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Ski stiffness rating

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knows_butter
Posts: 477 - Karma: 32
Why is there no standard measure for ski stiffness? A rating out of 10 for instance, with 10 being super stiff and 1 being noodly soft.

Ski companies are always really vague when it comes to describing their skis. Usually after reading a skis description I have no idea how stiff or soft it is.

For instance: " Tanner engineered himself into the ski with a unique flex pattern designed for the next level, where every inch of the ski is in play." - WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN? HOW STIFF IS THIS SKI?
May 6 2010 2:56AM
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COskier
Posts: 1066 - Karma: 131
Haha, thats awesome.

Btw, thalls are soft as shit.
May 6 2010 3:02AM
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Jahseph.
Posts: 1315 - Karma: 267
I see potential in your way of thinking.
May 6 2010 3:06AM
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LIL-WAT
Posts: 1510 - Karma: 146
i never new it till now but this is what ski descriptions are missing.
10/10 for you
May 6 2010 3:22AM
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HalfandHalf
Posts: 1216 - Karma: 207
agreed, thats why i like to go to a shop and hand flex the skis im interested in
May 6 2010 3:32AM
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rot4te
Posts: 148 - Karma: 13
A problem with that though is that different skis have different flex patterns and points, they don't have the same flex all the way down the ski. In fact, many skis have sort of a hinge (not literally) that allows them to flex extremely in one spot while being stiff in others. 1-10 just doesn't describe it enough. 
May 6 2010 9:24AM
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RJ_Res
Posts: 628 - Karma: 292
The rating wouldn't be an exact measure of what the skis' flex is. It would be in a general sense, to get the overall stiffness so you would be able to tell if it was a stiffer/softer/in between flexed ski. This would also make it easier to compare different skis. It isn't meant to be rocket science, just to get the general picture.
May 6 2010 8:51PM
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TheFlyingHonky
Posts: 339 - Karma: 13
i did see a in depth chart of stiffness on tgr but ive never seen a defined unit good idea though
May 6 2010 9:09PM
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chardi
Posts: 5040 - Karma: 59
this is a really good idea +k.  i lot of people including myself want to know stuff like this when buying skis. 
May 6 2010 9:13PM
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Backyard.Skier
Posts: 5397 - Karma: 1,497
i have this problem to.
May 6 2010 9:50PM
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DG.3
Posts: 794 - Karma: 288
this, and ski wieght should be included
May 7 2010 12:27AM
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brenker
Posts: 3188 - Karma: 71
cant be too hard to do. id love to see more ski specs like this...boots are spoiled
May 7 2010 1:01AM
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Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
different skis flex in different locations though as well (think butterzones, etc). unlike a ski boot where all you can really have is forward flex.
May 7 2010 1:24AM
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brenker
Posts: 3188 - Karma: 71
that could potentially be even cooler, something kind of like a rocker-style rating (10x30 etc), but lets take an afterbang for example, it might be rated with a general flex rating of like 5 (10 being the stiffest), with a butter-zone flex of 4. idk, might be cool to see something like that
May 7 2010 1:40AM
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ownsthepark
Posts: 246 - Karma: 11
dude ive always thought the same thing finnally someone who agrees
May 7 2010 8:57PM
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.nasty
Posts: 10581 - Karma: 11,150

+k for the idea. so tired of shop employee telling me it's "stiff" and that's it.

May 7 2010 9:27PM
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mak
Posts: 700 - Karma: 167
maybe if the manufactuers creater some sort of a diagram of the ski, using colours to represent different stiffnesses, seeing as most parks skis and beyond don't have a consistant continuous flex. so yeah a universal flex rating would be cool, just not in a numerical form
May 7 2010 9:29PM
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Obie.
Posts: 1741 - Karma: 3,646
thats kind of like when they describe the underfoot stiffness and then the tip/tail stiffness, (where the butter zones would be located.......generally underfoot is obviously stiffer for stomping landings
May 7 2010 9:42PM
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remove
Posts: 2566 - Karma: 1,026
Line's pretty good at pointing at this. Shit they even specify where they're supposed to flex
May 7 2010 10:21PM
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DHogg
Posts: 3462 - Karma: 237
The basic idea has been done before here:

http://www.endrehals.no/Flexcurves%202007.pdf

Check adobe layers to view individual skis instead of everything together.
May 7 2010 10:40PM
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brenker
Posts: 3188 - Karma: 71
Ive seen this, its definitely cool. makes you wonder a bit
May 8 2010 1:17AM
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