Rocker skis

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Rocker skis are alpine skis that have a negative tension. While a ski with positive camber (also called camber ) rests unloaded at the tip and tail, i.e. at two contact points, on a flat surface, a rocker touches it in the middle of the ski under the binding .

history

After freeriders noticed that skis with negative camber were easier to ski in deep snow, the first rockers especially for off-piste areas (Volant Spatula) came onto the market in 2001 . There were also advantages for skiing on the halfpipe , so that there were subsequently models for freeskiing . The simpler turn initiation due to the shorter effective edge length led to considerations to also use the technology for piste skis. As a result, elements of the rocker construction were also introduced in many models for the slopes from 2010.

Types

  • Full rockers occur in the freeride segment and on park and pipe skis. In such models, the shovel and tip are bent up and the effective edge length on a flat slope is short. They are also called tip & tail rockers .
  • Tip rockers are only bent up in the area in front of the binding. With freeride skis, this can begin directly in front of the binding or - with some piste skis - it can only be an extended shovel bend. Sometimes the rocker percentage is given in relation to the camber length (10:90, 20:80, etc.).

Advantages and disadvantages

  • In deep snow , the bend - several centimeters in some freeride models - means that the shovel floats better and the ski tips protrude from the snow without a backrest.
  • the same advantage exists with fresh snow on groomed slopes and with sulz snow .
  • The shorter effective edge length makes it easier to initiate turns on a level slope, both when carving and when doing parallel turns .
  • Since the ski is edged up and bent when carving, the entire edge length is still available in the curve, so that full edge grip is guaranteed.
  • When driving straight ahead, on the other hand, the lying edge is shorter, so that the edge grip is worse than with camber skis of the same length .
  • the freely oscillating mass in front of the front contact point is larger than with classic camber skis, which means that the rocker skis vibrate more strongly on hard slopes and at higher speeds. Attempts are made to counteract this with more damping or lighter materials (e.g. paulownia wood) and construction methods (honeycomb structure) in the shovel. This in turn can affect the liveliness.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. C. Busse, A. Mühlauer: When it should rock on the mountain , Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 23, 2010.