- Hello, welcome to Kunstadt Sports.

My name is Peter Kunstadt,

and we are here today to give you

an overview of skis and bindings.

At Kunstadt Sports all our employees are athletes,

and many employees are ski racers.

Here with me is Zoë Newell who is an excellent ski racer.

A great person except for the days

when she beats me in a race.

- Today we're going to be telling you

a little bit about how to select skis for

your individual abilities as well as

show you the difference between

recreational skis, performance skis, and racing skis.

Before we get started we need to go over

a few concepts that'll help you understand

the geometry of modern skis.

First we have our ski length,

that is the measurement from your full tip to tail.

Next is your running length which is

the point where the ski actually

initiates contact with the snow.

Next is our tip width

which is the width of the tip.

Next is the waist width which is

the width of your waist of your ski.

And finally the tail width,

which is the width of the tail of the ski.

These numbers are extremely important on the ski

because it helps determine the radius of the ski.

- Over a decade ago the concept of

a parabolic ski was introduced and that was

definitely a revolution in ski design.

The parabolic shape basically means

that the edge of the ski is made in the shape of a parabola.

And that in turn means that when a ski is flexed,

in the flexed position the edge creates

a regular radius or a continuous radius.

And that radius is then defined

by the length of the ski, by the tip,

the waist, and the tail width.

- Another important concept in determining ski geometry

is the camber and rocker.

The simplest way to explain camber

is if you were to take a piece of string

from your tip of your ski to your tail

and measure the distance between the string

and the center of the ski,

will determine the amount of camber in the ski.

Another way to fully understand camber of the ski

is with this demonstration.

As you can see that both the tip and the tail

are in contact with the floor and the center is not.

The distance between the floor and the ski

is your camber in the center.

- The rocker, also known as reverse camber,

is as the name suggests,

the opposite of the camber.

The tip, instead of being bent down is bent up

ever so slightly.

It's very hard to demonstrate on the type of skis

that we have in our stock.

The tip is lifted up to ease initiation of turns.

- [Zoë] We are now going to move on

to specific categories of skis.

These include recreational, performance,

racing, and speciality skis.

- Here are some examples of recreational skis.

So what a recreational ski has

is generally light weight, a short radius,

and these skis are generally soft

for easy operation, for easy skiing.

Of course the price you pay

is a little reduced performance

but there is definite comfort

in skiing on a recreational ski.

- Our next category is performance skis.

Performance skis are generally stiffer.

As well as they come usually in

a variety of different radiuses,

depending on your skier performance as well as ability.

They also come with a few more technologies

compared to more of your recreational ski.

Peter here will go over a few of the technologies

in the Elan and Fischer skis.

- Thank you Zoë.

Fischer came a few years ago

with the concept of a progressive ski.

The edge design is exactly what that name suggests.

The edge is progressive.

It is not a constant radius.

There is a variety of radii in that ski

to ease initiation

and to have the ski feel

like a cruising ski at high speeds as well.

So it's a very good combination

of easy initiation, easy turning,

and high speed performance

when that is required.

On the other hand, Elan came up with

a very innovative combination

of shapes of edges

and they call it Amphibio.

The concept in Amphibio is that

the active edge on the ski is cambered

like a regular performance ski,

and it feels just exactly like a performance ski.

On the other hand though the outside edge,

and now we have introduced a right ski and a left ski

because we have to maintain an inside edge

and a separate outside edge.

The outside edge is rockered ever so slightly

which makes for very, very easy initiation

and also the feeling or the phenomenon

of catching an edge is a thing of history.

Catching an edge basically means

that the skier stepped on the wrong ski

in a turn.

And the wrong ski, theoretically wrong ski,

does not have that edge to catch

because it's rockered away.

So this is a very, very user-friendly ski,

easy to initiate, easy to work with

and still offering a very high performance.

And last but not least, here is Atomic's Doubledeck.

The concept of a Doubledeck here is

that they added a piece of plastic on top of the ski

that's attached to the ski loosely with elastomer.

And what's interesting about it is

that this elastomer gets engaged

only when a ski is flexed.

So as the ski is flexing, as the flex increases,

the stiffness of the ski increases as well.

And so the ski actually responds

to the temperament and the style

and the power of the skier.

So the ski changes from an easy ski to a stiff ski

as the skier

increases pressure.

- Our next category are race skis.

Race skis are the simplest ski on the market today.

They have a sandwich construction,

basically meaning two sheets of metal

and a full wood core stacked on top of each other

with a very simple, stiff riser plate on top.

Race skis generally are constructed with a full side wall

as well as improved base material

to make the skis go faster on ice.

Our last category is specialty skis.

Specialty skis are made up of a variety

of different types of skis.

First we have a twin-tip, which is what Peter is holding.

A twin-tip is usually used in a park

or if people want to ski backwards,

they have a tip at the tip as well as

a tip at the rear for easy backwards skiing.

- Ideal for people who don't know

which way is forward and which way is backward.

- Next is junior skis.

Junior skis are generally 70-130 centimeters.

They are soft, usually about the softest ski on the market.

Easy for turning and easy to learn how.

Generally for most junior skis

they all have pretty cool graphics as well

to make it fun for the kids.

Our next category is women-specific skis.

Women-specific skis again are usually

have better graphics, kind of zoned in for a woman skier.

As well as they are sometimes softer

for easy turning and easy skiing.

As well as the biggest difference between

a women-specific ski is going to be the binding

is generally moved up

ahead on the ski about a centimeter

for a little bit better balance points for a woman.

- There are many other specialty skis

that we are not going to specifics into here.

But there are for instance mogul skis

that are built softer

without any carving shape.

And they are soft so that the tips

don't hit into the moguls.

They're easier to maneuver in moguls,

they're usually short and narrow.

The other extreme are powder skis

that are extremely wide,

over 100 millimeters often wide,

and very frequently they are rockered for easy turning.

And of course in a powder situation

there is no need for carving,

and so these skis are not made to carve,

they are made to float nicely in deep snow.

And there are many other specialty skis

that we don't mention.

- Another very important factor when choosing

a ski for you is the ski length.

Ski length is very important in determining

how the ski is going to perform on the snow.

Generally a ski with a radius of 14 or smaller

will be a length to about your nose,

as seen here with Peter here.

With a radius of 14 and under,

it's a very small radius meaning

very small turns on the hill.

Having a shorter ski is a lot easier

for you to be able to maneuver around your turns.

A ski with a radius bigger than 14,

you usually want to go about around your

height of your head.

This means your radius is a lot bigger,

meaning longer turns.

You need a longer ski to be able to

support your entire turn.

Mostly for kids and beginner skis

it's always good to have a ski around

nose length and shorter.

Makes it a lot easier for maneuvering

as well as easier to learn

how to ski on the snow.

- The introduction of carving ski made it necessary

to lift the ski boot off the ski

to a certain degree in order to avoid

the boot touching the snow

when the ski is carving to an extreme point.

This is achieved generally either by a riser

that is added to the ski like here,

or a combination of a riser and a binding

that has a riser built in it as well.

Practically all ski manufacturers

introduced integrated binding systems.

The advantage of an integrated binding system

obviously first of all is that the binding

works with the ski specifically and ideally.

Of course the disadvantage to the user is

that they lost the freedom to choose

what type of binding would they select

after they've selected their ski.

Another concept that became necessary

with the introduction of carving skis

is the floating binding.

It is necessary because of the decreased

length of the ski for the whole length

of the ski to be functional.

And that is achieved by allowing the binding to float.

In this particular case the toe is floating

freely in the rail and so is the heel,

floating freely in the rail.

And the binding actually is attached to the ski

in the center.

So as the ski flexes both the toe and the heel

freely float on the ski,

thus letting the ski function completely

over the whole length of its edge.

Now that you have selected your skis and bindings,

it's time to select your boots.

There is a follow-up video on boot selection.