I had some assistance from the ever-helpful Jim R. over the past few months, about binding placement for my wife's Supershape Speeds (you can read some details here:?
http://skiforums.org/rev2/index.php?topic=1305.0Some background on this:? as I'm sure you know, the ski companies are mounting bindings on women's skis farther forward than for unisex skis.? This has to do with women's anatomy and weight distribution, lower center of gravity, etc..? At the beginning of last season my wife got some new Supershape Speeds, which of course is not a women's-specific ski.? The shop wasn't too clued in on optimum binding placement for women, so they mounted the Freeflex bindings in the factory position, center of boot sole to center mark on the ski.? Thinking that this could be improved upon, I got some advice from Jim, Lou on Epic, and I also recently contacted Head Canada's racing support expert.? All advised moving the binding forward, and in fact, Head is mounting the binding on their women's Power One ski (which is exactly the same ski as the Supershape Speed, but with a different graphic) forward by 1 cm.? So we figured if Head is doing this to that ski, so should we.
Now, I must say that my wife loved the skis
before the binding position changed -- she found them fast, stable, smooth, and reasonably easy to turn.? However, changing turn shape in mid-turn was not easy, turn initiation was OK, finishing turns took a bit of effort, and they were not very agile.? They were fantastic for long, open, well-groomed runs, but were a lot of work for narrow runs, bumps, crowded runs, or when skiing with our kids, when some agility is often needed.? Not the most versatile, in other words.? Initially we put this down to them being a GS-type high performance ski -- the nature of the beast, so to speak -- but then thought we could improve things with the binding change.?
So, a couple of weeks ago I moved the bindings on my wife's skis forward by 2 cm, close to the BOF-CRS position, and they now feel like almost a completely different ski.? But improved in every way.? She's had four days on them now (in bumps, badly clumped up snow, and smoothly groomed fresh snow) and is absolutely delighted with the change.? If she loved 'em before, she's over the moon now.? Here are her comments:
Agility -- far more agile and responsive;
much easier to make short, quick turns, but no loss of performance for medium or long fast GS turns
Changing turn shape in mid-turn -- much improved; this was not easy before, but is a breeze now; this has helped tremendously in bumps and badly clumped up snow, where you have to be pretty adaptable and change your line often
Turn initiation -- this is probably the biggest and most noticeable improvement; she finds it far easier to start a turn and get the tips to engage -- just thinks about it and it happens
Turn completion -- far easier and less effort to come out of a turn and transition to the next one, esp. at high speeds; makes the skis more responsive
Control and balance -- much improved; and unfortunately this also equals higher speeds (as if she wasn't fast enough before
)
Bottom line -- this was well worth doing, and highly recommended for any women who are skiing on unisex skis and have the bindings mounted in the standard position.? To my eye, the improvement in my wife's skiing is very noticeable.
Hope this is helpful to someone...
BR,
Svend
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