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SkiJay

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  • Preferred boat
    Nautique 200 & ProStar
  • Home Ski Site
    Predator Bay & Isles of Lake Hancock
  • Real Name
    Jay Poscente
  • Ski
    66" Radar Vapor ProBuild
  • State
    Alberta & Florida

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  1. Why LE Matters @rfa Anything that moves the fin’s center of pressure matters, this includes both LE and DFT. In the book Fin Whispering, I went to great lengths to isolate individual ski behaviors so each behavior can be tuned without affecting the others. In this case, DFT is very important as LE-neutral DFT moves are essential when isolating smear changes. With the WhisperFin, my focus is on making ski tuning as easy as possible by boiling fin adjustments down to two simple moves—back and forth, and in and out of the ski (no LE-neutral DFT moves here). The downside of this simplicity is that both of these fin movements affect multiple behaviors. When I made the statement that "DFT isn't a measurement I worry much about. I'm more focused on how DFT affects the fin's leading edge location (LE) ...," it was in the context of WhisperFin tuning. And what I was implying was that of the two behaviors affected by a simple forward or backward fin move, I’m more concerned with how the move affects LE because the goal of these moves is to adjust yawed tip engagement to be as deep as possible without leading to tip-grab. Let’s consider a forward fin move for illustration purposes. Moving the fin forward increases both LE and DFT. As LE moves forward, we’ll get more yawed tip engagement from our habitual inputs, which leads to more smear, tighter turns and more cross-course angle. As DFT moves forward, the fin loses some leverage (shorter moment arm between the bindings and fin) which also leads to more smear. It’s a happy coincidence that DFT’s affect on smear is complementary to the goal of getting more tip engagement with a longer LE. Reducing fin area by moving the fin up into the ski also increases smear. In fact, reducing FD by .010” increases smear six times more than an equal .010 DFT increase (an updated topic in FinWhispering—2nd Edition). Accordingly, I consider fin area changes to be primarily aimed at adjusting smear, and back and forth fin movements to be primarily aimed at adjusting yawing tip engagement. This further explains the context surrounding my statement that "DFT isn't a measurement I worry much about. I'm more focused on how DFT affects the fin's leading edge location (LE) ...." Finally, to help illustrate why LE impacts yawed tip engagement, let’s use a little exaggeration. The fin on a ski is like the feathers on an arrow. With the feathers at the very back of the arrow, it will be very stable in flight. The further forward you move the feathers up the shaft, the less stable the arrow will be (meaning the easier it will be to deflect the arrow from its path). If the feathers were to move forward past the halfway point, the front of the arrow would swing around and become the back. Similarly, with the fin at the back of the ski, the ski is very stable and just wants to go straight down the lake. The skier has to force the ski to lay over on its side to turn or cut cross the course. The further forward the fin is on the ski, the less stable it is and the easier it is for the skier to deflect it from its natural path (force it to turn and cut). If the leading edge of the fin goes far enough forward, eventually the front of the ski will spin around and become the back of the ski, tip-grab in the extreme. If LE is too far forward, the skier’s habitual inputs will yaw too much tip into the water and the tip will bite. If it’s too far back, it’s becomes too hard to keep enough tip in the water to complete turns well or to generate enough cross-course angle. In short, the fin’s leading edge location (LE) matters a lot.
  2. One of us is the smart handsome one with mad skiing skills. The other one is ... me.
  3. I attached a ski handle to the ceiling above my elderly mom's bed so she can use it to sit up in the morning. When she gets all situated with the handle and is ready to sit up, with a tiny little voice she says "hit it" and does a shaky sort of tumble-turn that ends with her sitting upright on the edge of the bed with her feet on the floor ?
  4. @pcmcon729, The WhisperFin is fully adjustable. You can make it turn nice clean round turns or quick snap turns, depending on how you set it up. What most skiers find from the generic setup (before custom tuning) is that their turns are slightly tighter, and noticeably easier to initiate and finish with the WhisperFin. And contrary to appearances, this fin is very low drag. The holes in a standard fin create a tremendous amount of drag. The bands of laminar flow across the low pressure side of this fin generate noticeably less drag than holes. Less drag delivers quicker acceleration from the same skier effort. Because I'm travelling so much and have no fixed office or staff, processing returns is not something I can handle right now. Perhaps you can split the cost of one fin with a buddy. The chances of one of you buying out the other are pretty high. And worst case, this limits the downside if you both decide to sell it.
  5. @skialex, So long as you look at any setup as a starting setup that you will then customize to best meet your personal needs, then you'll probably end up in much the same place regardless of where you start. That 65" setup is a good starting setup for a finesse skier. But I'd move the bindings forward at least 1/2" from there for a 66" ski. Better still, I just got done helping a 32 off skier on a 66" evo, and this is where we ended up: 29.625, 7°, 2.510, 5.748, 1.935 (LE=7.683).
  6. Question: Does a softer ski allow a more forward front boot? —@coach3, It depends what part of the ski is softer. If the tail is softer, then yes. But your Lithium Vapor is likely not any softer than a ProBuild, and if it is, not materially so. I've done some comparison testing between the Lithium and the ProBuild Vapors, and found the Lithium to be remarkably close to the ProBuild in both performance and feel. I have no doubt that both will run solid -39s in competent hands, and that both will give you a pretty equal fighting chance at running full 35s.
  7. Ha! Yup, all the time, @Andre. Then I come to my senses and just go skiing :D
  8. @FLeboeuf, the smaller you can run the fin without the tail feeling slippery at the finish of turns, the easier it is to keep the tip low through turn finishes, straight into the cut. So I'd experiment with less fin area before going back with the bindings. And if you're not experiencing any tip grab, you want to move the fin forward too. So if you go 1/8 turn shallower (on FL and FD to keep the index marks level) then also move the fin forward 1/8 turn. If there's no tip-grab, keep moving the fin forward until the tip starts grabbing, then move back. This will give you the fastest ski possible.
  9. @Anthony Furmanovich, Yes the website numbers work well with the Pro Build on down. But don't accept them as perfect. Try a little tuning based on the instructions that came with the fin. We all ski differently.
  10. @jercrane, No need to get discouraged. If it's not working, there's a reason and it can be sorted out. First, the ski is a symmetrical hull. If it turns great on your offside, then it is proving that it's capable of turning at least as well on your onside. So the issue is mostly one of technique. If you got used to forcing a standard fin around onside turns with your back leg, then the same amount of force will overpower the WhisperFin even more. You'll likely adapt to using less force within a few sets, but that's not the goal here. Using your back leg to turn onside turns is a habit that will limit your future progress, so regardless of your fin choice, this habit needs to change. The new habit you want to cultivate is one of moving your hips inbound from onside turns more ahead of your ski while riding mostly on your front leg. Free skiing is the perfect place to work on this by doing lots of whips. Try to initiate turns on both sides by getting well up over your front foot. Then ride that front foot, proactively moving your hips inbound out of each turn—inbound, up and forward to the handle. Moving your hips aggressively inbound from the ball will take care of the wheelies. ). If you are feeling exposed to going OTF on your offside, move the fin back .010" or until you don't feel so exposed while riding tall over your front foot. If you're only feeling exposed to going OTF on your onside, it's probably because you're forcing the tail of the ski past the angle you want at the finish of the turn, into form-crushing hockey stops. The Whips drill will help tremendously with this.
  11. @jercrane & @C5Quest, I've just updated the starting setups at FinWhispering.com by supplying two setups for a couple of popular sizes—one I've headlined as "Nimble," the other as "More Supportive." Just like the standard fin, one setup will never be a silver bullet for all skiers. If you are light for the ski, or if you are a finesse skier, the nimble setup will be the best place to start. If you tend to force the tail around onside turns with your back leg, or if your tip engagement tends to be more yawed than pitched, then the more supportive setup will be a better starting point. If you start with the nimble setup, and find the tail feels a bit slippery, go straight to the more supportive setup and tune from there. This binding-forward small-fin concept ups the ultimate performance of the ski. But taking advantage of this expanded performance envelope requires more finesse than a standard fin. Think "riding the ski" vs. "forcing the ski." An F1 car is more nimble than a stock car, and even the best stock car driver will need to adapt to how little "horsing" the F1 car will tolerate before he stops spinning and starts carving turns at higher limits.
  12. Yes-ish @Anthony Furmanovich I have fins for all brands of skis in stock now. Blue Radar fins are backordered for about 10 more days, but I have bronze fins for the Radar and both colors for all other skis in stock now. Have a great trip!
  13. @C5Quest, The furthest forward I've seen bindings on a 66" Vapor is 29.75". But like you said, it's a very personal thing. If you move further forward than that and can still get crisp tight turns by reducing fin area without the tail getting too slippery at the finish of turns, then you have a setup worth considering. If you can run your best passes with it, then it's a winner. DFT isn't a measurement I worry much about. I'm more focused on how DFT affects the fin's leading edge location (LE), which is a function of FL + DFT. So to answer your question, the longest DFT's I see are on very shallow fins for light kids or VERY smooth adults. Example: A good LE on a 66" Vapor is between 7.690 and 7.710. If the fin is shallow, say 2.460, matching the index marks will give you a FL of about 5.710. Since LE = FL + DFT, then DFT= LE - FL. In this case: DFT = 7.710 - 5.710 or DFT = 2.0". I think 1.960" is the longest DFT I've seen on a 66" Vapor so far.
  14. WhisperFin Success Story: Yesterday, 15 year old Sophie Hunter, set two PBs in her first two sets on her new WhisperFin. In her first set, she ran 3 buoys -22@34 mph. Her next set she ran 5 balls at -28@34 mph, twice back-to-back. That is nearly a two full pass improvement in one day! Congratulations Sophie!
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