Ever wonder what sets a flat ski apart from a regular one?
Well, aside from the obvious fact that a flat ski is designed to travel faster and flatter, it also has a couple of other distinguishing features.
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Straight Style
Most importantly, a flat ski is styled in a way that makes it look like it was designed to curve from the beginning. In other words, flat skis are usually longer than they are wide, and the proportion of length to width is more or less the same throughout.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that snow sports enthusiasts prefer fast, straight rides. As a result, most skis found at ski resorts are shaped in a way that encourages you to go fast and straight.
Tapered Shape
Another important factor that distinguishes a flat ski from a regular one is its taper. A tapered ski is narrower at the tip than it is at the base, with the proportion of width to length gradually diminishing as you get closer to the top.
This is a holdover from the days when snowboards weren’t as easy to master as they are now, and enthusiasts needed something to keep their balance while carving.
Rocker Design
A rocker ski has a shape that is somewhere between a traditional ski and a flat ski, and it was first manufactured and sold by the French company Lesher under the name Bonjoro 20 in 1975. Essentially, a rocker ski is designed to give the user more stability and control while skiing because it has a concave shape.
Its tapered design makes it ideal for carving turns because the narrower the profile, the faster it will go. One of the most notable rocker skis is the Bonjoro 20X that was designed to be the ultimate ski-in/ski-out weapon. This model features an extra-wide nose that makes it ideal for entering and exiting resort terrain with minimal effort.
So if you’re looking for a high-performance ski that will enable you to take on the slopes in style, check out some of these rocker skis.
Alpine Style
When it comes to shape, most people think about vertical displacement when they consider an alpine ski. This is understandable since the vast majority of ski-in/ski-out terrain is found in the mountainous regions of the world where the snow is found to be at its most stable in the winter. As a result, most alpine skis are designed with a relatively small base that tapers to a point at the tip. This is the opposite of a flat ski, which has a larger base.
The smaller the base, the faster it will go due to the fact that the snow will stay on the ground for longer. This results in a lot of fun for advanced skiers and snowboarders who love to shred. The smaller the base, the faster the ski will travel. The more taper, the faster it will go. For those who seek speed, the smaller the base, the better.
The opposite of an alpine ski shape is an intermediate shape, which is relatively broad and more stable than a vertical ski but narrower and quicker than a flat one. In other words, it’s somewhere between the two.