Reverse camber for kiddo

[SJG]

My main complaint about Volkls, they chip the top sheets like crazy. Good skis though

[turnfarmer]

My main complaint about Volkls, they chip the top sheets like crazy. Good skis though

And the chipping leaves nasty fiberglass splinters that need to be addressed to keep the kiddos from cutting hands!

[Hood26]

Automic has launched a mini Bent Chetler. Here they are on Evo:

https://www.evo.com/skis/atomic-bent-chetler-mini-boys

[Dantheman]

Were they these?



I broke down and ordered a pair yesterday during the 15% off frenzy.

No, different seller that just had one pair of 128s.

[EWG]

Some thoughts:

My kids are now 17 (boy) 14 (girl). They have quivers, but their main skis are Candide 3.0s and Prodigy Ws, respectively. So not super stiff skis. However, as they came up they started on full cambers, and learned to drive them hard. Personally, I think that made them better skiers - they had to learn to initiate, smear, etc without the ski's help.

They were on whatever cambered twin tips I could find on craigslist till about 9 years old. After that, they went to Line Celebrities for a couple of years, then I was going to turn them over to the Volkl Gotomas. Interestingly, both kids hated the Gotomas when they got on them. They thought they were non responsive and noodley. So the boy ended up going to Rossi S3 Pros and the girl to a women's salomon twin. Both of those are stiffer under foot but still have rocker tip/tail. Got a couple years out of each and now they are on rockered adult skis as mentioned above.

I edited this because I should probably mention that both kids are hyperaggressive, so if you are equipping a kid that's more reserved a different strategy might make more sense.

Long story short - two takeaways:
I think running kids on cambered skis till they are about 10 really sets skills up in a great way - they internalize so much about how to skill positively and athletically.
I have a pair of Volkl Gotama Jrs, in 148cm, used fewer than 20 times, if anyone wants them. Marker 7 din bindings. However, those Gotoma topsheets chip pretty fast, so there's some wear on the top.

[Ottime]

Chiming in here as far be got a 7 yr old. The past two seasons he has had a fully cambered hard snow ski and a pair of kid Gotamas for soft/deep snow. We ski at Kirkwood, so we do get deep days and the rockered ski is so much more fun than the full camber. OTOH, I would not want him only on the rocker ski. He does take that out on a few Springer mornings, and while he can lay it over into a carve, he tends to swivel the ski more and get playful. Decent technique to learn, but I want him carving. So hard snow winter days are all cambered.

His older cousin mainly skied Mantras last season. He is a solid skier and knows how to carve. He mainly laid them over into carves, but as he got tired, he too would get lazy and just skid. He has a pair of race skis and Coyotes for this season. No more cheating.

I like having both. If you are somewhere that it gets deep often, it is worth having a powder ski. But I don’t suggest that being their sole ski until they have got carving built into their muscle memory.

[Huckwheat]

Good discussion, interesting thoughts.

2 years ago I put my 8 year on 138 Gotama, and saw a huge jump. Was Mt.Rose (Tahoe) skiing, and mostly off piste (because he likes it with buddies). Suddenly he could ski everywhere, and my confidence that he was safe on hard terrain went up quickly. Now last year and this he is on 148 and loving it. I was so impressed I sold my 7 year olds 128s and switched him to a Goat. He is now on 2nd season and can ski full mountain at 8.
--Moved to Colorado last year too. The Goats are great for kinds in bumps and trees too, really work that terrain.

My personal kid ski philosophy is getting them comfortable and confident (they have never wanted a lesson, so we just family ski). I do think my 11 year old should have some days on a traditional ski, and frankly he really should have a professional lesson to teach him to carve.......So above points/concerns are true, but my kid is confident skiing any run on the mtn, and I think he will back into hard carving style too.

[Ottime]

Popping back in here after a week of firm winter skiing at Kirkwood with the kid.

This season he has access to a pair of twin tips, gs ski or Mantra. He rode all three this past week. There were pockets of wind blown snow, some soft on top of firm bumps, and wind board, but basically hard snow conditions.

It makes sense he skied his best on the race skis on the groomers. But he also seemed to do well with them off piste. He carvers his turns much more. I watched him show me the bottom of his skis while carving gs turns down the blue groomers. He had fun in the trees, steeps, bumps and any wind blown and defiantly got a bunch of air.

On the twins he did a bunch of skid and wedge moves, and only carved and turned when in a gully. He’d almost power wedge the groomers. Skid around every where else.

He said the Mantras were slow. They were the most ski, and he slides them mostly. Too unwieldy in the firm for him to feel as confident.

Obviously the conditions matter, but glad we owned the gs ski and not just the twin tip.

[PJG]

Anyone seen or have experience with the K2 Pinnacle Jr's? The shape looks fun, haven't found any pics of the rocker/camber profile.