You might have been skiing for years already, but how well do you know your skis? Do you know the different parts of your ski? What does a ski consist of? What are the different terms related to skis?

Let’s take a deeper look at our equipment – the skis. “Noob WARNING” to all experienced skiers! This article is clearly for those who have never touched a ski but want to understand the basics.

In this first part of a three-part series, I am going to explain the structure of a ski. In the second installment I’ll discuss about various types of skis, and in the third part I am going discuss about sizing skis and finding the right ski.

Different parts of a ski

Let’s go through the different parts of a ski one by one.

The nose is the front end of the ski, the end that is bent upwards. The nose always goes first, except when performing tricks.

If the nose is the front end, then the tail is the rear end of the ski. The tail is the end that is usually not bent, except when talking about special skis like snowblades. Anyhow, the tail is always behind your back when you ski.

The base is the part of the ski that is in contact with the snow, the bottom of the ski. If you wax your skis, the wax goes to the base.

If the base is the bottom of the ski, then deck is the top side of the ski. Just like with skateboards and sufboards, the deck is the area that your boots touch. The bindings of your skis are screwed on the deck.

One term you may be unfamiliar with is shovel. The shovel is the widest part of your ski and is located at the front of the ski, right below the nose.

Some years ago, skis used to be totally flat, but nowadays skis are bent. If you put your ski on the floor you can see that it touches the floor in two spots, near the nose and near the tail. These two spots are called the contact points of the ski.

The camber of the ski is the area between the two contact points. Note that we recently reviewed a camber keeper product.

The edges of the ski are the metal strips on both sides of the ski. The edges are needed to make turns and to control the skis. Without edges skiing would be very difficult. In fact, skiing without edges would mainly be uncontrolled sliding.

Most important measures of a ski

Now that we are familiar with the structure of a ski, let’s also define the most important measurements of a ski.

The length of the ski is the distance from nose to tail, measured in centimeters.

The turning radius tells how long it takes for the ski to turn. It is not an exact number, but it can be a pretty good comparison tool when looking for the right ski. A smaller turning radius tells that the ski turns faster while a bigger turning radius indicates that the ski turns slower. A ski with a small turning radius could be called a carving ski, while a ski with a bigger turning radius could be called a cruising ski. A ski with a small turning radius works well in parks, while a ski with big turning radius works well in powder snow. An all-mountain ski is somewhere between these two.