I have had pretty good results using my old 203cm straight skis with freshly sharpened edges.

I haven't done much downhill at all lately and not given all the new tech much attention. Is there a modern ski that outperforms the rest on ice ?

What is working for you ?

Good question! Large radius race skis seem to work best for me, but seem harder to find now that skis seem to all be getting wider. I picked up a nice pair of 210 DH boards on line that were brand new but not current stock. Left over race stock that were never gonna be used for anything else and were practically giving them away now that they had a few model years on them. Seems like anything else these days that has a large turn radius is really wide and not so good for ice, so I stick with the down hill race stuff.

I had the same question after reading Cheddar's post about getting funny looks at the ski shop but I didn't want to hijack that thread.

I have an older pair of shaped skis that I kite with. They were beat up and cheap and they work for the most part. Where I ride I am on lakes almost all of the time. I keep hearing that something older with less sidecut might work best for kiting. Thats not really what I have now.

The few times a year we get a big dumping of snow it might be nice to have something wider with more float. What might fit that bill in todays skis? Would something like the Salomon Q-98/Q-105/Rocker 108 fall into this category?

Maybe I would have more fun riding the snowboard in the deeper snow and shouldn't bother with a pair of wide skis. I like riding both though.

Long radius skis work best for snowkiting on firm surface. In the world of SG/DH ski technology nothing much has changed in the last 30 yrs. But even if you can't find a ski wit a 35m+ carve radius, any old school straight ski will do better than a current production ski.

Seems most recreational ski seems to be in the 13-16m range.

On a kite, short skis suck long skis truck.

Slopecat, anything that is 105mm or greater underfoot will work well for most soft deep snow and, if you ski a flat turn, they do well on death crust. My Salomon rockers are 115mm underfoot. Float on anything. Takes a lot less power in deep snow to get you going on skis than it does a board.

The board has that nice surfy feel tho.

The subject was discussed at some length here ( check Dec. 6/13 ) so there is not much new to add. Of the different schools of thought on the subject mine is that there is nothing that holds on low temperature, black mirror ice as well as skates or skate-like skis i.e. iceskis which work on the same principle as skates. I don’t agree with the notion that long skis are necessarily better for kiting – it depends on the surface and preferences for either straight line cruising or manoeuvrability and gybing.

I respectfully disagree. :D

Unreasonably long video. Start watching at 5:06 and note the lack of any downwind drift. The skis are hand me downs from Picabo Street.

These skis are long since dead.

http://youtu.be/fzqgJoWoI6o

these threads are killing me. I am dying to get going on a pair of K2 Kung Fugas 178 with telemark bindings. Last winter I didn't find a spot with deep enough snow or thick enough ice for new skis.

Winter seems to have bypassed Europe this year. It's bypassing us right now with 33f here and pouring rain. Trees are icing, driveways and the snow is pretty much gone from the lakes now.

We will have glass surface on our lakes after this. Good for skis and skates.

I'll stick to my skis.

It might reach 40F where I am tomorrow. Glad I got out today. My legs are so drained right now I don't know if I could ride tomorrow anyhow.

Quote: Originally posted by Prussik

The subject was discussed at some length here ( check Dec. 6/13 ) so there is not much new to add. .

Back in Dec. Chris asked about skis for snowkiting. Is that the topic you mean?

I was asking about ice and what was working as far as new style skis on ice . If anything has been developed recently for downhill skiing on ice that would work for us. I am sorry you think I was wasting time with a repeat topic. I use completely different skis / approach for snowkiting ( like Chris asked ) and ice kiting. To me, they are different enough to have their own topic.

I prefer my shorter twin tipped skis for snow. I will stick with my old straight edge skis for those very few ice days we get. I can justify the cost of maintaining them since they are doing the job. Not sure I get enough ice days to justify New tech skis even if there was something out there.

To the best of my knowledge no mainstream ski manufacture is producing a ski that excels on ice. Or is chasing a design specifically for ice conditions.

The general public won't ski if it's icy. No ski area is going to market the how icy their conditions are and most areas have grooming ability to keep those conditions at bay for at least half a day.

Wide body shaped cruising skis that take the skier skill element out of the equation are the demand these days.

Modern race skis work well on ice. Race courses are treated and made to be icy. But most modern race skis are designed to carve turns which is not what you want in a snow kite ski unless it's softer conditions and you want to throw yourself around and play. For cruising, a modern super-g or DH ski will work perfectly but again there haven't been any huge advancements in those types of skis in many years. Stiff and long radius is not that complicated I suppose. :P


We have glass setting up again right now. Should be perfect for skating and higher speed kiting.

Quote:

I am sorry you think I was wasting time with a repeat topic.

I think no such thing – just giving the reference to the topic discussed earlier. If you care to read it you’ll find that it covered both the snow and ice stuff.

Quote:

I use completely different skis / approach for snowkiting ( like Chris asked ) and ice kiting.

I do too. Read it.

BTW, to form your own opinion on what works best on ice the best approach is to try skates and skis and compare. Choose hard and slick ice since on soft, pebbly, ripply, cobbly ice anything holds. Hockey skates will give an idea of the ease of edge holding on skates or iceskis but they are unsuitable for speed on natural ice (too short and too much rocker).

All good Prussik

I have not tried ice skates but can relate to what you are saying having used street rollerblades and the kite a lot.
It is extremely rare for us to get smooth enough ice to make ice skates the 1st choice for me ?

I guess when I rethink my question what I am really curious about is what modern style skis downhill skiers are using these days for ice ? If people think these new tech skis for ice are better than old straight edge skis for kiting on ice ?

I have tried different kind of skis on ice. Most skis work as long as the edges are well sharpened.

Last week I tried kite-skiing on pure ice in hard wind. It was very difficult. Ice-skates would have been better. So in hard wind skis are not very good. Skis work better in lighter winds when slippery ice.

This has been a long standing debate. I will tell you from first person experience, skis will out run skates on hard ice. The ski has to be sharp and the person riding the ski has to know how to drive them.

Especially good in high winds.:D

Hockey-skates and tour-skates are not very good. Here in Sweden many people think that kite-skates (sailing-skates) is the weapon of choice on black ice. Kite-skates by far outperform hockey-skates and tour-skates.

Here is a photo of kite-skates (middle and right) and tour-skates (left):


Some kiters use skis on black ice, but many people prefer kite-skates.

This is my weapon of choice on black ice: Link to photo. Video:


In other conditions I usually use skis.

Back to the original question - "best skis on ice". I guess the guys in Oulu have good answers. At least when it comes to speed-kiting on ice without snow. Amazing: http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=28101