Message #682

[Brendan]

Hi,

I am a competent skier and have surfed all over the world (including the big waves of Hawaii).  Powder skiing and surfing are very similar - much more so than hardpack skiing.  In fact skiing on hardpack is nothing like surfing.  The powder has characteristics that behave like riding a surfboard on water.  All surfboards are reverse cambered  - we don't call it that - we call it rocker (the banana shape from nose to tail).   The rocker in a surfboard is massively critical to the entire design - it is not there just so the board won't plough tip first below the water.  Surfboard shapers have playing with rocker - lines for over 40 years and this one aspect alone will completely change the board's behaviour. The rocker is absolutely critical to how the board will respond to the medium of the water as well as the wave.  So even though I have never tried a reverse camber ski, it makes a lot of sense.

Brendan