I just bought new skis and they are too slick to ride on. Any advice?

Question

I have a brand new set of K2 mystery luv skis. I have only used rentals before this and i was doing very well until now. I cannot go down because my skis are too fast. Are all new skiis this hard to ride on?

Answer 1

It is not the ski or the tune, it's the transition from the rental equipment that was tuned last spring and the new ones tuned last week. Use them for another 3-4 days on a gentler slope and you will adjust to them. All of the top skiers will tune their skiis every 3-4 days of use, this lets them ski with very little effort, hence ski all day and enjoy it. You will adjust to the ski quickly, weight centered, slightly forward to allow for the speed of the ski. The slow down and turn control on a tuned ski is forward, the speed fast is on the back, rental skiis the move at all is back.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Oh that brinks up memories...

The put me racing with brand new racing skis and with no time to ski before the race. Therefore, the length wasn't suitable for me.

well, after some falls I got used to them, but when I fist put them on, I was unstoppable (Not able to stop).

Now to answer the question, try to ski slowly at blue runs until you feel comfortable and that horrible feeling that you can't stop goes away. Soon you will be unstoppable, not the way I was unstoppable the first time and you will love the new speeds that you will gain.

And yes, all new skis are hard if you are used to those rentals.

Answer 3

These are actually great skis, and the rest of the K2 Luv series are, too. There are a few things that could be causing this:

1. Usually, after you purchase a new pair of skis, you take them (or leave them) at the shop to be stoneground, filed, and waxed.  The skis could not be tuned to the way that you are used to on the rentals, and you should take them back to the ski shop to have them figure out the problem.

2. It could be the wax on there (if there is any). Most rental shops use a machine called a Waxjet, which features rollers which lay the wax on the ski in about 5 seconds. When you get your skis handwaxed, the wax is much more effective. The purpose of ski wax is to reduce friction between the base and the snow. ( Your skis would have been handwaxed if you brought them in). In this case, ou should try to get used to it for the time being, and the wax will eventually wear off.

3. The snow conditions. Since, in most parts of the country the snow conditions are springy, and more wet, your skis will feel very different and go alot faster if the snow is soft (but not slushy). So it may just be the season.

4. If you did not even take your skis to the shop in the first place to get tuned away from factory specs, I suggest you do.

In any case, I would suggest you go visit your local ski shop and talk to a techie who will know absolutley everything there is to know about skis.

I hope I could help.

Answer 4

Ive always thought this was a funny question every time it gets posted.  

Anyone out there considering buying new skis...make sure you know how to use your edges to control your speed, otherwise new skis will be too fast for you.  Freshly waxed skis are a good thing, not a bad thing.