calking,
Welcome to Real Skiers. Your first post is impressive and shows you have put a lot of thinking into a first pair of skis. Welcome back to skiing, I, too, returned after many years away and it changed my life so much for the better. When I returned I weighed somewhere around 220 and skiing has focused my training so I'm close to 25 lbs lighter. Your initial purchase has to be so confusing and if we can help you here, it may be that simplifying the decision could be our best contribution. You ARE overthinking first skis, in my opinion. If you can get a ski even close to "right", you will save time, aggravation and money by not renting. We, all, can guarantee that should you continue to ski, in 2 to 3 seasons, you'll know exactly what you want.
While you are a big guy, I see people your size on skis all the time. I think you got some great advice from John Botti about a traditional cambered ski with a waist somewhere around 80 with a moderate to low turning radius. That's what my first model was upon return and it served very well as a groomer carver with the ability to leave groomers when the situation presented itself. My story is that I did great with that ski on groomer carvers, but, I remember laying in the snow at Alta, beat up by falls, and thinking that I had no idea how to turn them when I was in terrain over my head. Let's agree to leave technique to a later date, but, get a more narrower waisted ski. Some narrow carvers are pretty beefy skis. Remember that good skiers put all their weight on one ski at high speeds and generate some hefty gravitational loadings.
Make a decision, go for it, and just go ski. Skiing's where the fun is, and, concentrate on getting better. Just asking, but, do you have difficulty in coming to final decisions when purchasing?
I've a friend in Lake Tahoe in the ski business. I'll ask him what he has available in a great deal for someone like yourself.
Mike is LP's real name.