Eh, thats more of a bodyweight/height thing. Soft skis are great if you already know what your doing, but putting an inexperienced rider on them will cause him to develop some really shitty habits early on.
OP, unless you put in 40+ days last season, you really shouldent be even thinking of park progression. I have yet to meet anyone who is ready for the park after a single season, and a rare few who where really ready for it after two (Those were the guys who could put 30+ days a season in). Im not trying to discourage you or anything, but until you really have full control over yourself, hucking of jumps and hitting rails is more likley to give you a major injury than someone else, just because you dont have full control over your body yet.
Also, as others said, you look like a fool when you have to snowplow your way around the park. My suggestion for students when I am teaching them, is to not step up to the park until carving around the mountain feels natural to you. If you are thinking about how to turn when you should be thinking about the feature, your going to hurt yourself.
As for skiing switch, hold off on that till your a bit better, again, you dont want to get hurt early in your skiing career for a stupid reason like skiing switch when skiing forward is still a challenging.
