What equipment?

Ricky B's Guests and Pro Snowsports Insight: Tiger Sharks

Looks like Ricky B got himself some new skis, the Völkl Tiger Sharks. Go Ricky! Actually his post got me thinking about something I regularly get asked....

Student: What's the best ski?

In my experience this is a completely loaded question with too much subjectivity for personal tastes. But Ricky's post highlights another aspect that should be considered. While many instructors use their gear all day long, instructing actually has a significantly different set of requirement than most riders will ever need. Ricky States:

As an all mountain ski for an instructor, I don't think you can do any better

While I disagree with the not doing better part, he mentions the all mountain ski for an instructor. In a typical between classes scenario (for me) I'm provided very minimal amount of time to switch gear. Usually a gear switch means converting from the shorty (123-1233 cm first time instructing ski) to my normal gear. I'm not typically provided a chance to get a feel for an upper level student and what they need until we are on the first lift. Why do we break the PSIA customer model so much?

Our private classes are sold in one hour blocks, which for the most part works fine. But if you've got a student who is an upper level, the terrain they would typically want to work on requires a two chair ride and about 15 minutes of total lift time. In an effort to maximize our students time, we have had to adapt to a more streamlined approach than what the PSIA typically recommends.

Because of this shortened time period, I've found that my ski of choice has consistently been an all-mountain design. It may never do any one thing great, but chances are anything I can throw at it will not slow me down. As for the Tiger Shark, I found them fun. A very lively ski, and the ability to stiffen it was surprisingly not a gimmick (those rods really do work). But I'm partial to my K2 Apaches Recons, sorry. The only downfall to the K2s is the weight, are they ever heavy. That same weight is what allows me to power through the chop so easily though.