Ski Terminology - How to Pick the Right Ski

There are many factors to consider when choosing a pair of skis: skiing style, height, weight, etc. The ski selection chart below categorizes our handmade skis by skiing style to help make your decision process a little easier.

Skiing Terms - Tech Design Explained

Ever wonder what’s up with early rise, rocker, flat or reverse camber? Is the old standby, traditional camber, good enough? We've put together a handy guide to answer all your ski tech design questions.

Traditional Camber

What it looks like: If you lay a ski flat, the bottom touches the surface just shy of the tip and tail with the center arching up.
What’s it for: You can lean into tight turns in many snow conditions. The majority of our skis, and skis sold worldwide, fall into this category.

Reverse Camber

What it looks like: The exact opposite of camber, of course. The center of the ski is the point of contact on a flat surface with the tip and tail rising up into a “rocking chair” position. Think water ski!
What it’s for: Deep powder flotation. This is what you will want to ride on a mega powder day in the backcountry or heli trip. This ski is not intended for hardpack or groomers.

Meier Skis Skiing Terms Design Tech Explained

fullRock

What it looks like: If you lay the ski on a flat surface, most of the center of the ski lays flat, with a progressive lift in the tip and tail.
What it’s for: Quick turns through trees, floatation in powder, and staying power on groomers. Without full tip and tail contact, they may feel shorter than traditional skis. The Mother Lode and Strata feature Rocker technology.

camRock

What it looks like: Traditional camber underfoot with rockered tip and tail.
What it’s for: Go everywhere, ski anything. With Meiers camRock technology, you have amazing floatation in the powder, quick turning capability in the trees, and lays out beautiful turns on corduroy. The Eureka features camRock.

camRise

What it looks like: Traditional camber underfoot with a slight lift in the tip.
What it’s for: The obvious benefits shine in powder, but the camRise design also makes turning effortless in any condition: hardpack, crud, or ice. Meier’s camRise makes it easy to lay it down, so it saves your legs and gives you a smooth and stable ride all day long. The Doc, Quickdraw, Wrangler, High Noon, and BNK feature camRise.

Type of terrain terms and how that translates to type of ski/profile

aka “what all this means"

Powder Skis

Designed to float atop powder, these skis are particularly popular in areas that receive frequent major storms. The mega-wide underfoot widths – ranging from 105mm to 130mm – keep the skis from sinking deep into fresh snow, but they can be challenging and sluggish to control on groomed runs.

Big Mountain

The style of skiing or snowboarding seen in ski movies, featuring fast, big turns on long, steep vertical descents and, usually, cliff drops. They make it look so easy!

All Mountain

A large percentage of Alpine skis fall into this category. All-mountain skis are designed to perform in all types of snow conditions and at most speeds. Other names for this style of ski include mid-fat skis, all-purpose skis, and the "one-ski quiver". Not all of have the luxury of picking a ski like a pair of shoes in the morning. If you're looking for one pair for all conditions, this is the category for you. The majority of skis purchased worldwide fall into this category.

Frontside Carver

This category consists of narrower-waisted skis, usually 98mm or under. These are for the folks who prefer to stick to the groomed runs, but may duck in the trees or slay some bumps occasionally. They roll from edge-to-edge quickly and easily. They generally have a small turn radius to make it relatively effortless to carve your way down the slopes. They grip well on icy conditions and are generally stable at high speeds. A lot of East coast and Midwest skiers prefer a ski like this due to the typically firmer snow conditions.

Twin Tip and/or Park

Skis where both the tail and tip are turned up at the end and the boot center mounting point is directly in the middle of the ski enables a skier to ski backwards with ease. Originally popular only with freestyle skiers, as the twin tip shape allows for reverse (known as fakie or switch) take-offs and landings off jumps. Modern advancements, however, have seen twin tip shapes appear more often in big mountain skis, as they shape handles smoothly in powder conditions.