How fast on skis

Just be sure to add webmaster theskidiva. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed. JavaScript is disabled.

For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. How fast do skiers go? Thread starter ski diva Start date Aug 2, I've never been clocked, so I don't know how fast I ski.

Nonetheless, I found the following very interesting. From about. Obviously, there's a huge discrepancy between the recreational skier and Olympian ski racers. The average skier you see cruising down the mountain is probably going anywhere between 10 to 20 miles per hour. Downhill racers clock out at miles per hour, and Olympians tend to ski between miles per hour, depending on the conditions, their equipment, and their body composition.

Speed skiers, who dress in aerodynamic apparel and ski straight down the mountain sans turning, go as fast as miles per hour. The current world record for the fasted speed skier for men is held by Simone Origone, an Italian skier who reached The fastest female speed skier in the world is Sanna Tidstrand, a Swedish skier who hit As for cross country skiers, professional racers average 15 miles per hour for continuous distances up 35 miles.

Most top ski racers hit about miles per hour on the flats, and miles per hour on the downhills. Recreational cross country skiers tend to clock out at around miles per hour. Want to track your own speed on the slopes? Click to expand As a beginner, it's a lot easier for skiers to keep their centre of mass over and between their skis; whereas boarders must constantly concentrate on their centre of mass shifting between their edges.

The human body moves a lot more efficiently in forward-motion than it does laterally try sprinting sideways and when you turn on skis the symmetry of your body is the same for left and right turns, whereas boarders there is a lot of asymmetry between toes turns and heels turns. Inevitably, this results in higher top speeds for skiers. Another differential, is the length of the average ski and snowboard. Skis will generally be longer than their equivalent board.

This means there is more surface area for the skier to ski on. More surface area means your weight is distributed more evenly, meaning more speed. Another important point is that when you can divide your weight on multiple edges then that also means more speed. For developing strength, you can use leg presses, front and side lunges, abductor machines, etc. You can also do some exercises for your core, using the stability ball.

Select strong, well-fitted boots that will let you manage high skiing speeds. Avoid soft, short skis at high speeds. Opt for a stiffer, longer ski. It would help you in fast cruising. Make sure that your ski is well-tuned. If you skiing on hard and dry snow, get a completely tuned ski. Wax the skis and sharpen their edges regularly.

If you are skiing on heavy and wet snow, texturize the ski bases with 60 or grit sandpaper. Then, hot wax it to disintegrate the surface tension and improve the speed.

This association has laid down five basic techniques for controlling speed. These are: air resistance, the use of terrain, checking, turn shape, and skidding. Air resistance involves making your body shape and frontal area, less or more aerodynamic. As far as the use of terrain is concerned, with an increase in the steepness of the gradient that you ski down, you can go faster. Ski Resorts , Shealy and co-authors Dr. Irving Scher and Dr. Stepan Lenka found that, if anything, the average speed of the total population of snow sliders in America was a little lower than the findings of the earlier study.

Not exactly a slacker in the credentials department. Of course, one possible reason apps may register a higher than normal speed is that skiers are actually going faster. To be continued another time. The research of Shealy, Scher et al. I spoke with Jimbo Morgan and C. Mueller, who, along with medalist Jeff Hamilton, formed the US speed skiing contingent at the Albertville Olympics in Morgan scanned his memory to find a reference that would link the recreational skier environment to high-speed skiing.

Rose to train the year before the Olympics. They chose Slide because of its consistent pitch and absence of other skiers. They used their speed skis, but dispensed with the usual suits, helmets and farings. The average skier carrying that much speed to the bottom would cartwheel past the lift, if they made it that far.

Mueller, who was the first skier to break mph, estimates that 60mph is attainable without a speed suit as along as all other conditions are ideal, but that, in general, anyone in regular ski clothes has no chance to break 60mph. Both Shealy and the professional speed skiers reference 40mph as roughly when wind resistance starts to make a real racket.

The rare skier who is rocketing along over 40mph can be heard coming ahead of his arrival.