Does shape REALLY matter

[hafte]

http://www.goode.com/skisfreeride.htm#str8

I saw these at the local area Saturday. I rode the lift with him. He works for Goode and help make the skis. I didn’t get to ski with him so I didn’t get to see how they worked. It was a packed powder/ powder day and you have to ski runs to get around this area. Looks like the turn is generated by the flex and camber. They have an early rise tip with standard camber for the rest. I’m beginning to think that anything will work as long as it slides.

[LifeisRiding]

hahaha< wow crazy idea!

[falls]

They must have just got tired of bending edges and routering the sidecut!
I guess straight skis worked for a long time. Square tip is pretty extreme - you would think it would grab a lot it pow turns unless the rocker kept it floating all the time.

[shopvac]

this has been done on here too. Carpathian built a ski like this and then we did to for our first ski because we thought it would be easier to start with and wanted to try it out. It turned out way, way too stiff so we can't really say one way or the other, but i think there are much better shapes to build than this ski.

http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... carpathian

[knightsofnii]

saw those at ispo and figured its just another product of the snow-sports identity crisis

[Greg]

I have pretty much concluded that anything is skiable, and usually the closer to un-skiable they are, the more fun they are to ski. It is all about being free in the mind.

That being said, the only real drawback I can see to the square tip is that they could get hung up on bushes and sticks, etc. I think that the most important feature of a rounded tip is that it glances off obstacles instead of getting stopped. But, that may be just me that tends to push the limits of snow coverage in the quest for fresh tracks.