A highly touted new ski design a/ms to help you get religion. Known as “super-sidecut,” “parabolic” or “hourglass” skis, they are calculated to make the sport easier for everyone from beginners to experts. Novices progress more quickly. So-called “terminal intermediate” skiers can abandon their sliding, skidding turns and finally learn to use their ski-edges to carve. Experts can have their fun with considerably less physical effort. “We figure in tWO or three years there’s a good chance that conventional skis as you see them now will be in museums,” says. Bin Irwin of Elan, maker of the most radical hourglass design, the SCX. Manufacturers are given to boasting. But ski schools and consumer magazines are also raving, and resorts are buying hundreds of pairs at a time, hoping that easier learning and happier carving’ will help skiing put more financial altitude into what since 1978 has been an expanse of flat years. “It’s the biggest breakthrough .in skiing since the ’70s .with plastic boots and metal skis,” says Mike Porter, director of the Vail and Beaver Creek ski schools in Colorado. “It’s sort of like what Prince [oversize] rackets did for tennis.”
The super-sidecuts, now offered or planned by virtually every ski builder, differ from other skis primarily in their shape. All skis are wider at the tips and tails than underfoot. The amount of taper is called sidecut, and it is sidecut that helps a ski turn. If skis were straight, .they’d go straight–a bad idea, as anyone who’s found himself wrapped around a picnic table on the base-lodge sun deck can tell you. Super-sidecut skis are shorter, and curve far more radically from tip to center to tail than regular skis. The physics are complicated, but basically, more sidecut equals easier turning. The skier doesn’t need to physically “steer” as much–when tilted up on edge, the ski turns itself.
Vail is one of nearly 80 mountains whose ski schools will use the SCX parabolic to teach the sport this year, making things easier for students and alike, says Porter. “People can really feel [techniques like] changing an edge,” with a super-sidecut. “It’s not ‘Did I do it right?’ looking at an instructor. The teaching’s gone more toward telling them ‘Tip the ski up,’ and then the student gets a big grin on their face.” That immediate, physical feedback helps all levels of skiers improve their technique. But for Porter, the bottom line is fun. “Mechanically you can ski much better, but the big thing is the sensation. It’s a gas. It just blows you away,” he says. (NEWSWEEK testing confirms this.)
The super-sidecuts can take a !it-tie getting used to, however. “The two types of skiers who notice the difference right away are beginners and experts,” says Paul Brown, director of skiing at Vermont’s Sugarbush resort. Intermediates tend to dislike the skis until they learn to put them on edge. With a little coaching, says Brown, “light bulbs go off.” Other super-sidecut drawbacks can include lesser holding power on steep, icy runs. And some skiers find the fatter tips and tails cumbersome in moguls. But for cruising on soft, groomed snow or blasting though crud, their reputation is sterling.
Still, there are skeptics. The skis are brand new and–let’s face it–they look funny. (“They ski great. Just don’t look down, or you’ll giggle and fall over,” said one instructor trying them out at Stratton in Vermont last week.) Also, macho types might see them as snowborne training wheels. Elan says the SCX parabolic is its fastest-selling ski ever. Head calls sales of its new super-sidecut Cyber models “unbelievable.” But much of the volume is sales to rental shops and ski schools. Whether the everyday ski-er-on-the-slope will plunk down around $500 for what looks like a pair of outsize Q-Tips remains to be seen. Retailer reports range from lukewarm to ecstatic, but converts say that to try them is to buy them. “All people have to do is take a ride on these things,” says Brown. “So what if they look goofy–it feels cool.” And as any longtime skier can tell you, it’s all about that feeling.
Super-sidecuts make skiing easier by demanding less energy to make clean turns.
With regular skis, skiers must shift their feet and legs to turn, which can cause sliding.
A regular skier must also move up and down to create turns. With the new skis, the skier can maintain a more level position.
To turn, a skier on super-sidecuts merely shofts pressure from one side of the boot to the other, rolling the ski on the edge.
On the left, a new super-sidecut ski. On the right, the traditional design.
Fatter ends and thin middles allow for a smaller turning radius, making it easier to execute tight turns.
Because the middles of the skis are more flexible, a skier’s body weight is enough to bend a super-sidecut ski. That allows the ski’s entire edge to connect with the snow, creating a clean, or carved, turn. Regular skis demand more pressure and exertion to bend the ski and make a clean are in the snow.
