In the second part of his Interview with Racer Ready while he was in Zagreb, David Ryding talked about the changes to the ski dimensions for the forthcoming season.

Racer Ready: What are your thoughts on the changes to ski lengths for the next season?

David Ryding: “Like many others, I think it is taking the sport back a few steps rather than forwards. I have a set of 195cm, 32 metre radius Giant Slalom skis; you can ski them, sort of, but it is almost a different sport. I put the normal ones back on and I thought ‘here we go, this is how GS should be.’ With the new skis, you cannot do a short radius at all.

“If you have not got the speed you have to step round the gate and that is with a 32metre radius ski. They are proposing that we go to 35 metre skis which is another three metres which does not sound much but my skis are now 28 metre and it makes such a great difference, it will be another great difference to the 35 metre radius skis.

“I am glad that they have not touched Slalom.”

“I do not think that I will race GS next year at all. I will train it but on my old skis but I will not race it.”

RR: Do you feel that the new skis will force skiers to adjust their technique?

DR: “Yes, they will have to something different.”

RR: Is there a lot of chat amongst the racers regarding all of this?

DR: “I am sure amongst the GS racers there is but as I don’t do GS, I don’t get involved. Next year it is just World Cup, World Juniors and maybe the Europa Cup. In FIS races you can still use the short skis. If I am still skiing GS and I go to a FIS race on my short skis and everyone else is on the long skis, I could do really well and end up with 15 points and then I would have to try GS again.

RR: Do you like Giant Slalom?

DR: I do like it. I was skiing quite well in the summer at it but my focus was slalom and I had not skied for a month and I tried it two days ago and I had taken a couple of steps back.

Ryding is fast becoming a one discipline racer; the slalom is his focus of attention. How big is his arsenal of skis, how many pairs of skis does he carry around with him when travelling from race to race?

DR: Right now I have four pairs of slalom skis, one short pair of GS skis and two long pairs. I do not ski on them really, I just slip the course on them. For preference I would like at least one more pair of slalom right now.

RR: Is that because the others have lost a bit of life?

DR: They have lost a bit of life yes. They are easy to ski on when they have lost a bit of life. I think the Dynastar’s are a little bit stiffer this year. When you first go on them they are really hard to handle. Then after a week of skiing on them they are really good. The skis that I had in New Zealand are on their way out. The race pair that I am using at the moment are starting to go out. I do have another pair that I have been training and they are almost ready to go.

So what is the process of choosing skis for training on and racing on? How long does a pair of skis last as the race pair?

DR: Preferably they last all season! But it does not happen this way! The ones that I am using at the moment, I have done a lot of training on, so when I am training five days a week, twenty times a month you can just imagine how many pairs of skis I would need for dry slope with that amount of training. I got the current race skis in the middle of November and started racing on it in the middle of December and I will probably race on it until the middle of January if I am lucky.

What happens to the ski then? Does it revert to a training pair?

DR: I will then use it for training and then send it back.

RR: Do you then have to buy another pair ok? How does it work?

DR: I am on a deal where I pay a lump sum and I get a certain amount of skis for the season.

RR: At the end of the season do you own those skis and you can then sell them?

DR: I will probably have two good sets at the end of the year which I will take to New Zealand with maybe another two new pairs. I will then use them and send them back so that it works as a kind of replacement service.

RR: Do you get a lot of support from Dynastar?

DR: I get a lot of support from the UK Importer Scott Dobson; he helps me out a lot. The support comes from the UK rather than the factory. The factory decides who can have the good skis and I will get sent a contract which Scott helps me out with.

RR: Do you feel that you are making steps up the pecking order in regards to getting the best skis?

DR: Yes and the 7^th in the Europa Cup (just before Christmas) that will help. Another ten point result will certainly help, I will not get them free but I will definitely be more liked in the factory I guess!

RR: Would you prefer to get free skis or skis from further up the pecking order, in other words the better skis but still have to pay for them?

DR: If I can get the better skis then awesome but I really like Dynastar and they have really helped me out. I want to stay with Dynastar.

RR: Is the full package working well?

DR: The boots are working really well as well. They worked well last year as well, I just did not have a GS boot. I tried to ski on my Slalom boots in GS and it was a nightmare so I had to resort back to my other boots. It was just the canting that was causing the problems. My slalom boot was too aggressive for GS.

RR: When you to the British Championships at the end of the season, going back to the original question: How many pairs of skis will you take?

DR: I will probably not do just the British while I am there. I will see what else is on and depending on what points I am on at the time.

RR: In the perfect world, would you do the full range of disciplines?

DR: I think it would be a bit dangerous if I stepped into a pair of downhill skis now! In a perfect world I would have about nine or ten points, I would train a bit of speed and then see if I could scramble down the downhill! Having said that I think that my speed days are over. I have only trained one day of speed in the last two years. I do not think that it is for me.

RR: Is that because you do not like speed racing?

DR: I really love downhill, I love the speed and the jumps but then I watch Kitzbuehel and Garmisch and I think maybe it is not for me! It is not really what I am built for.

RR: Would you like to do the Kitzbuehel Slalom?

DR: The slalom yes, for sure. I may even do it this year depending on my programme with the Europa Cup. I will do it at some point if I am still skiing.

Part 1 - the season so far