Black Diamond Equipment Starlet Skis - Women's

The women's-specific Starlet has a wide, soft flexing, early-rise tip for riding high in powder and easy turn initiation. It's really great to see BD bringing this technology into the ladies line of skis as well as it's a huge step-up and makes a huge difference so the ladies don't have to settle with the guys skis anymore. BD is building the best skis they have ever built and things like the early-rise/semi-rockered tip is everything and more. Really great to see BD using the paulownia wood core as well as it's light and strong but also a renewable recourse wood so BD is keeping their green thing going. Thanks Black Diamond!


Features:

• Women s-specific flex Semi-rockered tip and a 100 mm waist for easy trail breaking on the up and effortless surfing on the down
• Lightweight paulownia wood core surrounded by Torsion Box construction
• Formula One Technology for maximum torsional stiffness
• Flat tail with SkinLock for solid anchors and secure, du- rable skin attachment while maximizing running length
• Sizes Made: 156, 166, 176 mm
• Dimensions:
• 156cm: 132-100-119
• 166cm: 134-100-121
• 176cm: 136-100-122
• Weight Per Pair:
• 156cm: 2.63 kg (5lb 13oz)
• 166cm: 2.8 kg ((6lb 3 oz)
• 176cm: 2.97 kg (6lb 9oz)
• Turn Radius:
• 156cm: 19.0 m
• 166cm: 20.0m
• 176cm: 21.0m
• Edge: Racing Edge
• Awards: Editors' Choice Backcountry Magazine 2011 (Starlet left female testers impressed with its any-condition versatility and light weight)

Before choosing a rockered ski size, an understanding of how this technology works is key. Rocker basically creates a pre-bent ski. BD skis use this technology in the forebody of the ski, where it sets the ski into an ideal shape for soft-snow flotation. The resulting early-rise tip allows you to float easily over powder and crud, and drive the ski more aggressively in soft snow conditions—much like you would on-piste—without worrying about over-flexing the tip. Rocker makes turn initiation smooth and effortless in soft snow, and allows the ski to change direction far more quickly than traditional camber designs.

The beauty of rocker is that it also can help on firm snow. Due to the early rise tip, the ski has a shorter contact length because the longer tip is raised off the ground. This gives you both the mobility and quickness of a shorter ski on hard snow and the soft snow stability of a longer ski. For example, the 188 Megawatt has a true contact length of 127.7 cm on hardpack—compared to a more traditional 170 cm Verdict that has even more contact length at 132 cm! This is what makes the longer Megawatt totally skiable by someone around 160 lb who normally wouldn t ski anything longer than 180 cm.

Some things to consider:

• What length do I normally ski with traditionally shaped tips and tails? You can usually go 5-10 cm longer in a rockered ski.
• Am I counting grams of weight, or the size of the cliff? The more aggressively you ski, the longer you can go.
• When in doubt, size up!

Not all rocker is created equal. Each rockered Black Diamond ski has a different amount of tip and running length, which affects what size is best for you. For more info check out this: http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/blog/index/view/slug/how-rocker-affects-ski-length