Hi - would be delighted to hear views from the many resident experts here on skis/skiboards. Here's the context. I'm 53, ski at a low-intermediate level and have a lower leg disability. Long story short, I was in hospital for a long time in 1998 from a bad nerve disorder - and both my calves do not work and the right foot has a condition called foot drop where you can't lift the foot up. As you can imagine, the right leg in particular has, in a ski context, not much fore/aft control at all and the left foot only partial. I've had nearly 30 years of alpine climbing and expedition climbing experience globally( with 20 of those as a disabled climber) but ski badly. Hoping to get better at skiing but getting equipment adapted to my condition is hard, and getting my weight forward to the front is also tricky because of the lack of fore-aft control. I'm wondering if getting shorter skis of standard skis would work, or would long skiboards be an answer? I'm 5'8", at 155lbs dripping wet. I'm looking at (being a ski agnostic) getting better at skiing overall with a view of doing more powder/offpiste as I get better and venturing into ski mountaineering. I currently ski on 160cm type planks, in the 90mm width, and have some AT boots. Near future - looking at skiing 80% groomers and 20% BC. Should I be looking at:
1) getting shorter skis of the same kind of models I am looking at eg 140?145cm?150? lengths?
or
2) getting something like the Hagan Offlimits which arent too wide for groomers, and yet float and turn nicely in powder for lighter riders like me, and have some uphill skinning virtues. If 'yes', what kind of mounting positioning might I need.
Interested to hear folks who have skied on skis SHORTER than those meant for their height and weight, as well as those who switched over to the longer skiboards which I understand have a different flex profile, as well as mounting positioning
Many thanks for reading and responding to this long post!
1) getting shorter skis of the same kind of models I am looking at eg 140?145cm?150? lengths?
or
2) getting something like the Hagan Offlimits which arent too wide for groomers, and yet float and turn nicely in powder for lighter riders like me, and have some uphill skinning virtues. If 'yes', what kind of mounting positioning might I need.
Interested to hear folks who have skied on skis SHORTER than those meant for their height and weight, as well as those who switched over to the longer skiboards which I understand have a different flex profile, as well as mounting positioning
Many thanks for reading and responding to this long post!
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