J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Dave Mac

Admin wrote:

Volf wrote:To avoid crashes when deafened by music, ski faster than those behind you.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Never listen to music while skiing (I love the sound of snow!) but if I did... it'd be loud!

You make more noise than most, Admin ~ all that whooping and hollering. Can't hear myself yodel!

Far Queue wrote:Just looked the webcam for the lower area, and it looks to me like it is snowing heavily now.

Hope the downhill is still on tomorrow, I'm looking forward to learning the course for the beginning of Feb :twisted:

The good news, FQ is that you won'tbe short of snow! It is dumping down here.

The plan is to switch the downhill to Sunday, when he snow is expected to have eased.

I love skiing on my own, I can keep trying new lines,changing technique, do non-stop runs without offending anyone. When I need to stop, I can make it a quick break, then keep skiing.

Equally this visit, where I am solo, I have skied with a fair number of the red ski instructors, two visiting racers, a really fast German, our old J2 friend Jan Stenmark, and a host of ace people that I have not met before.

Have also just spent several hours working with a lady recovering from injury just getting back into skiing.

I am happy to ski in groups for a while. Happy to ski with my frau, who is a wonderful skier. My sons are pretty good skiers and can keep up a good pace.

Even so, on a group holiday, I always go for a couple of half days alone. I can travel at the speed and style that does it for me.

I also discovered last week that my Niederau record has been given back to me, since the young Austrians that had purported to break it, were short cutting the queue, and jumping in the side gate. The lift company workers were letting them in front of the queue. No big deal, I guess their record stands, but is different, since no one else would be allowed those preferential terms.

Hats off to those that prefer to ski all the time in groups. if you wish to spend the time socialising ~ thats good for you.

Trencher wrote:In my short skiing career I've owned about 15 pairs of skis and never noticed any differences within a pair (other than obvious damage to one ski). The one thing that might cause a difference is some variation in the wood cores, but a great deal of care is normally taken to match the wood in each pair. The flex of a ski does deteriorate with use and it might be possible that if ski were consistently used as left and right, the flex would take on some asymmetric properties. But would that be a good thing? I would guess that the ski would retain it's skiing qualities better if that loss of flex properties were symmetric through changing the side the ski is used on.

Thats a powerful point, Trencher.

I know a fair amount about manufacturing, enough to know that "precision" is only relatative, and is unprecise. However, I don't know enough about ski manufacture to know if the wood care is the main variant. If I was testing a batch of skis, I would test the individual skis, and match variants within the range.
Terrific point about both flex variants taking on self-propagating asymmetric properties.

On the other hand, consider the proposition that there is a significant properties differential at first use. How would we, as users, know?

The other reason I was thinking of might be the variation in ski resistance, both vertical and torsional. The body accomodates and learns to one set up, but could not adapt to indeterminate variation.

The ski characteristics will change over time, particularly when one ski has been stressed or damaged.

Good thread, FQ. Probably one that can provide no measurable answers.

I always note the L/R on skis, mostly in a minimal but notational way. It is a principle of engineering that there is no such thing as absolute replication. What we do not know is absolute the performance comparison on ski pairings is. Maybe there is published data.

I am a believer in muscle learning, and that the body rapidly adapts to varying circumstances. Hence, a change to ski length, or torsional stiffness may be compensated. However, this belief also must assume there is a time lag of one to several runs. That would not impact on the effects of change on every run.

I have noted on a few occasions that if I am getting a bad result from ski use, swapping the skis left to right, sometimes makes a significant difference.

This is all empirical.

Ah, Numpt, while I give great credence to your wonderful, and poetic use of the English language, I am not certain that you have entirely grasped the essence of skiing as being a physical sport...... :twisted:

It is a duty of the aged, to whup the ass off the YWs, we were all YWs once!

This week I have received two emails, one from a recently retired world cup downhiller, the other from a top Tirol skier, both proposing skiing and a drink meet-ups.

I have a feeling that I am about to get my ass whupped ~ big style! I may lay great emphasis on the drink aspect!

Man, is a bi-ped.