Skis for a BIG guy

Question
Hi Lisa,  

You did such a great job with recommendations for me that I thought I'd ask you about my husband.  I looked around the other posts for an answer to my question, but couldn't really find anything for a guy with a few more lbs than normal.  

My husband is 6'3" and about 280 lbs.  We live in Denver and will do most of our skiing here.  He's got big, wide feet, but we recently found some great boots for him, then got them fitted!  

He's fairly new to skiing, I would say a solid intermediate skier.  We want to find some skis for him, but have no idea what to look for.  He's not too into going fast yet, but I know once he gets his confidence up, he'll want to zoom down the hill.  Probably won't ever be too into moguls, but I love 'em so he'll go along for that.

The biggest problem I'm having is what type of flex to look for with a guy as big as he is.  I don't want them to break in half on a mogul run.  And on top of that, bindings.  I have NO idea here.  

I have a feeling he will vastly improve next season (since we'll have passes then), and am afraid he'll grow out of whatever we get him this year.  Is there a good ski for a guy who is in transition?  Oh, and what length of poles do we look for?

Thank you so much for helping us out!

Answer
Hi and thanks for the question.

Buying equipment for big people has the same principles, but as you identified, there is a need for 'stronger'gear.

Start with the easy stuff:
POLES - standing up straight on the floor, hold the pole upside down above the basket. If the elbows are at 90*, these are the correct poles. If you dont have the poles then measure from the ground to the top of the hand & add 4cm - this is pole height.

SKIS -
Again you need skis that have the correct flex. The best way to determine a flex is for the person to flex them. Hold the tip in non-dominant hand and using the other hand push the ski in the centre and let it go. Then push about a foot above and below this spot.
If the ski is flimsy under hand - generally it will be flimsy underfoot for that person.
You will need a ski that feels good but is still a little easier to ski [ski bounces back easily/quickly] or he will use too much engery on each run. Stick to an all-mountain ski for what he is after at this stage.

Ski length doenst alter - stick to nose hight.

Unfortunatley skis are quite often changed after a season until a person reaches their skill level [2-3 seasons depending on the number of days skied] Buying skis too advanced will only slow down the learning curve as you have to compensate to turn them - learning a whole bunch of a bad habits along the way.

Perhaps you could consider on your first trips up, go and rent a few 'demo' skis to get an idea of what you do and dont like. From there you will get a much better idea about what it is you need in a ski. Also take note of their prices - quite often they are very competative. But more to the point, they will deduct the cost of the rental from the price of a purchase.
The other benefit to buying on mountain is that you can keep taking them back for adjustments and sometimes cheaper waxing [you'll need that on new snow days].

Bindings - these are determined on height, weight, boot sole length & ski ability. These give a DIN number that is found on the front of the binding. Need to try and be in the centre of the binding, or toward the lower number. Bindings are spring loaded - so being at the top or bottom of the binding range isnt a great place to be. Beware of bindings 'thrown in' they need to be the correct range for htem to be appropriate. Too low and he will pop out, too high and he wont release when he should.

I think that about covers it - if there is anything else. Please ask. [im currently doing night shifts, so the brain is foggy in daylight hours]

lisa