Not exactly J-Hole, but.....

[Gary]

Jim, I think the 1/3 is fine for skiing hard pack..hard charging railed turns....nice.....B UT...as all mountain skiers who ski the soft snow, jump into bumps, powder, crud and the perfectly groomed carpet...the 1/2 allows an easier feel to feather in the edges without the ski biting.

It's also how sensitive you desire to have foot and ankle pressure underfoot. More sensitive requires tons of more accuracy and attention to what's happening below the toes.

Having the right edge is certainly an important factor. As important and something I certainly work on is focusing on creating high edge angles with good foot work and counter...upper body lower body separation for certain kinds of snow conditions. My point is focus on improving the skills that create strong edge hold on hard and soft snow. The 1/3 edge certainly will create the feeling of edges biting but may be limiting in overall performance in varied snow and maybe taking the focus away from relying on improving edging skills.

Just one mans opinion,
G

[jim-ratliff]

Rich Messer highly recommended the Viking ski shop in Winter Park for tuning, so I took my problematic SuperShape Magnums in.  Rich says he mostly tunes his own, but takes them into this shop periodically just to get a really good starting point for tuning. My Magnums hadn't really beem bothering me much on the soft snow at Sol Vista, but was still curious what was really going on.

The guy took one look at them and almost vomited.  Said that they had been belt sanded (a no-no that leaves fuzzy hairy base), that the base bevel hadn't been restored after the belt sanding, and wasn't quite sure what the side bevel was (even though he had a little electronic gizmo that showed what the bevel was).  Reading was different on different parts of the skis.

Bottom line, I had both my and Lynn's skis redone.  Felt much better the next day at camp.  More consistent and better glide.
Highly recommend Bob at the little tuning shop next to the Viking ski shop in Winter Park (about two blocks south of McDonalds).