Flex of Ski: Stiff or soft front

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Hannes
Posts: 93
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2011 2:20 am
Location: NRW, Germany

Flex of Ski: Stiff or soft front

Post by Hannes »

Hi all togehter, once again I need some advice:

A friend of mine (let´s call him Michael) wants a new ski with the same dimensoins as his old an worn out Scott Crusade. So I made a template and everything was fine. Next thing we startet to compare the Crusade´s flex with the skis I made so far to get a hold of a suitable coredimension and layup. And it turned out that I only had made skis with a softer front and a stiffer tail. And I compared those with all of my old industrymade skis: All have a softer front and a stiffer tail. The Crusade though is made the other way: Stiff front, soft tail.
So what´s the matter with this kind of design? I always thought soft tails accelerate less at the end of the turn and have less edgehold.
Michael is a bit worried that he might miss the "better design" if he gets a soft tail again...
I discussed this with a Skibuildingbuddy of mine and he statet that Michael is probably not "a real skier" :D ...and not able to judge a good ski.
What´s the purpose of a soft tail?

Greetings
Hannes
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Dr. Delam
Posts: 423
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:07 am
Location: Truckee

Re: Flex of Ski: Stiff or soft front

Post by Dr. Delam »

The only skis that I can recall that had softer tails were some of the older Salomon pow skis. The concept was that the tails would sink and allow the tips to rise and plane up. I personally didn't like them and thought they washed out in the tails.

How are you measuring stiffness? Are you obtaining accurate measurements?

Soft tails = big wheelies on larger airs that require landing a little back to avoid taking a knee to the chin. No bueno.
Hannes
Posts: 93
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2011 2:20 am
Location: NRW, Germany

Re: Flex of Ski: Stiff or soft front

Post by Hannes »

Thanks for your answer!

My measurements is the typical flextest by hand. So it is pretty subjective... But the difference between the Scott Cougar and my typical flexpattern is so huge that it can not be denied.

Your answer confirms all my thoughts about softer tails and Michael even reportet the washing out you wrote about on the groomers. Big airs is not his thing, he is to old for this kind of game....
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