Volkl 6 Star - A tale of 2 sizes

[volklgirl]

Today I had a chance to do an interesting experiment regarding ski sizes. Hubby and I have exactly the same ski in 2 different sizes - the 04-05 Volkl 6 Star with marker Piston Motion 1400/1200 Titanium bindings, his in a 168cm, mine in a 161cm. He's been hounding me for 2 years about how mine are really too short for me and I'd be happier on a longer ski. So he re-mounted his to fit me and I had a chance to ski both his and mine back-to-back on the same runs. Here's what I found:

Mine (13m radius) - popped off snappy short turns but got knocked around by the late morning death cookies. Laid down trenches on a blue run at high speeds, but got flappy and bouncy in the same turns on steeper terrain.

His (14.4m radius) - popped off pretty snappy short turns but stayed rock solid in the death cookies. Laid down trenches on the blue run, and stuck to the snow like glue at higher speeds on steeper terrain. I was concerned about how these would handle in our ungroomed area 'The Gorge' after 18" of snow in the last 4 days but had no problem doing the same hop turns I do on my skis with no tail hang-ups.

What an eye-opener!! As we've all suspected, 'size really does matter' ;) :D More and more, I'm finding the newer skis can be skied longer with only a tiny loss in manueverability in short turns but a huge gain in stability in longer turns and higher speeds. Most importantly though, even a tiny difference in size (7cm) can create the impression of being on a totally differrent ski.

So demo those skis and don't be afraid to go longer!!!

 

[treebunny]

length doesn't dictate all. be careful. it depends on the ski and your intended use of it. more people are on skis that are too long and they never are able to utilize the sidecut. so they just ski on them 'old style'. you are probably a very strong skier so a range of lengths will feel good to you and you will notice each skis personalities. as a ski gets longer though, it will take more and more effort to engage the sidecut and ultimately become more tiring to ski and less versatile. i've noticed some women specific skis feel 'squirly' to me which could be interpreted as needing to go longer but i think it means to go up in level. a lot of ws's seem to be oriented to piste skiing and may not be above advanced intermediate if compared to uni skis.

 

[RachelV]

Did you try them in the trees at all? Seems like a longer ski would be harder to handle in the trees.

 

[volklgirl]

Did you try them in the trees at all? Seems like a longer ski would be harder to handle in the trees.

Yes I did.....I actually ended up skiing the 168s for the rest of the day. I had no problems with them in the trees although the deep (for Michigan anyway) untracked snow made them far less fun that my Karmas (which are 177cm by the way). I think their inherent stiffness also contributed to their minimal fun factor in the trees as well. As a groomed carver, though, the 168 rocks for me. I never really realized how much the 161cm length was holding me back when it came to speed on the steeps. They just got really squirlly but I'd never noticed it before since I didn't have anything other than my race skis (180cm) to compare them to.

 

[smpayne]

Sounds like your husband wanted an excuse to buy a new set of skis, since he convinced you that his work better for you. :D

Are the Star 6, the same as the '07 Supersport Allstar?

 

[volklgirl]

Sounds like your husband wanted an excuse to buy a new set of skis, since he convinced you that his work better for you. :D

Wouldn't surprise me at all :D :D I'm trying to do an even trade with the 161 for a 175 on Epic but nobody's biting.

Are the Star 6, the same as the '07 Supersport Allstar?

Actually, when I demoed the Allstar this year (168cm I believe), I found them to be much softer and more user-friendly than the high energy 6*, although the Allstar is the replacement for the 6*. I'll check the dimensions to see if there's much difference.

 

[volklgirl]

Are the Star 6, the same as the '07 Supersport Allstar?

The 6* is 114-68-99 and the Allstar is 116-70-101, so 2mm bigger all around. I didn't think the Allstar had anywhere near the same 'pop' as the 6 Star.

 

[Jilly]

I find your comparison between the different sizes the same as I found with another ski. When I was at the 2008 demo days, I took out the Salomon Origin in a 154. I found it soft. The next day I took out the 160 and found it much stiffer and better all around. So size does matter!!

 

[volklgirl]

Same experiment, different skis, same results

This weekend I got a chance to try my 04-05 177 Karmas (well used!) and hubby's 05-06 185 Karmas (nearly new) back-to-back. While the skis were not identical in this case (different year and different bindings), I came away from the experiment with the same general impressions.....the 8cm increase in length resulted in increased high speed stability and crud-cutting ability with very little decrease in maneuverability.

In this case, however, I did note other subtle differences in the skis but I'm not sure how to attribute the differences. Was it the Marker binding, the difference in the year, or the difference in how "used" the skis were that made his feel significantly stiffer than mine? Given that the Karmas are best used in pow, crud, and other nastiness, I found that I preferred my 177s for their lower speed versatility and softer, more forgiving nature. A confirmation that size choice also depends on the skis' intended use.