How Your Skis Are Designed
Step 2: Perfect Fit Design
Using advanced computerized diagnostic and design tools, we prescribe a ski shape and flex pattern to match and advance your Skier DNA, along with a bill of materials – core, base and structural lay-up – to achieve the design goals in a lively, predictable and durable product.
Because ski performance design is still more art than science, our expert staff reviews the basic design, then phone you to explain the design issues and proposed solutions. You become a key member of the design team, helping to refine the shape, flex and weight-distribution elements.
Shape and sidecut influence basic turn shape: how smoothly and quickly the ski rolls into each turn, how powerfully it carves, and how effortlessly it flows out and into the following turn. These design elements also affect the ski's float in soft and deep snow and its gripping power on harder snow. We'll discuss how to balance these elements for the kind of skiing you love.
Flex and torsion need to be optimized to the ski's shape, to your weight, strength and energy, and to the quality of the snow you expect to encounter.
Core material – maple, ash, aspen or some combination of the three – determines the ski's weight, and has a significant effect on torsional stiffness, rough-snow stability and smoothness of turn entry. We need to match the choice of core to your weight and strength.
Structural materials are selected to get just the right balance of flex and torsional stiffness, with maximum durability. Where aircraft aluminum can be used to good effect for improved glide speed and penetration in deep heavy snow, we will calculate how thick the layers should be to achieve the target ski weight and flex.
Base material should be chosen to match the quality of the snow you expect to encounter: dry and light, wet and heavy, or hard and icy. If you expect to encounter widely variable snow, we need to determine the appropriate compromise, and select a versatile combination of base and surface grind.
When you've signed off the design parameters – and on the topsheet graphics – our craftsmen go to work to build your skis.
