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KilaTsunami
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Explain like I'm 10

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RubberSoul
Posts: 11249 - Karma: 14,642
Why, seemingly regardless of anything else, all skis seem to be at least a tiny bit skinnier in the tail than in the tip please

drag/pushing through the snow or something?
so that your tips are always up in relation to the tails?

i don't know dick about that kind of ski technology

thanks geniuses
Jan 31 2014 5:26PM
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S.J.W
Posts: 7609 - Karma: 31,185
i'm pretty sure so it allows the ski to bend when it carves and form a C shape more efficiently
Jan 31 2014 5:35PM
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snowbabeee
Posts: 44 - Karma: 136
There are completely symmetrical skis out there with the same tip & tail width so it's not a necessary feature for safety or anything of the sort
Jan 31 2014 5:36PM
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CheddarJack
Posts: 5203 - Karma: 7,380
So you can more easily pressure your front edge, allowing you to carve.
Jan 31 2014 5:58PM
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Mr.Huck
Posts: 6096 - Karma: 14,896
Honestly tips are wider because it provides better flotation in soft snow, and helps with the initiation of carved turns. But as was mentioned above, there are plenty of skis which are completely symmetrical. You could mount them backwards and the ski would ski the same. People think that a symmetrical ski should be easier to ski switch on. That's false because your weight distribution is completely different skiing switch than it is skiing forward. Tip and tail width are just one of many factors that manufacturers like to mess around with.
Jan 31 2014 6:15PM
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Lemuel
Posts: 14486 - Karma: 10,635
It's mostly because your typical ski is made to have a long tip to initiate the turn. If the tail were to be the same width, there would be a shit load of sidecut in the tails of most skis, since they are mounted more towards the back. It's just the circumference of a circle, with the mounting point farther back so the tails are shorter.

I know what I want to say, but can't put it into words properly.
Jan 31 2014 7:04PM
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alexg1687
Posts: 1505 - Karma: 1,581
It helps with high speed stability as well. Anyone who has skied at high speed on a pair of symmetrical twins will know the feeling of the skis chattering left and right very slightly. They never really want to sit in a straight line. That's the edges of the tail of the ski catching small imperfections in the snow and determining the direction of the overall ski. By making that thinner than the tip the tail tends to just ride in whatever track the tip makes, therefore making them more stable.
Jan 31 2014 8:17PM
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