When does your "Youth" become an "Adult" wrt ski gear?

[lljc00]

My daughter:
13 years old, skiing since 6
90+ lbs
5 ft.
Shoe size 5
Can do blacks, but is (and will probably always be) conservative

We skipped last year because of COVID, but looking forward to the upcoming season. Of course, she's outgrown her gear.

At what point does a kid switch over to adult? By that, I'm starting with boots thinking she's in the adult range, right? So if the boots are adult, then she needs adult bindings as well, right?

Or should I still look for her whole setup in the "youth" category?

 

[newboots]

At the shop where I work, the general rule of thumb is under 120 lbs. uses junior boots, skis, and whatever other gear. Over 120 would be adults. I’ve also heard 130.

Congratulations! It’s cheaper!

 

[lljc00]

Hmm, I'm less than 120. Maybe I should look at Junior's for me next time!

 

[contesstant]

My daughter is similar in age and stats at 14, 5'2" 94 ish pounds, with size 6 feet. It's that really tough tweener time on what gear to buy. Last two seasons, she was on a stout-ish pair (for a junior ski) of junior Nordica Santa Ana 80s and Nordica junior boots. This year, I picked up a pair of Salomon S Race 90 junior boots for her because she unfortunately has inherited my super low-volume feet. I'm looking at softer women's skis for her like a Head Absolut Joy or something along those lines. She's an advanced skier in what terrain she'll ski having taken a lot of junior season-long clinics for a few years, but she needs to develop better technique so a ski with some carving chops would be nice. So, I'm going the route of softer women's skis instead of junior skis. (I think.)

I feel for you! I have no idea how the boots will work out, but Salomon typically have such a nice, progressive flex and they are taller than typical youth boots which will work well with her long legs.

 

[Jilly]

Size 5 foot and leg strength need to be addressed. Can she bend the softer ladies boot and can you find that small? As we know, manufacturers just are not addressing the petite women skier.

So the junior boot may still be the way to go. Softer women's ski or if you can find some "tweener" skis. Rossi has some that are not junior, but not women's either.

 

[SarahXC]

My older daughter is 12, 5’5” and 115 size 8.5 foot. She has been in adult boots 2 years (Solomon max 70 first and now 80). On (soft) adult ski a demo Nordica belle 78 in 145 cm 1st year then my old Nordica belle 88 161 cm last year which she will likely ski again. She is conservative and really has no desire to carve but does take technique lessons to heart.

My younger is the daredevil, 10, 72 lb, size 5 shoe and short (though I don’t remember how tall exactly) she is in junior boots but skied the belle 78 hand me down ski last year. The break from youth to adult sole for binding compatibility happens somewhere around mondo 22-22.5 for most manufacturers so your daughter may be able to ski a lower volume Junior boot on a adult binding if that happens to be what is needed/available. The demo binding was great bc we could move the mount point up to allow the ski to feel shorter for the first few days in snow then moved it to recommended and she skied it great the rest of the year. I think a lot of it depends on how much it needs to be “perfect” to start versus just ski it and see what happens. Kind of depends on the kid and how flexible they are…I was ready to buy the younger a shorter ski last year if the 145 turned out to be too much but after a few days she loved them. We even returned a demo after 2 runs because she said she likes her own belles better.

 

[marzNC]

My daughter:
13 years old, skiing since 6
90+ lbs
5 ft.
Shoe size 5
Can do blacks, but is (and will probably always be) conservative

We skipped last year because of COVID, but looking forward to the upcoming season. Of course, she's outgrown her gear.

At what point does a kid switch over to adult? By that, I'm starting with boots thinking she's in the adult range, right? So if the boots are adult, then she needs adult bindings as well, right?

Or should I still look for her whole setup in the "youth" category?

Sounds like you can go either way.

My daughter was an advanced skier doing easy blacks at Alta in April by the time she was 9. She wasn't quite 5' yet, around 100 lbs, but very strong due to doing gymnastics at an advanced (just under competitive) level for quite a few years. She wasn't an aggressive skier at all as a tween/teen. More of a social skier who is happy skiing blues with friends or blacks with people who like that sort of challenge.

Our local boot fitter (central NC) put her in soft women's boots when she was 11 just before our Alta trip. It was the second pair of boots we bought from him for her. I've bought two pairs of boots from him as well, so trust his judgement and experience. The fit was a recreational fit, not a performance fit. Her technique was more than good enough for them to work well with the Rossi Fun Girl skis, 140cm, she'd been using. Bought the skis used from a father of a tween daughter who used them for a season. He was very knowledgeable about skis in general.

 

[lljc00]

Thanks for all the replies, ladies! I think I will try to keep her in a Junior set up this year.

 

[tinymoose]

I'm actually stuck in this zone as an adult. I'm 5'1", 100 lbs, size 7 shoe. And I'm a pretty gangly adult. I have a lot of issues flexing boots, both junior and adult, b/c my feet are so large proportional to the rest of my body. So what happens is a lot of my lower leg ends up encased in plastic. Hard to get leverage that way.

As far as skis, I actually currently have both a pair of women's skis (Yumi) and junior skis (Head RD slalom). I mostly take items on a case by case basis, as a lot of women's skis and boots are just too stiff and/or long for me. If you get children's skis, just make sure they're more a tweener ski like Jilly said... make sure they have a wood core, not foam. A foam core is much cheaper, which is why a lot of kids' skis use them, and will be much softer.

With a size 5 foot, it'll probably be easier to stick with junior boots for now. My feet are a little bigger, but my junior boots still had an adult lug. I've never had any issues with compatibility with my adult lug boots and junior bindings in the past (I need a low DIN). Just make sure to check in advance to make any binding will be compatible with her boots before purchasing, but it's honestly not a problem I've run into much. All of my "big kid" bindings have always been compatible with my adult lug boots.

 

[lljc00]

@tinymoose , Yeah, I think for the DIN settings, she'll probably need something more in line with what a Junior ski would offer.

Can you tell me more about fitting the boots to binding? It's more likely that you can fit an Adult foot into a Junior binding, but not the other way around, so that a kid can't inadvertently hurt themselves in too advanced of skis, but worst case is an adult releases out of Junior skis early?

 

[SarahXC]

Junior/adult alpine boot norms

Since there isn’t going to be anymore skiing for us this year I started on putting gear up, taking inventory of what I might look for on sale to prepare for next year. One thing I wondered was whether my younger daughter in junior boots could step up into her sister’s old skis for next...

www.theskidiva.com

I made a post about my research on it a few years ago. Basically if the binding offers the DIN setting needed for the skier and the sole design is a compatible ISO designation for the binding design the actual names of either (Junior or Adult) mean very little. It seems most Junior binding have DIN in a range from 2-7. Some higher up to 10. Most adult low ranges start at 3 or 3.5 up to 11-13. The super high release setting adult bindings like 15-16 don’t seem to start as low (obviously). Do you know about what DIN range your daughter needs?

 

[Jilly]

The "lug" or toe and heel portions of the boot can be different in adult boots from junior boots. So bindings may or may not work with the boot. DIN setting is a standard so it's the same whether it's an adult binding or junior. The DIN setting range in a junior binding is usually only 1-4, where an adult binding would go 3-9 or higher for a race binding. You want to be in the middle of the range if possible.

 

[SarahXC]

The terms youth and junior get thrown around together but youth really seems to mean the teeny tiny up to DIN 4.5 whereas Junior seems to be the next age up.

 

[lljc00]

Junior/adult alpine boot norms

Since there isn’t going to be anymore skiing for us this year I started on putting gear up, taking inventory of what I might look for on sale to prepare for next year. One thing I wondered was whether my younger daughter in junior boots could step up into her sister’s old skis for next...

www.theskidiva.com

I made a post about my research on it a few years ago. Basically if the binding offers the DIN setting needed for the skier and the sole design is a compatible ISO designation for the binding design the actual names of either (Junior or Adult) mean very little. It seems most Junior binding have DIN in a range from 2-7. Some higher up to 10. Most adult low ranges start at 3 or 3.5 up to 11-13. The super high release setting adult bindings like 15-16 don’t seem to start as low (obviously). Do you know about what DIN range your daughter needs?

Thanks! I do see the difference between my boots and my kids old boots. I think she'd probably wind up somewhere in the 3.5 range. My Head Absolute Joy's do go as far down as 2.5, while my kids' old skis all seem to go up to 4.5.

 

[lljc00]

The terms youth and junior get thrown around together but youth really seems to mean the teeny tiny up to DIN 4.5 whereas Junior seems to be the next age up.

Oh, I definitely didn't know there was any difference. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Jilly]

Some companies are making a lighter DIN setting bindings for their women's ski lines. Head, Blizzard usually do. That's why you need to check the DIN range when purchasing bindings.

I used to work for the local shop at the ski swap. There was a company that came to it. They would pick up left over new skis and bindings from shops over the summer. Then they would mount bindings on them. Out of 50 pairs, there were always a few that had the wrong binding on the ski. The swap staff were racing kids and they didn't know the difference. Us shop staff did. Eventually we were asked to leave the swap as things weren't selling because we would tell the customers it wasn't right. Swap just wanted their money. We would then have to explain to the buyer when they came into the shop to get the bindings adjusted that we couldn't do it.

"But they were so pretty and the cheap!" And there was a reason why......

 

[SarahXC]

It’s doesn’t seem the descriptions are very consistent so being able to eyeball the difference like you did comparing your boots to theirs and then knowing what you have/need is helpful. Wish all sellers were as good as @Jilly shop, but… since they aren’t I take an educated consumer approach!

 

[Jilly]

It's the swaps. Usually there is no one there that knows squat. All you have to do it look at the ski and realize that it's not a junior ski, just short. So they put a junior binding on an adult ski or vice-a-versus.

Our local shop got "kicked out" because we were trying to help the customer too much. The swappers were concerned that their crap wasn't selling, for a lot of good reasons...

 

[tinymoose]

Junior/adult alpine boot norms

Since there isn’t going to be anymore skiing for us this year I started on putting gear up, taking inventory of what I might look for on sale to prepare for next year. One thing I wondered was whether my younger daughter in junior boots could step up into her sister’s old skis for next...

www.theskidiva.com

I made a post about my research on it a few years ago. Basically if the binding offers the DIN setting needed for the skier and the sole design is a compatible ISO designation for the binding design the actual names of either (Junior or Adult) mean very little. It seems most Junior binding have DIN in a range from 2-7. Some higher up to 10. Most adult low ranges start at 3 or 3.5 up to 11-13. The super high release setting adult bindings like 15-16 don’t seem to start as low (obviously). Do you know about what DIN range your daughter needs?

Yeah, this is why I prefer junior bindings b/c my DIN is between 4-5 depending on type II for my recreational skis or type III for my race skis, so it puts me more in the middle range than the low end.

The best thing you can always do is just check with someone you trust to make sure the boot and binding will be compatible. Since my feet are bigger, even my junior race boots had adult toe lugs, but obviously I've had junior bindings before. I'm assuming many of the "big kid" junior bindings may have cross-compatibility more so than bindings made for smaller kids? But I don't really know. I just know it hasn't ever been a huge issue for me. I usually just check with Dieter, my boot fitter, but he's normally the one mounting bindings on skis for me anyhow, and he knows my boots. So it's not like he'd order junior bindings for me that wouldn't work.