Ski Builders Forum

i made a video ... well, its not a good one but its the first time i ever made a video. its not a homebuild ski, but its the gotama i chopped the tail off so that counts a little i guess.
the cut gotama: works really great, no more washouts, its a far better ski this way. its almost 5 cm shorter now however.

heres the video link:

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/1137927

Tail wash-out persists as somewhat of a mystery to me. I've tried moving bindings forward and aft in an attempt to make it better or make worse, just so I can get a better handle on what might cause it. I've never really gotten enough consistent results to theorize anything worthwhile. Anybody what to take a stab at explaining the dynamics of the wash-out. Burny reports that whacking the tail off his ski reduced, or eliminated, his wash-out problem. Would moving the binding rearward 2.5mm have accomplished the same thing?.. or similar?

I really don't experience the wash-out thing very often, but when I do, I sure wish I knew more about what was causing it.

G-man

what`s the deal with the tail wash out?

what IS it?

a washout is, in my opinion, when the skis edge at the tail just slippes away, mostly happens while skiing steep, icy, chutes or snow that is compact to a certain degree. The washout appears when the edge doesnt hold anylonger and the tail starts to drift valleysides (<- is this an english word?). By chopping off the tail, I reduced the floating surface of the tail in compact powder while skiing a little sidewards => it cant be washed out anymore. A clean cut off tail holds the edge much better than a twintip.
I hope this is clear enough ... maybe next time Ill place the cam at the back of my helmet and just film the tail so I can see what really happens, until now, it just feels like this.

I don't get it.

if i'm understanding this right i would guess too much or too little weighting (skier error). I don't understand why a turned up tail would have anything to do with it.

It is easy to "wash" out the end of a turn if your weight is not in the perfect place on some of these skis. with race skis on ice for example instead of wash you get "chatter" and its caused by weighting. If you lean too far back you overload the tail and push it out...if your weight is too far forward (almost never happens) you can lose the tails also.

maybe i'm not understanding what you guys are talking about. Snowboarding really helps with "snow feel" and "edge pressure/control" if you blow it on a board (atleast an alpine board) you fall. so you figure out pretty quickly (or not at all) what you are doing wrong.

im talking about powder skiing ...