Hi fellow skiers! I need some help. I am very distressed and irritated. Sorry for the long post. TLDR: new kenjas skied 7 times on 3 different mountains with a range of snow got their first full tune up. Now I can barely ski them. Guy at ski shop said I bought too much ski for my ability. Except that previously I was crushing blacks and making my way down non-groomed bowls. Are my skis ruined? Is he right and I suck??? I've read several threads here about this issue, but I can't stop ruminating so I thought I'd start a new one. Skiing has been a key source of managing my anxiety this year--I'm set to do a solo week-long ski fest in Mammoth next week, including a $$$ private lesson to get better at off-piste. Yesterday I could barely get down a green/blue. I am so heartbroken. I fill silly saying this about skis, but whatever. Specific questions I'd like help with at bottom. Thanks ladies!!
Longer explanation: these are my first pair of skis, so i admit I know nothing about tuning. I allowed myself to be talked down to and patronized yesterday because I don't know. I did extensive research on various skis and demoed different skis before buying. I waited a long time to buy because I was getting better and better every year. Once I got solidly "advanced" I felt comfortable investing in a ski that I could handle and grow into. I loved the kenjas when I demoed them. It was like riding a porsche. They turned on a dime, were responsive, sporty, bouncy, didn't skid. I felt solid and secure, yet I went faster than with any other ski. I tried some skis that were too easy and boring. Other skis were "too much ski." I had to focus and really work them. So I KNOW WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE. My newly tuned kenjas were not like that at all. No one I talked to would believe me. I was told I probably needed a lesson. No joke. Then I got a 15-minute lecture on the impact of snow conditions on skiing. Really? As if that hadn't yet occurred to me in the 15 years I've been actively pursuing advanced ski skills.
After a few runs yesterday I took the skis to the mountain repair guy. He ran them over the waxing thing (forget terms) and ironed the tips/tails. That made about a 50% improvement. But my badass skis were still not right. The guy said there is nothing wrong with them. That the edges are super sharp. He blamed the conditions (I was at snow summit in SoCal: super hard pack with ice underneath, some big balls of ice that had been groomed, but with the 40-degree weather the snow softened up a lot). My skis previously laughed at hard pack. I never had a problem with icy patches at Snow Summit before (or mammoth or tahoe where I skied earlier this year). I promise you guys, it was not the conditions--the weren't that bad! I'm trying to find the right words to describe the post-tune performance:
grippy (mostly fixed with new wax), rocketing into turns too soon instead of midway, slow, less control on ice, have to press with thighs super hard to get tight fast turns but i still couldnt get them as tight/fast as before, tails spinning out just a tad whereas before they were quiet
So I took the skis back to the shop in the OC that tuned them. The owner told me they tune back to factory settings and have the same equipment as Voelkl. He told me he used to be a ski intsructor and it was probably how I skied them--completely ignoring that I told him I've taken these very skis out on a range of conditions before. He didn't do anything beside check how sharp the edges were. and just ignored me. Another man told me to get lessons and gave me tips about leaning forward more. I still don't know exactly what was done to my skis in this $65 tune.
I can't be that bad, right? Snow can't turn someone who can go down blacks into someone who can barely get down a green?
A full tune can fundamentally change the performance of a ski, right? Why are these guys telling me they've never, ever heard of a situation like mine? I read on other forums that this can happen.
I'm not buying that all I need is a detuning--they guy whose shop tuned them said they were detuned to factory specs. Was he just fobbing me off?
I'm going be back at Mammoth, where I bought them and will ask them to fix. What should I specifically ask for? How should I describe the problem? I don't want to be ignored and patronized again!
What could have been done to the skis to result in this radical deterioration of performance?
I read the post in another thread about bevel settings. I feel like this is the problem. Can a new shop redo the current crazy sharp edges so there's a bevel? (a fellow customer told me the shop who did my tune does not bevel edges. I didn't know what that meant at the time, but if so, that's outrageous and obviously the problem. but maybe I still don't understand).
If the second shop can't get them fixed, are they ruined? I would want to buy new ones if that's the case because I LOVED mine pre-tune. is this stupid? would new ones behave this way after their first tune?
Longer explanation: these are my first pair of skis, so i admit I know nothing about tuning. I allowed myself to be talked down to and patronized yesterday because I don't know. I did extensive research on various skis and demoed different skis before buying. I waited a long time to buy because I was getting better and better every year. Once I got solidly "advanced" I felt comfortable investing in a ski that I could handle and grow into. I loved the kenjas when I demoed them. It was like riding a porsche. They turned on a dime, were responsive, sporty, bouncy, didn't skid. I felt solid and secure, yet I went faster than with any other ski. I tried some skis that were too easy and boring. Other skis were "too much ski." I had to focus and really work them. So I KNOW WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE. My newly tuned kenjas were not like that at all. No one I talked to would believe me. I was told I probably needed a lesson. No joke. Then I got a 15-minute lecture on the impact of snow conditions on skiing. Really? As if that hadn't yet occurred to me in the 15 years I've been actively pursuing advanced ski skills.
After a few runs yesterday I took the skis to the mountain repair guy. He ran them over the waxing thing (forget terms) and ironed the tips/tails. That made about a 50% improvement. But my badass skis were still not right. The guy said there is nothing wrong with them. That the edges are super sharp. He blamed the conditions (I was at snow summit in SoCal: super hard pack with ice underneath, some big balls of ice that had been groomed, but with the 40-degree weather the snow softened up a lot). My skis previously laughed at hard pack. I never had a problem with icy patches at Snow Summit before (or mammoth or tahoe where I skied earlier this year). I promise you guys, it was not the conditions--the weren't that bad! I'm trying to find the right words to describe the post-tune performance:
grippy (mostly fixed with new wax), rocketing into turns too soon instead of midway, slow, less control on ice, have to press with thighs super hard to get tight fast turns but i still couldnt get them as tight/fast as before, tails spinning out just a tad whereas before they were quiet
So I took the skis back to the shop in the OC that tuned them. The owner told me they tune back to factory settings and have the same equipment as Voelkl. He told me he used to be a ski intsructor and it was probably how I skied them--completely ignoring that I told him I've taken these very skis out on a range of conditions before. He didn't do anything beside check how sharp the edges were. and just ignored me. Another man told me to get lessons and gave me tips about leaning forward more. I still don't know exactly what was done to my skis in this $65 tune.
I can't be that bad, right? Snow can't turn someone who can go down blacks into someone who can barely get down a green?
A full tune can fundamentally change the performance of a ski, right? Why are these guys telling me they've never, ever heard of a situation like mine? I read on other forums that this can happen.
I'm not buying that all I need is a detuning--they guy whose shop tuned them said they were detuned to factory specs. Was he just fobbing me off?
I'm going be back at Mammoth, where I bought them and will ask them to fix. What should I specifically ask for? How should I describe the problem? I don't want to be ignored and patronized again!
What could have been done to the skis to result in this radical deterioration of performance?
I read the post in another thread about bevel settings. I feel like this is the problem. Can a new shop redo the current crazy sharp edges so there's a bevel? (a fellow customer told me the shop who did my tune does not bevel edges. I didn't know what that meant at the time, but if so, that's outrageous and obviously the problem. but maybe I still don't understand).
If the second shop can't get them fixed, are they ruined? I would want to buy new ones if that's the case because I LOVED mine pre-tune. is this stupid? would new ones behave this way after their first tune?