Foam vs Wood?

A

Ar5king

Member
Hey i am not very familiar with the foam cored skis like the salomon foil which i was thinking about buy... I have used wood for my past 4 skis and i want to know if it is a good change bad change or just different, if so what way???

Thanks a lot if you can help me out
 
i am no expert but from what i have heard and read, the foam is lighter than the wood but it breaks down and dosnt keep its pop as long.... that being said salomon switched their cores to wood this year so i am thinking the foam cares did not out perform the wood.
 
They are very flexy with an inconsistant flex and they also sound like nails scratching across a chalkboard. And oh yeah, i broke one last year by landing in the backseat once. the tail was pointing towards the sky. I absolutley hated them. Just my 2 cents
 
Foam breaks down with abuse very quickly. There is a good reason why companies who traditionally used a foam construction are switching to wood in their park and freeride skis.
 
Foam cores suck. they loose their camber and life very quickly, and the binding screw retention is terrible. i would never, ever ski a non-wood core ski. the better you get, the more you can overpower the ski, which is downright frightening on steeper terrain.
 
Salomon 1080 foil has been wood core for the last couple years http://www.salomonfreeski.com/others/ski/skis/freeski/teneighty.html - maybe the last model was 06-07 with the white ski with party letters. Way back in the day, Salomon used the cap of the ski as the structure. The cap would also control the behaviour of the ski - stiff, soft, quick, kick. So the core was supposed to be only filler. Everybody was trying to build an inexpensive yet quality ski. I think that all manufacturers have pretty much since shifted back to the core being an integral part of the ski and have gone back to wood and maybe some space age stuff like carbon stringers...etc. Foam was good because it was consistent. Wood varied from tree to tree and often had a different flex. I think Volkl had their own forest. I heard some racer's father picked a tree from their farm for his son's skis.... Wood can rot when wet. Foam doesn't.

Foam core is good for light weight riders, riders with finese style, and juniors / kids and as a lot of people have already written it cannot take getting hammered or have kick like good wood cores. Foam is not for aggressive riders or heavy use.

Wood cores can also be crappy. They can be overly heavy and damp. So it ain't your wood but how u use it. A few companies were using plywood cores as an inexpensive way to produce a low cost ski. A lightweight strong wood core is expensive. Wood has so far been better to screw in and hold the bindings. Everything has it's place.
 
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