is a function of your body mass x the square of your velocity. I am not sure that touring poles are designed for this.

Surely not, isn't force equal to mass times acceleration for a start? and acceleration is the rate of change of velocity .

More to the point even with the correct maths the assumption that a pole plant converts all angular momentum to force in the plant is obviously wrong, the only way it could be correct is if the pole plant caused a complete stop.

I don't think alpine poles are designed for that either. So clearly only a small proportion of angular momentum is converted to force in the pole plant.