The wisdom (?) of low profile ski tips

Yesterday, as I was riding the chairlift, I noticed a pair of Völkl skis with a very shallow tip and thought, “I wonder how the skier can't avoid plowing in when he runs into a sudden change in terrain or a nasty bump?”

The answer to that question is that the absence of sufficiently turned up shovel makes any ski downright hazardous. A good friend of mine became quadriplegic when his flat-tip Scott ski got straight into a big bump and threw him violently forward, breaking his neck.

Of course, generously turned up skis are out of style and some could argue that the flatter the tip the less resistance to snow in powder, not to mention a reduced moment of inertia.

I won't mention the fact that it's also much easier to manufacture a flat ski than a ski with any kind of form, but as a skier who has gone too many times “over the handlebar” in a wide variety of snow and terrain conditions, I'd say, make sure there's sufficient tip turning up before you buy your next pair of ski...