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I'm a ski race parent. I tune every couple of days on snow. My U12 boy skis on 0.5 degrees base bevel, three degrees side edge. Here he is on a firm course at h
by swader999 2y ago
I'm a ski race parent. I tune every couple of days on snow. My U12 boy skis on
0.5 degrees base bevel, three degrees side edge. Here he is on a firm course at his last race this year: https://youtu.be/RWYO2ib-qe8?si=CRH01ViFUFApSx_o https://youtu.be/RWYO2ib-qe8?si=CRH01ViFUFApSx_o
Setting that up is difficult but it's pretty easy to maintain once it is there. Side cut.com has great advice and tools.
If you are on groomers and ski on decent skis, not powder boards, it is worth getting a tune.
For ski racing and carving on man made snow, it is very similar to ice skating, you'll want to tune very frequently.
- strstr 2y agoDo you mean .5 or 5 for the base bevel? 5 is quite far off the snow.
- swader999 2y ago0.5 for base bevel with three degrees for the side is very aggressive for his age but his cuff alignment is dialed and he can handle it.
- strstr 2y agoThanks for the correction. I had just never heard of 5° degrees as a base bevel. Not sure why you seem defensive. Isn’t 0.5° (or lower) the factory tune for slalom skis? Might only be a thing for U16+.
- swader999 2y agoAll good, I didn't type it correctly initially. A lot of coaches in the past have been critical of those angles he's been on so I was probably anticipating it lol. Most kids that age are likely 0.75 and two degrees for Sl. And yeah older Fis kids are maybe trying zero base and perhaps 4 degrees on water injected surfaces.
- strstr 2y agoTuners look at me so strangely when I ask for 0°/4° lol. I can’t imagine dealing with coaches.
- swader999 2y agoYeah that is dialed like an F1 car and four degrees will shorten the life of the edge a bit. Some will do that much just under boot but go 3 at tip and tail. Another approach is to never debur and file every run. Saw that hack at a Fis GS race this year that was water injected by an over zealous course crew.
- creato 2y agoYou can see in this video that the interaction of the ski with the snow is much more than just the edge of the ski. I really doubt the fine tuning of the edge matters that much. I don’t think there is any objective way to settle this debate. I think if you enjoy tuning skis, go for it. I like sharpening knives and tools so I get it. But I don’t bother with my skis.
- amluto 2y agoIt sounds entirely straightforward to do a randomized, blinded test of freshly sharpened vs unsharpened skis. (Okay, the skier can feel the edge or look closely, but a cooperative skier could just not do that for the purpose of the experiment.)
- swader999 2y agoYes! And coaches will typically pull the kids from training if they show up dull. They'll go in the race shack and tune their edges and visually improve to all after fixing them.
- strstr 2y agoYou could also sharpen just one edge of each ski (opposite edges across the pair), then put the skis on random feet. Then see if they can tell which edges are sharp! Most of a typical skier’s weight is supported by the inside edge of the downhill ski while carving. Youth racers tend to ski with one set of edges on the inside for training, and the other edges inside for racing (under the theory that the inside edges take more of a beating. Who knows if that is accurate). If you ever see youth racers on slalom skis (which are chiral, since they have tips that deflect ski gates), you’ll often notice that the skis are on the “wrong” foot.
- oldandboring 2y agoTrue enough at younger levels but as you move up in age and skill, the weight distribution between the downhill and uphill ski gets closer to 50/50. What you're saying has a kernel of truth and young skiers are still taught downhill ski as a fundamental but shaped skis have really changed the game on this.
- Loic 2y agoSon is U16, same 87/0.5 and if I am not doing them well, he will tell me as he can feel the difference. Of course, we have race and training skis, this helps having the race skis very well tuned. Your son is good :-)
- swader999 2y agoThanks, he's been working really hard at it since 3 years old! We're at Mt Hood this week so tuning is still a thing even today lol. U16 is quite a step up, the courses get quite challenging at that level.
- oldandboring 2y agoI can tell you are very proud of your U12 boy and from that video, you should be. His fundamentals are rock solid. His fore-aft is good, his timing is excellent, he's clearly prepared for the course well in inspection. He's generally not reaching to cross-block, as evidenced by the strategic inside-clear at the top of the pitch. Really, really strong.
- swader999 2y agoThanks and you know what you are looking at!
- oldandboring 2y agoI drink and I know things.