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CyanicenineThis is going to vary depending on your skiing technique. For me short radius sidecut skis feel like they *want* to turn. This means if I start pushing my speed and charging straighter or more shallow carves the ski will feel "hooky." It's like the ski is overcommited to the turn versus what I am telling it to do. You can charge on short radius skis but it doesn't feel as good, because you are fighting the sidecut the whole time.
Flex profile effects your turning radius as much as sidecut. If you are on an extremely stiff ski you won't be able to flex and bend it as much to artificially create a shorter sidecut. I like a longer sidecut because it seems to be much easier to get a long sidecut ski to bend or smear shorter turns, but it's much more difficult to get a short sidecut to charge and feel stable at high speeds.
A good skier can get any ski to charge or make quick turns, a short sidecut is easier to carve small turns I suppose, but the trade off to that is that it will have some attitude if you try to push longer charging turns.
Center mounted skis don't allow you to lean forward as much. Leaning forward into your boots (if they are stiff enough) takes a ton of strain off your calves and quads. I find it takes a bit more strength to ski with a centered stance on my park skis on piste then it does to ski on my back mounted directional all mountain skis. Along with this the directional mount handles chop better because I'm better able to soak vibrations with my boot flex and leaning into my ski tips. It's not a huge difference, but it's noticeable, especially in non ideal conditions.
