The Adam Cord Interview

[lkb]

I just read the interview. The elite ski is interesting of course and sounds great.  But after reading the part where he said they are working on all kinds of things like handles, vests,  I wished I had gotten Horton to ask him if there is any serious work being done on developing a safe, reliable, predictable binding system. Skis are advancing but it seems bindings are not. Any thoughts?

[Horton]

that will teach you to not add to interview questions!

[lkb]

yeah, I hear ya....really though, what do you have on that topic?

[Horton]

:-)

[lkb]

alright syndrome, give up the goods

[Horton]

No. I really do not know. I do know that Adam reads the forum as do the guys from Reflex. . . . be nice and ask some questions.... this is a web forum you know....

[lkb]

Adam,

Do you have any information/thoughts on binding development that you can share? It seems that there is a lot of industry interest in refining skis but relatively little evolvement in binding design. Do you feel that the current binding offerings are as safe/well engineered as they could be? Or is there room for improvement with respect to the available market out there for waterski gear?

I am on my second different double hardshell system. It's hard for me to totally trust it and I wish there was something more reliable and effective than what I am currently on.

Anyway, I guess my main point is that there is so much more effort put into ski design than binding design.

Thanks

[DaveD]

I just want to know if Eric is out looking for a used RTM machine. /vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif

[Horton]

No I am pretty sure that Eric likes to do it the hard way

[AdamCord]

lkb-

To (sort of) answer your questions on bindings:

I am definitely in agreement that the level of engineering that has gone into slalom bindings in the past has been sub par. It's easy to look at other industries and see that we are years (decades?) behind when it comes to binding design.

On the plus side, I can proudly say that we have taken steps to get the proper personnel to help with our new design, which we have been working on now for the past few months. I don't want to say too much, but it will definitely be different!

[lkb]

Adam, thanks for the response. It's encouraging to know that you're working on it. Can you tell us if it's a hardshell?

[AdamCord]

I can tell you that it's not like anything else that's out there....

[lkb]

That's definitley somehting to look forward to. I guess all we can do know is wait and wonder. Although I don't mind telling you I hope it's a duoble hardshell with predictable and repeatable release tensions and it prevents a one foot in one foot out crash and has a smooth outer shell to reduce water drag and is not too heavy.

Thanks

[GMC]

LKB you forgot cheap.  :)  Or at least competitively priced vs. other systems currently out there... which like everything else has gotten a little high IMHO...

[lkb]

GMC, I hear ya. But, if someone developed a waterski-specific system(read no outdated snowski parts, no old rollerblade parts and no velcro) that was truly effective and predictable I would pay...I have broken an ankle skiing and 2 of my partners have ruptured achilles so skimping in the injury prevention dept. would not be worth the risk

[RichardDoane]

Now you can put a face to the name.  Adam skied very well in the 40'F water, and that Elite ski is very cool.

[AdamCord]

Those are basically just rollerblade shells bolted to the ski. I use them primarily to test different hardshell settings (buckles, canting, heel lift, roll, etc.).