Ski Builders Forum

My first pair of skis carved really nicely, even though my first examination of the flex pattern showed that they turned out to be really soft. While I was actually enjoying the soft tails since they avoided me having to be in the back seat (these are alpine skis, when I get confident in the durability they will be AT) it got me thinking about designing uneven flex patterns into the skis. While this is being done for park skis, I was thinking more of an even, stiff flex for the tip and underfoot, to about 2/3 of the way to the tail, allowing good carving and backseat support on big airs (the last thing you want when backslapping a big air is the tails to fold and not allow you to get right back into the front seat for control). Keeping the last 1/3rd of the tail soft would basically have the effect of a swallowtail, keeping you out of the backseat while mounted a little farther forward for tricks, and allowing a nicely (fakie) carving twin tip. So, I was considering routing in channels between the wood laminates for carbon fiber rods or rails. However, I'm not so sure what the best dimensions for the rods would be, or whether carbon "bar stock" is available from vendors.
I was really happy with the core dimensions and wheight, and don't want to mess with a complicated profile, can anyone recommend bars / tubes or rods and vendors to significantly stiffen the skis?
Thanks,
Alex, aka Bucky Mullet

i also thought about using some carbon rods or tubes or something similar. but then i found a better solution.

i suppose using rods/tubes is not that easy. as you said, i too wanted a stiffer section in the middle and softer tip and tails. so you had to add the rods just in this area. if you do so, you have 2 different materials in the core, wood and the rods. and they both behave different....so there would be some tensions between the wood and the carbonrod...and i personally would be afraid that these tensions cause a weakening of the bonding between the rods and the woodcore over time.
if you just use some rods over the lenght of the section which you want to stiff i also suppose that this would create a very unnatural flex. i`d be concerned about the area where the rods end.

so i`d recommend you some strings out of carbon. it`s like unidirectional fibreglass, but out of carbon. over here in europe you can buy them not only as unidirectional material, but also as bands. they are between 12mm and 50mm wide. i used some 12mm wide and 25mm wide bands. so with these you can reinforce the core very precise where you want/need reinforcement and it creates a more harmonic flex.