GS Back to 30m Skis

GS Back to 30m Skis

Postby jbotti » Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:57 pm

So in an interview this week FIS Chief Race Director Markus Waldner disclosed that the FIS will tighten the radius on GS sis for the start of the 2017 season. I, among many on this site, was appalled when they went to 35m skis. Having said that, I actually think that Ted along with Heads R&D team have moved the sport forward on 35m skis. I think its fair to say that the vast majority of WC racers are not skiing their best on 35m skis. But the top 4-5 guys are doing things on 35m skis that we had never seen before. If you go back and look at GS in the early 2000s when they were still on 21m skis, you did not see anywhere near the angles that guys have been forced to get with the 35m skis. So these 5 or so guys have absolutely taken the sport to a new level.

I think we should probably all view this as a good step and one that will make a larger part of the field be able to arc a lot more of the gates.

Here is part of the interview:

The giant slalom ski regulations have been discussed a lot. Where are we on that topic?
We had couple of meetings about the new ski regulation for giant slalom skis. We had to collect all the data, both from the original research from Salzburg and from the Trauma Center in Norway, to evaluate the feedback from athletes, teams and SRS. Fact is, there has been an evolution and the 35 meter radius skis are not working anymore – not only on the World Cup, but especially on the lower level. Things are going in the right direction now, the main stakeholders are in favor of a change. For the first time, the ski brands are on the same page, and a significant majority of the athletes – 90 percent according to a survey of the athletes’ commission – agree to the proposal to go back to 30 meters from Soelden 2017 on. One of the only barriers to this proposal is the timing of the change. Some would like to make the change in the season after the Olympics.
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Re: GS Back to 30m Skis

Postby jbotti » Wed Jun 08, 2016 3:57 pm

[quote="jbotti" If you go back and look at GS in the early 2000s when they were still on 21m skis, you did not see anywhere near the angles that guys have been forced to get with the 35m skis. So these 5 or so guys have absolutely taken the sport to a new level.

[/quote]

What I said isn't really correct. Guys were getting very high edge angles but because the skis had so much more sidecut they did not need them (super high edge angles) nearly as often. This morning I watched a video from Adelboden from 2006 of Benni Raich (not sure what they were on in 2006 but it was before the move to 35m skis) and compared it to Hircsher from 2012. In that middle section just before the huge steep near the end, Hirscher is full bore hip on snow on every turn and Benni looks like he is cruising.
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Re: GS Back to 30m Skis

Postby theorist » Thu Jun 09, 2016 12:59 pm

Great news. So they're not quite going back to where they were before the last change, which was 27 m for men's GS, but close (and the improvement in ski technology could well make up for any difference between 27 and 30). Just read the article you quoted and noticed he didn't mention anything about the changing the women's GS radius, which is currently at 30 m, but one would expect that would go down as well. Also curious what they're going to do with the length requirements. When they increased the men's min. GS radius to 35, they also increased the men's min. GS length from 185 to 195.

Interestingly, before the change, Ligety didn't go for the 27 m minimum, instead racing GS on 29 m, 191 cm.
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Re: GS Back to 30m Skis

Postby HeluvaSkier » Mon Oct 10, 2016 8:08 pm

Does anyone else feel it is a huge mistake to not change the women's radius with this change? This will make the dimensions of men's and women's skis the same - aside from length, which puts the women at a major relative disadvantage. If anyone remembers comparing the old 27m skis you will understand what I mean. The 182-5cm 27m skis sucked compared with the 188-91cm 27m skis, even when the longer skis had a 28m and 29m radii. The extra edge on the snow gave the skier more leverage to bend the front of the ski, which is even more effective when you have a wide tip. My bet is the men's skis are faster and easier to ski than the women's.
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