What is your DIN?

[snowcat]

According to the manufacturer my bindings should be set at 6 1/2 but I am an agressive skier and have come out too easily at that setting. I have always cranked them up at least a half a notch or so. A fine line between face plants due to an early of a release vs. a fracture....... I'm not looking for advice ( wouldn't hold you all resposponsible , so much as wondering what other aggressive women skiers do.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Welcome!

Welcome to the forum, snowcat! I'm obviously not as aggressive a skier as you, but one of the factors that isn't taken into manufacturers' consideration (at least to the best of my knowledge) is age. Weight, ability, age. As a result, my latest DIN has gone down from 5.5 (Look) to 5. I agree that avoiding premature release is paramount, but it seems like binding technology has come a long way in that regard. I have never had a "miss" with Looks. Great elasticity.

 

[lil mountain girl]

hi snowcat!

i've noticed (and been told by ski techs) that often the "manufacturers recomendation" is downgraded a bit for liability reasons . . .

often they will recomend an "aggressive" or "expert skier" to be at a DIN of 6.5 or 7 or less.

many truely aggressive or experts would probably prefer to have their DIN a lot higher!
somewhat based on personal preferance and ski style . . .

i know that when i took my bindings for an adjustment the ski tech told me that the highest DIN they're alowed to set at is around 6.5 . . . that's for liability reasons as well.

personally, i like my DIN set at about 7 or 8 . . .
i'm fairly aggressive, but i'm parinoid about twisting my knee or hurting myself in other ways because my skis didn't pop off when i bailed!

i know it's time to up my DIN a little when my skis come off too easily . . . like when you compress into a turn through choppy snow and get double ejected !!!

 

[snowcat]

Yeah....hopefully the double eject results in a nice forward roll with a soft powdery landing....and you know where you're skiis are!

Thanks for your reply.

 

[sibhusky]

When I was under 50, they always set it at 6.5 and I was perfectly happy with it. Once I hit 50, everyone has set it down a whole notch to 5.5 and I'm still happy.

My daughter's skis have always been set at 6.5, but her coaches set it up to 9 for racing, so she was stunned when the demo guys would only set it at 6.5. I'm not sure what she's going to do when she gets new skis (she no longer races), reset them herself or live with the 6.5.

 

[abc]

Actually, binding setting value do take age into account, but only one age: 50! So it's like magically, your body changes dramatically after your 50th birthday. Obviously, that's too crude an indicator. So everyone should just take that with some latitude...

One thing about DIN setting also has to do with skiing STYLE, not just what level of skier you are. You gals who ski "aggresively" need higher settings than those of us who ski slowly and deliberately... I have mine set relatively low (6, for type II skier) and I rarely have my skis release pre-maturely. In fact, I ski so slowly when I crash, my skis often don't come off! :p

 

[altagirl]

I have mine at 8, which I believe is my recommended setting.

I also have great luck with Look/Rossi bindings. I had my new Praxis and forgot they said they were going to let me set the DIN after they got mounted and skied them all day on a deep powder day set on 4 and had no issues.

The thing is with knee issues, I've read studies saying that you can tear an ACL with a DIN setting of zero. It just doesn't take much force at all, and if you fall back into that position where you're torquing your knee, it's such a tiny movement, your acl would go before your bindings would release. You don't even still have to be attached to a ski, it can happen just with your foot on the ground (I've torn an acl dabbing a foot into sand on my bike). Fractures are a different story and can definitely be prevented in most situations with a correct DIN setting. The other problem is that going too low with DIN settings can result in injuries from unexpectedly losing a ski. So you really have to find the right balance, and what seems to work for you. I know my skis release in falls, but I haven't had a pre-release in a long time, so I feel comfortable where they're at.

 

[abc]

You don't even still have to be attached to a ski, it can happen just with your foot on the ground (I've torn an acl dabbing a foot into sand on my bike).

I know someone who did that dancing!

I think bindings were originally design to prevent broken legs, not torn ACL.

 

[pinto]

I think mine is at 6.5. That's the recommended for Type III at my weight ... I have had a couple of preleases that weren't so good, so I'll probably crank it up a notch.

When we went to Switzerland, I forgot to check at the shop where we rented skis: they don't make you sign the release form there ... I was busy trying to get the family outfitted and converse in Germglish ... just spaced it.

I double-ejected on an icy bump run the first morning -- I flew like Superman 15 feet down the slope and landed square on my face. It was so sudden, I didn't even put my hands out to catch myself (thank goodness, it probably saved my collarbones.)

THEN I remembered to check the DIN, which I discovered had been set at 4 or 4.5. Egads.

I cut my lip, scraped up my nose, broke my goggles ... even messed up my jaw a little bit (it was hard to chew for a few days, and when I went to the dentist a few weeks after I got home, he noticed some trauma on the xrays. All ok now.) I'll never forget looking up and seeing my skis sitting there, right next to each other, tips sticking out over that mogul. Like a diving board.

 

[Swamp Dog]

well I hate to admit it, but I don't know what DIN setting is or what it should be. I'll look at it in the morning tho.

 

[snowcat]

I thought DIN was an accronym for something but don't know for what. The DIN is the setting on your bindings based on your level of skiing, weight, height, boot length and age. What really happens at fifty? LOL And why is it 50 and older? My Mum is 76 and still skiing. Should she still have the DIN of a 50 year old? 50 seems to be quite young when I'm out skiing with my girlfriend here in Vail.

 

[pinto]

I thought DIN was an accronym for something but don't know for what.

I think it's German .... uh, yeah, just googled, and it's Deutsche Industrie Norm.

 

[ski diva]

Anyone ever go here?

https://www.dinsetting.com/

Pretty cool.

Mine are set at 4.5. Never had a problem.

 

[altagirl]

Anyone ever go here?

https://www.dinsetting.com/

Pretty cool.

Mine are set at 4.5. Never had a problem.

That is a cool site. I guess technically I'm supposed to be at 7.5.

 

[dloveski]

Type II or III?

This is the dilemma. Ski shops define type II and type III into discreet buckets, when I find I move in and out of intermediate and advanced, depending on my ski buddies, conditions, stamina, stress level that day, etc.

So, I've upped the DIN setting to a 6---I think---this post will make me recheck.

I'd rather error on the side of a pre-release than a bad fall with no release.

That said, I try not to fall at all---I don't fall cuz I can't get up, at my age.

 

[sibhusky]

Gee, the dinsetting thing says I'm supposed to be at 5.25. I guess since I'm a notch over that, pre-release is less of an issue? But then again, this site says it's based on Marker bindings, so maybe it varies on the manufacturer a bit.

Oddly, when I hit the tree, my binding toe piece ripped off the ski, yet my legs and ankles were FINE. How does that happen?

...Sometimes I've wondered if what actually happened is that the toepiece ripped loose and THAT caused my accident... I seem to remember something about an issue on my right ski just before the actual fall.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

...Sometimes I've wondered if what actually happened is that the toepiece ripped loose and THAT caused my accident... I seem to remember something about an issue on my right ski just before the actual fall.

Very real possibility. I had a toepiece blow off a ski as well, but that was the result of a collision. Wound up having to hitch a snowmobile ride to the top of where I could take a gondola down. I had the imprint of that toepiece, in many colors, on the back of my knee for 2 weeks....::yell: ....the child that skied over my tails was fine.

 

[lindseyinalaska]

every ski shop thats tuned my skis in the recent years has always had them set at 8. I am pretty heavy and an agressive skier. I have an old pair of Atomics set at 9 but a kid on my race team decided to try my skis even though our boots were different and broke my binding a little so when I was skiing powder last winter my skis fell off all the time even when just making traverses. The guy at the ski shop saw mine at 8 and wasn't happy to do it.

 

[Pequenita]

Mine are at 4, and I prefer them there. I've pre-released once in recent memory, and I too went sailing over some moguls, which is just as well, since I can't ski bumps! I am paranoid about having my skis staying on me after I've lost control because I have a bad feeling that I'd injure myself further by trying to "save" the spill. I think, though, that I need to find different bindings so that my DIN setting can be more in the middle of the range, rather than bottom range.

 

[num]

6.5 for me.