Does anyone here understand swallow tail skis in-depth ?

The Sakana floats well because it's got 150mm shovels and a 105 waist. It's difficult to give an exact answer to your question about comparing it to wider skis but I'd say that the 105 Sakana floats better than a lot of traditionally mounted ~115-120mm skis. The swallow tail obviously has less surface area than a normal tail so theoretically that will cause a bit of sinking in the tail which translates to the tips rising which is good for float. Add that to a ridiculously wide shovel and you have a surprisingly floaty mid-fat ski. Would the Sakana float just as well without the swallow tail? I think it probably would.

I actually skied the Sakana today. Admittedly the groomers weren't really that soft (freeze+wind) but I really didn't like their performance on groomers and I can't say I felt anything out of the swallow tail.

Swallow tails are sweet on powder boards and surfboards but I don't know if the same mechanics can be translated to skiing.

Im more a boot guy then ski, but my understanding has been swallow tails offer two main advantages.The reduced surface area in the tail allows the tail to drop more in powder which in turn keeps the front of the ski out of the snow more. Its similar to the old rossi s7 or salomon bbr designs. Having the tip stay up naturally will mean you could reduce teh rocker in the tip which will in turn increase the effective edge making carving performance better.

The other side I may be slightly wrong on but I always thought it softened up the tail so it would break out of a carve more easily, similar to what a twin would do but without loosing the effective edge of the ski. so making them a twin would not really make any sense.

Thats my thoughts on them but id be interested to see what other people think

tomPietrowskiIm more a boot guy then ski, but my understanding has been swallow tails offer two main advantages.The reduced surface area in the tail allows the tail to drop more in powder which in turn keeps the front of the ski out of the snow more. Its similar to the old rossi s7 or salomon bbr designs. Having the tip stay up naturally will mean you could reduce teh rocker in the tip which will in turn increase the effective edge making carving performance better.

The other side I may be slightly wrong on but I always thought it softened up the tail so it would break out of a carve more easily, similar to what a twin would do but without loosing the effective edge of the ski. so making them a twin would not really make any sense.

Thats my thoughts on them but id be interested to see what other people think

You're right on softening the tail unless its got extra reinforcing. Think about it in the way that if there was no cut out, the edge would be reinforced with the stiffness of the full width of the glass/carbon reinforcing and core/tip spacer, now most of that space is void and there is only a small amount of material to support the edge on the swallow tail. In the same way wide skis are stiffer, that little cut out tail section is effectively a very narrow ski, hence softer due to less laminate stiffness.

**This post was edited on Apr 9th 2019 at 5:32:17pm

There's a lot of takes on swallow tail design like any shape but here's ours. It would be great to see more fish shapes and swallowtails out in the market as we see a lot of advantages to that design and have been seeing a lot of people really happy with them (young, old, freestyle, freeride, ect).. plus it looks rad.

Powder: The swallowtail design with a traditional mount allows for a more natural stance in powder and allows for less early rise in the tip while achieving the same amount of float and reducing drag in the tail without adding a bunch of taper.

Reduced material = reduced weight (there's nothing there) but with the same amount of edge contact. The Pescado is a 180 and has more edge contact than the 188 Magnum Opus (which we based the shape on a bit). The 174 Sakana skis more like a mid 180 ski. It's a challenge to get skiers to understand this as most people stick to a similar size ski in a lot of their quiver.

We reinforce the tail - it's not as advertised but the Sakana has a lot of metal in the tail and the Pescado has a sheet of titanal over the entire tail so you're not losing much torsion when laying them over. It also makes them more durable.

Going Switch - is fun on them, they have a bit of a kicked tail, not recommended for chop! You don't wanna fork yourself!

thx - jm

Line_SkisThere's a lot of takes on swallow tail design like any shape but here's ours. It would be great to see more fish shapes and swallowtails out in the market as we see a lot of advantages to that design and have been seeing a lot of people really happy with them (young, old, freestyle, freeride, ect).. plus it looks rad.

Powder: The swallowtail design with a traditional mount allows for a more natural stance in powder and allows for less early rise in the tip while achieving the same amount of float and reducing drag in the tail without adding a bunch of taper.

Reduced material = reduced weight (there's nothing there) but with the same amount of edge contact. The Pescado is a 180 and has more edge contact than the 188 Magnum Opus (which we based the shape on a bit). The 174 Sakana skis more like a mid 180 ski. It's a challenge to get skiers to understand this as most people stick to a similar size ski in a lot of their quiver.

We reinforce the tail - it's not as advertised but the Sakana has a lot of metal in the tail and the Pescado has a sheet of titanal over the entire tail so you're not losing much torsion when laying them over. It also makes them more durable.

Going Switch - is fun on them, they have a bit of a kicked tail, not recommended for chop! You don't wanna fork yourself!

thx - jm

Thanks for the details!