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Pin-Tail on fat skis

#1
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10/7/09 at 9:46am
  • Joined: October 2007
  • Location: Tahoe
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What is the thinking on this? Fat waisted ski (120mm +) with a wide tip (150mm +) and the tail is barely wider than the waist (+6mm). Is this to make it easier to get the ski to plane, as in tip up with the tail pushed down into the snow or to wheelie, as in drive the tail down hard for slowing or a sharp turn? Is it so you can push the tail out and through the snow in the turn?  How does a fat ski with a more conventional side cut (tail = +20mm ish) ski differently?
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#2
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10/7/09 at 9:56am
  • Joined: December 2007
  • Location: The Bull City
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I don't have nearly as much experience skiing deep soft as I'd like, and none on a fat ski.  But. it really seems like skis exclusively for deep powder are taking on the properties of water skis more and more each season..  Water surface is a bit more firm than powder.   Other than that the physics seem similar to me.

Smell that?  Winter's coming!
 

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#3
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10/7/09 at 10:44am
  • Joined: March 2002
  • Location: Seattle, WA
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 The primary focus in pintail designs seems to be keeping more surface area in the front and less in the back -- thus causing the tail to drop. One consequence of which is that the ski is naturally angled for planing up even at relatively low speeds.

There are, of course, other trade offs....
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#4
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10/7/09 at 11:12am
  • Joined: May 2009
  • Location: Bay Area & Tahoe
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davluri View Post

Is this to make it easier to get the ski to plane, as in tip up with the tail pushed down into the snow

Yes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by davluri View Post

How does a fat ski with a more conventional side cut (tail = +20mm ish) ski differently?

Assuming it also has conventional camber, there are basically two choices to make a conventional side cut ski plane:  Decamber it by applying force to the center of the ski, or drop to the back seat.
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#5
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10/7/09 at 7:15pm
  • Joined: July 2002
  • Location: Vancouver, BC
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 Other than the float reasons that others have mentioned, having less sidecut at the tail makes it easier to release from turns and vary turn shape. Because skis bite very precisely in soft snow compared to hard snow, less sidecut is needed to achieve the same affect as a carving ski on hard snow. Sidecut engages less predictably in soft snow and having a wide tail can make a ski hooky and unpredicatable.
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