The problem is that there is now different styles of skis, that you ski in different lengths.
I'll try to break it into 3 main groups to simplify it.
Keep in mind that this is a generalization, different makes and models are exceptions to these rules.
Exaggerated side-cut skis
You ski these ski's pretty short.
A really rough guide is to get them about your nose height.
But depending on how stiff and the extent of the side-cut you can go shorter or longer by up to 10cm.
Generally these skis are made for 70% on trail, 30% off trail, depending on the waist width.
These ski's have heaps of shape to them,
That means a narrow waste (66mm to 71mm). A narrow waist makes gives a ski more control in ice and hard pack snow, but reduces floatation in deep snow.
A big tip and tail compared to the waist measurement (tip-107mm to 118mm)
(Tail- 100mm to 106)
Because these skis have a lot of shape that means that they are made to turn on a dime.
If you want to know how short a ski will turn, normally there is what’s called a turn meter radius printed on the ski. (That is how many meters it takes the ski to make a 180 degree turn while on the snow) a short radius is usually 14 meters or under.
Freeride or All mountain skis,
You ski these a little longer, as they are a bit more about flotation over broken snow.
The rough guide to length on these skis is to go eye height to head height.
Again depending on how stiff and the extent of the side-cut you can go shorter or longer by up to 10cm.
Generally these skis are made for 50% on trail, 50% off trail.
These ski's are wider all the way through and make longer turns.
A wider waist (71mm to 88mm) makes it easy to ski in heavy or deep snow.
Tips are 116mm to 125mm with tails that are 103mm to 110mm.
The turn radius of most freeride ski's is from 12 meters all the way up to 25 meters.
However in deep snow with a wide waist you can turn a freeride ski in a very short radius because of the floatation.
The only trade off to going wider is that you don’t have as much control in the ice and hard pack.
Freestyle skis,
Now these little beauties are twin tipped, for riding backwards (switch), landing backwards (switch landings) or for spraying your friends with your rooster tail (snow that gets whipped up from the tail while turning).
The basis for the design is for park use, the center of the ski further forward for more balanced take offs on jumps (booters) or for sliding rails.
Generally you get these skis around nose height or shorter for park(terrain park, many jumps and rails in a designated area) use.
A shorter ski will spin easier and be lighter in weight.
However if you want to ski all mountain on this type of ski get a wider version that’s a little longer. This will help while skiing off trail (shredding the gnarl) or landing jumps while off trail (hucking your meat).
The funny thing about freestyle skis is because they are made to stand extra abuse in the park and have more tail to them you ski a little differently on them.
In a normal ski (if there is such a thing anymore) you push through the front of your ski to drive a turn, now when people are learning or just being lazy skiers we lean back, which is technically wrong. But with the center further forward, the skis are more forgiving on those bad habits, for that reason a lot of non park riders enjoy skiing on them because they don’t force you to ski forward on the front of your skis. You can ride in the back seat with control. You still have to edge and work your turn so don’t expect them to magically improve your ability.
