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sharpening edges for icy conditions

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Kevin Brooker
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sharpening edges for icy conditions

Postby Kevin Brooker » Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:21 pm

I just had a great session on a frozen lake. Flat ice with a layer of firm styro-snow adhered. There were patches of ice I needed to cross which were interesting. The edges on my skis are set at a 1 degree base and 2 degree edges. This held okay but the ice was a bit textured and they tended to slide a bit on hard water ice. I can accept part of the problem is the short circuit between the kite and the surface (aka, me) but I am curious if anyone has found an optimal edge configuration which works well on ice.

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Hardwater Kiter
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Re: sharpening edges for icy conditions

Postby Hardwater Kiter » Thu Jan 05, 2017 6:26 pm

Kevin, what skis are you using and are they going to be used solely on the kite?

Tune is going to depend on use. I tune for ice and my tunes will not treat you well on the hill. I could go into great detail and get mired down in technical stuff but the reality is if you are not looking to get uber high performance and just want something of an all round tune for the kite just run a 2deg side and o deg (flat) base edge with minimal or no detune. It will afford you a good solid edge in most conditions without being too hooky. And will last a long time.

Performance of an edge on ice relies on much more than tune specs. Ski type and boot flex are critical considerations as well. You can have the best edge in the world but if your boot isn't stiff enough to drive it, you won;t see the benefit especially in conditions as shown in the supplied pic.

Image


Which lake were you at?

Kevin Brooker
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Re: sharpening edges for icy conditions

Postby Kevin Brooker » Thu Jan 05, 2017 11:28 pm

The skis are dedicated kite boards. They are an older pair of Tua Monte tele boards driven by a pair of Scarpa T2s. These have minimal sidecut. The tele boots won't be as laterally or even longitudinally as stiff as some form of alpine boot. If the ice is like in the pictures I'll drive the DN60 and keep the kites in the bag. I have no alpine gear at all so I was hoping to get the skis in some sort of kiting sweet spot and just accept the compromises of tele gear. I'm saving cash for a new kite so spending it on skis will prevent me from entering the 2010s decade of kite technology.

Thanks for the advice. I did sharpen the Tuas along the entire length. The skis are a bit played out and soft which might also add to the chatter. The specific tune info sounds interesting.

More time on skis under a kite will help too. As the session went on my kite skills were returning to more intuative so I was able to concentrate more on skiing.

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Hardwater Kiter
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Re: sharpening edges for icy conditions

Postby Hardwater Kiter » Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:14 am

Tele on styro is pretty straight forward but the T2 is going to make things a bit tricky. Stiff springs can offset the soft boot but Molly and I run T-Races and they will actually get you some amount of bite on glass. Especially if you go 3deg side and no detune.

Kevin Brooker
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Re: sharpening edges for icy conditions

Postby Kevin Brooker » Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:21 am

I'll add another degree to the edge, crank down the bindings and see what happens. Thanks again for the advice.


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