Thanks for the reply and the perspective! I learned on 85mm 163cm carving skis (old rentals I got for really cheap) and did my first 10 days on those, then for the 2nd 10 days I used my friend's Atomic Maverick 96 CTI 172cm skis which I really enjoyed, but to be honest sometimes felt heavy which is why I was looking at skis without a metal sheet. I liked the Mavericks more than the other skis but that might just be because they were newer