Dear ski companies...

POW-WOW

POW-WOW

Active member
I have been looking for some new skis lately, and I feel that the way they are presented is really important. I like it when they an accurate graph of how stiff the ski is, like Armada. I also like when it shows the camber profile, like ON3P. I havent found a site that accurately shows both, but I was just hoping I could offer some advice to help you and your customers. Just wondering does anyone else agree?
 
Fri flyt comes out with a flex pattern every year of all the skis compared against each other. it should be available fairly soon. but camber profile isnt too hard to find on product review videos and things like that.
 
Standards of flex really differ company to company. The only effort I've heard of so far to standardize anything was a member on TGR who made a ton of flex charts. It would be sweet if there was some gold standard to go off of, but beyond intercompany charts, most accurate way is to get the ski into your hands.... and have quite a lot of other skis leaning on the wall to compare it against.
 
I think a problem with this is that often the stiffness varies throughout a ski. Like it may be medium-stiff underfoot but have softer tips and tails. So maybe underfoot ski A is stiffer than ski B but ski A may have really soft tips or something that makes it more forgiving. So comparing the overall stiffness of A vs. B won't really tell you about how one will ski compared to the other.
 
And thats exactly what I'm talking about, thanks!

FYI, the measurements are done across the ski, so each skis stiffness is displayed as a sort of graph so you can compare the nose versus tail stiffness, as well as the overall stiffness. Seriously cool stuff.
 
I want to know how much it actually costs to make a ski. The materials, construction, shipping, errrrthang.
 
well, if someone over at TGR manages to make a somewhat accurate flexchart, why not have someone over at Backcountry.com (or similar web-shop) make one... they have a shitload of skis in stock, or at least can "borrow" em, then somehow test em and write up a flexchart, if you make a decent test bank you can easily flex rate a ton of skis on one day, also profile charts shouldn't be too hard to make with a proper bank, even just some rise measurements and camber measurements would be interesting for a ton of people ...

i'd see a webshop implement these kind of accurate stats on skis way sooner than any brand/company would ....
 
Or Powder / Freeskiier could do it as part of the buyer's guide given they're testing everything anyway.
 
does anyone have a link to the flex chart mentioned? maybe of last years skis. I can't find it anywhere on TGR. Would be interesting to see.

THANKS and great suggestion / thread
 
On the agenda for our new shop. It would be awesome for some independent company to actually measure a bunch of skis by some easy method that a consumer can easily do in their garage... with actual measures and with standard units, not just an arbitrary 1-10 scale.

Backcountry.com? Powder or Freeskier mags?
 
my toughts exactly !

a unified scale for flex in tip, tail and underfoot

then measurements for camber underfoot, exact location of the two touching points and an expression for the amount of rise/rocker in front and behind of the bindings ...

and if one would start such a project, the use of high def large scale photos of said skis and profile would also be quite interesting ...
 
So if I were to start this, which I was thinking I might do, would you send me free skis to test? I would make it perfectly.
 
What it is called is the Ski Flex Index or the SFI. The most recent one that i could find was of 2008 made buy a guy named Endre Hals. I couldnt find a working link, I didnt look that hard, but they would probably be found in the epicski forums or on tgr. wish they had a more current one? skis flex and profile have changed so much since 08, even if it is the same model of ski most will be incorrect. its ridiculously awesome what is going on with skiing right now!
 
Not exactly but the same thing goes for every product ever made. You bill of materials (BOM) is one thing, the cost of doing business is another. Hell, one of our machines to make a $0.20 part cost $500k.

 
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