Is the K2 Select any good?

Good pair of k2 skis for small, 135 lb male.?

• Hi guys, I am a intermediate, going into advanced skier. I have recently been offered a massive discount on any k2 skis, so obviously I will being buying k2 skis. I like doing tree ...show more

• Answer:

  Similar to Amad, I will just tell you what the purpose of the different things are and you can decide how you want. If you are looking for "light" skis, make sure you get wood cores. However, how "light" they feel also plays into where you place the bindings. The closer to center mount you get, the lighter they will feel. Camber: Where your skis bow UP in the center. Basically the tips and tails will be the first things that touch the ground before weight is applied to the ski. There are a few purposes for heavy camber. The first being more control on your edges for racing. You don't have to "dig" as much per say to get your power transfered to your edges. Rocker: Where your skis bow UP at the tip/tail. Heavy rocker is almost always paired with twin tips and center mount bindings. Picture standing on the skis and the tips and tails are both off the ground. Now this is slightly exaggerated, but the purpose is to make spinning/landing easier to accomplish. If you land slightly off center, heavy rocker can let you "wash out" or "butter out" the landing. Normally if you aren't perfectly straight, you could catch and edge and ditch the landing. Heavy rocker lets you land off center and slide it out. (Fairly important for landing switch.) The downside is you have less stability at high speed and turning is a little over sensitve. Width: This is primarily for floating ability, and surface area for landing. So as you can imagine, wide skis are primarily for powder and/or park. Wide skis let you float on powder, push powder, and more balance for landing tricks. The downside to wide skis is if you ski on hardpack. It requires more pressure from your feet to apply the pressure to an edge that isn't directly under your boot. Stiffness: This is directly related to how you apply the pressure from your feet/legs to the ski. You don't just strap solid iron to your feet and fly down a hill. Your skis flex to contour to the hill as you turn. I can get into the specifics of it, but the basic idea is based on your weight. Heavier riders need more stiff skis, and lighter riders need more flexible. This is why womens skis are generally more flexible than mens skis are of the same brand. Also if you plan on doing park, more flex is better as it applies the similar principle to my rocker argument above. More flex lets you wash out landings a little better as rigid skis will hinder your landing ability. Inversely, very stiff and rigid skis are optimal for racing. Since you are small/young, I would go for an all mountain type ski with a partial rocker/twin tip. Maybe even push the binding 5-6cm forward. This is kind of what I currently ride as my "jack of all trades." With closer to center and twins, I can ride/land switch in the park. With them being NOT true center, it still gives me balance/stability on the mountain.