K2 Juvy Skis - Youth 2011

Park & Pipe

Park and pipe skis, often called freestyle skis, are for skiers who spend the majority of their time on jumps, rails, and jibs of all kinds. Traditionally park and pipe skis have narrower waists with full camber profiles, but this category is incorporating more rocker patterns and different shapes. You will almost always find these skis with twin tips as well as other park specific features like thicker, more durable edges, dense extruded bases, and butter zones.

All-Mountain

All-mountain skis are designed to handle anything you throw at them including powder, ice, groomers, steeps, heavy snow, and everything in between, but they aren’t necessarily a master of any one terrain. If you’re only going to own one ski to do it all, this is what you want. All-mountain skis generally have what we call mid-fat waists that range from 80-110 mm.

Whether you’re new to the sport or working on linking smooth turns, you fall into this ability level. Typical beginner skis and snowboards are usually built with softer materials, narrower widths, and feature cap construction for an easy to turn, forgiving ride. Beginner-intermediate boots and bindings are also built for ease of use and progression, featuring softer flexes and in the case of ski bindings, quick and safe release from the ski in case of a fall.

Rocker/Camber skis pair a traditional cambered profile underfoot with an elongated, early rise tip borrowed from fully rockered skis. This profile places the front contact point further back from the tip, while the rear contact point remains close to the tail. The rockered tip allows for better flotation and less edge catch for increased float in deep snow, while the cambered rear stores and transmits energy similarly to a fully cambered ski.

Desinged to allow you to ski backwards, full twin tips are found primarily on park & pipe skis and freestyle powder skis. More and more, we are seeing twin tips on all-mountain skis of all abilities, as it makes it a little easier to get around, and for the most part does not inhibit forward skiing.