Tutorial: Rockering Skis

thefilmerguy

thefilmerguy

Active member
Ok so this is my tutorial on rocking skis. I didnt really check to see if there is any other thread on this so hopefully there isn't. If so, then i will have this removed if it is wanted.

I have rockered a pair of mine by this method and it worked fine.

Disclaimer: All skis are different, and attempting to rocker skis CAN damage them permanently.

Here we go...



what you'll need:

- heat gun that heats up to 1000 degrees (they are like 15 bucks at Ace Hardware)

- two beefy clamps

- a few blocks of wood or whatever you will separate the skis with

- table to rest the skis on

- and of course skis (preferably without any fiberglass in the core or

whatever). i rockered my old scratch bc's which were all wood core



So get your skis set up.

- Clamp the skis together in front and behind the bindings. you can do

it directly in front or a few centimeters forward or whever you want

the rocker to start, but take into consideration, that the rocker will

start like 10 centimeters in front of the clamp, and NOT directly at

the clamp.

- Get your heat gun and heat up in front of and behind the clamps.

Process

- Heat each section for 5 minutes at a time, so once you are done with

both skis, it will be after 20 minutes. Dont put the heat gun too

close to the ski because it can potentially heat through the core and

melt the bases on the sections where you are heating. You will be able

to figure out where is a good distance to hold the gun from the ski

- 5 minutes of heating isn't going to be enough, so after the first

session, wait an hour before you do it again. All skis are different,

so after the second session, mark where you had the clamps and take the

whole deal apart so you can see if the skis have successfully rockered

or not. My bc's took like 5 sessions to successfully complete the

process.

- After the skis are rockered to your liking, leave them in clamped

for 24 hours to ensure that they have cooled safely before you take the

clamps off. This will lead to the rocker holding its shape much better.

- I found that with my skis, the finished rocker was about 25% of what i was bending the ski. This will obviously change for every ski but for mine, i had the skis spread apart about 4 inches while i heated them, and i ended up with around an inch of rocker on the finished product. Experiment with this, because there is no concrete percentage of how much the ski will lose. Its up to you to figure out what you skis need.

Be careful



- Because of the extreme heat that you are putting on the skis, the

topsheets will most likely start to bubble up. They bubble because the

ski is flexing in a non-normal position for a long period of time, and

the bubbles signify that the ski has almost successfully rockered. On

my skis, both noses and both tails have topsheet bubbles and they are

fine so DONT BE ALARMED too much. You'll know when too much bubbling

is taking place.

- Rockering skis always weakens the ski. I dont know how long said ski will last. Mine are still fine after about 5 days riding on them. I havent noticed neither any change in the rocker, nor any problems in the ski.

thats my tutorial on it. feel free to leave me any comments or suggestions. Sorry that i dont have any pictures but im in europe right now and cant get any. I have pictures of the finished product and if it is wanted i'll post, but other that i dont have anything picture wise. sorry

and anybody that has any other methods, please post here so we can have one specific thread for this type of deal.
 
alright so here are the only pictures i have of the skis. ignore the shitty paint job done by yours truly, but they are 176 04 Rossignol Scratch Bc's.

P1010005-4.jpg


tips (only about an inch or 3cm of rocker between them. obviously more rocker can be achieved through this method)

P1010006-3.jpg


tails. (once again, only about an inch of rocker)

P1010007-2.jpg


thats all ive got sorry
 
you can kinda see the topsheet bubbles in the first pic, but not very well..

the skis ski well yes. in all honesty, the only difference i really noticed was in the flex. they butter a helluva lot better now, and because of the slight rocker and softer flex, the tips and tails are allowed to be pushed up by the snow and float a little bit better. it isnt really a night and day difference, but they do ski differently. not really much better, or worse, but they still ski well.
 
I may have to try that out with my old scratch's too. Then again, I'm buying a rockered ski next year so I'll have no need to do it...
 
anybody else have any other methods that they wanna post?

if we get more methods, maybe we could get this stickied and have one specific thread for this type of deal
 
a few of my friends actually rockered the hell out of their snowboards this year.. with heat guns and other methods of madness.. I will ask them exactly what they did and report back, as it would be the same thing.

and they said they worked great!
 
yeah that looked sick, but not everybody has the materials to build an entire jig just for rockering skis. thats the only problem i see then that method...but other than that, it looks like it would be a better rocker than the block method. does anyone know where he heated the ski, whether he heated on the bases or on the topsheets? id be afraid of melting the bases
 
bump?

you guys think we should try to sticky this? i think it'd be cool having a dedicated thread to different methods of rockering. or should i just let it die?
 
I am quite surprised that Liberty's helix or even the double helix doesn't have any sort of rocker on it yet. I am tempted to do something like this, but at the same time they ski well at the moment so...hmm.
 
From the photos it seems like they turned out really well. Alot of people who "rocker" their old skis are really just breaking them, and they fall apart when they get skied. But yours look very well done, that is plenty of rocker to benefit in powder or buttering around..
 
thanks man, im still perfecting it though... and its tough because all skis are different so its hard to use the same method with different skis and get the same results

so are you guys up for trying to get this stickied or no?
 
personally, no.

The search bar is there for a reason (laughs)

Sticky threads should relate more to gear as whole, not somethign specific like rockering skis.
 
word up, the only thing is that, that method has to be done with a very specific type of ski and you end up with a full ski rocker as opposed to just in the tips and tails which results to almost a complete loss in hard snow skiability... some people may like to go the full rocker way and some not, but this is a very good method presuming you have metal sheeted through the cores of the ski and want a full rocker
 
I wouldnt use the heat bloower techinque on thugs...

the stair method is better as you dont really need heat on the ski wich could damge the core way more then abusing the flex.
 
yeah thats sick you guys figured out how to do that with such good results (thoe BCs look great)

i dont think id be ballsy enough to try it myself haha. plus i already own rockered skis.

but SICK method!!
 
those skis do not have an all wood core. no skis have an all wood core. if your skis were all wood theyd snap on the first run.
 
It's a reference to an old thread somebody made as a joke. I tried to find it for you but searchbar let me down. I'm sure someone will be able to find it though.
 
this is my new project :

adding a rocker to my old Ninthward NG´s , hope that works !

Im really excited about the result , its the first time trying anything like that !
1262632380L1080332.JPG
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1262632312L1080330.JPG
1262632184L1080329.JPG


hope the pics work
 
So I kinda want to rocker my old dynastar troublemakers or my old arv's just for the hell of it. Anyone have an opinion on whether this would be a bad idea for either ski?
 
i rockered my old larose pro models that were beginning to rocker themselves anyway...i was able to add about .50" to each ski in maybe two hours with the heat method. The only problem is that i forgot the edges on them are almost non-existent, so they are quite difficult to hold an edge with, but they are fun as hell for jibbing around in a rail park
 
So this is how I have an old pair of skis set up right now. My question is do you need to heat the ski, or will just leaving them like this for 6+ months do the trick? Thoughts?
1275859853DSC03337.JPG

 
well your arv's are most likely rockered by now any ways. I had a pair that have like 2 cm of rocker and i rode them for 6 months armada makes the worst core.
 
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