Last week I asked for input on ski lengths of readers’ first skis. John Thurgood says his first skis were a pair of 190 Hexcel Comps that his parents bought for him. He added, “They were straight and stiff, perfect for a beginner, at least that was what the person that sold them to my parents said. … I went to Blue Knob Resort in central PA with a college ski club and beat myself to a pulp on them (well I was on them some of the time). It wasn’t until I was 44 that I started alpine skiing again!”
I shared with John that I was a Hexcel Comp fan and still have a pair of 205s in my basement. Every season I say I’m going to take them out for some runs for old time sake, but I never do!
I also heard from Bob Burley whose first skis were “1958 Northland FIS SKI. with Beartraps & long thongs!” Wow! He didn’t mention the length, but based on my old Northlands I’m betting they were in feet and inches! I had a pair of 1963 Northland Commanders that were 6 feet 3 inches in length. Northland was a U.S. company that stuck to the Imperial measurements!
In addition to his bota experience, Mark Anderson shared that his first skis were “Fischer Quick Supers with the Cubco bindings – [they] were 170’s. I was in 7th grade and one of the smallest kids in my school.”
Fischers were a very popular ski in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There was the Alu model, a metal ski, and the Superglass model which was a fiberglass ski. Part of Fischer’s marketing touted that you might want both skis to cover all conditions! And then they introduced the C4 which was made famous by Franz Klammer’s success in the mid 1970s.
The first pair of skis I purchased for myself was a pair of 205 Hart Javelins. In October of 1968 I walked into the Alpine Shop and paid full price, $200! That had to be one of the easiest sales Chuck and Jann Perkins ever made.
Now the reason I had asked readers to share their first skis was that in the Retro-Ski days, the only number we associated with a pair of skis was their length! Today by comparison the first number we typically hear about a ski is its width! I feel safe in saying that none of us who knew the length of our first skis had a clue as to their width!
Modern ski technology has changed our whole focus. While length is still a factor, it has taken a backseat to width. The old “longer is better” mentality is a thing of the past. That’s tough for us Retro-Skiers who like to brag about how long our skis used to be. (By the way, the longest skis I skied regularly were a pair of 210s!)
Out of curiosity I measured my 205 Hexcels which had a width profile of 87/69/80 millimeters. By modern parlance that makes them “69s”. A quick check of some FIS slalom skis today shows they are in the 67-68mm range so very close to the Hexcels. However their tip-and-tail dimensions are significantly wider!
So what width skis are you skiing these days? This season my two go-to skis are 94 and 99 under foot and for those firm surface days, I actually prefer the 99s!
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