Rockered Skis Pros and Cons

[Quadzilla]

Just for sake of simplicity my comments and opinions are for the Backcountry environment. Others can comment on resort environment if they want.

I am sure there are lots still looking for ski gear for the coming season and maybe scratching their heads regarding rockered skis, percentage of rocker, tip and tail rocker, profiles, rocker plus camber and blah blah blah. So is it just another gimmick to create sales and hype or is it a break through?

My call is this, Skis with tip and maybe some tail rocker is a huge benefit for the BC skier especially if the ski is also light and has some girth. Rockered skis ride with the tips up so the ski is less apt to catch and hit buried obstacles flinging the rider "over the bars". Rockered skis break up crust and are less apt to get deflected by crust and heavy snow and rockered skis plane up faster and a wide rockered skis planes at a lower slope angle as they stay on top of the snow. Rockered skis climb better as they ride up on top of the snow and less apt to auger in. Rockered skis kick turn better as the up rise of the tip is easier to kick up and over snow burm on the switchback. Anyway, IMO, these are serious considerations when getting gear regardless of fixed or free heel. You end up with a safer setup, easier to ski rank snow and just plain fun.

What Do You Think?


Black Diamond Convert skis, plenty of tiprocker, tips up mowing Sierra Crust

[Quadzilla]

Just for sake of simplicity my comments and opinions are for the Backcountry environment. Others can comment on resort environment if they want.

I am sure there are lots still looking for ski gear for the coming season and maybe scratching their heads regarding rockered skis, percentage of rocker, tip and tail rocker, profiles, rocker plus camber and blah blah blah. So is it just another gimmick to create sales and hype or is it a break through?

My call is this, Skis with tip and maybe some tail rocker is a huge benefit for the BC skier especially if the ski is also light and has some girth. Rockered skis ride with the tips up so the ski is less apt to catch and hit buried obstacles flinging the rider "over the bars". Rockered skis break up crust and are less apt to get deflected by crust and heavy snow and rockered skis plane up faster and a wide rockered skis planes at a lower slope angle as they stay on top of the snow. Rockered skis climb better as they ride up on top of the snow and less apt to auger in. Rockered skis kick turn better as the up rise of the tip is easier to kick up and over snow burm on the switchback. Anyway, IMO, these are serious considerations when getting gear regardless of fixed or free heel. You end up with a safer setup, easier to ski rank snow and just plain fun.

What Do You Think?


Black Diamond Convert skis, plenty of tiprocker, tips up mowing Sierra Crust
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Voile Vector BC skis, waxless tip rockered skis also mowing heavy snow


Oops sorry, meant to put all on one post. Quad

[mo pow]

The first rockered skis I used in powder were the K2 Coomback's. Definitely not a gimmick, just grins.

[Baaahb]

Are all rockered skis truly rockered (reverse camber) or do some just have a soft spot that allows the tip to flex significantly more than the rest of the ski? Either way, it seems to be a significant technological improvement, though I'm still waiting for Santa to get me a pair. Or the Easter Bunny, I'm not picky when it comes to gift-bearing idols. Better yet, the Great Pumpkin.

[NoPin]

It seems that reverse-camber, rocker, early-rise tip/tail are terms that are used to mean different things by different people.
How about if we agree in the following, just so we're all on the same page:

[James]

You can have tip rocker, full rocker or reverse camber which is very rare. Some people use the term full rockered the way you did (Baaahb) and then call skis with tip and tail rocker and some camber tip and tail rocker If a ski just has a soft tip but normal camber the full length of the ski then it would not be called rockered. The whole point of rockered skis was so you did not have to soften up the tip to get it to float.

Bottom line as Cesare says rockered skis are a game changer especially for the use Quad mentions. I am not a fan of 90ish waist all mountain skis with a small amount of rocker or what I call marketing rocker.

[cesare]

Thanks James. I like to say that the thing about rocker that changes the game is that they allow you to go sideways in deep snow. After we spent how many years telling people to carve their skis on hard snow and employing skis that skied powder best by staying in that carved turn shape, now we have skis that allow us to do that (with the lightest of touch) but also to use the ability to go sideways to exercise more precise speed and turn shape control. So that tight line in the trees that you used to bail on when you got to the crux turn??? Now you can set up for that turn by slowing down with little effort before you get there, enter it at just the right speed, and keep on going. Now you can ski that line. And sometimes, when it's steep, you can throw up a wave of snow in front of you and ski through it on the next turn, thus generating your own face shots.

Narrowest ski I will buy any more is rockered at least in the tip and wider than 100mm under foot.

Oh... and one thing I want to add is tip rocker only skis tend in most cases to be stiffer and more aggressive skis with a long radius. Love em!

[tele.skier]

rockered tips promote unweighting in 3 dimensional snow...

unweighting eventually promotes.... weighting

weighting promotes the flexing of the ski into an arc

which makes the ski turn when the skier angulates....

[chamonix]

Quadzilla wrote

Rockered skis break up crust and are less apt to get deflected by crust and heavy snow and rockered skis plane up faster and a wide rockered skis planes at a lower slope angle as they stay on top of the snow. Rockered skis climb better as they ride up on top of the snow and less apt to auger in.

Remember a lot of these "benefits" are also occurring because our modern skis are wider. I am not skiing Mt Bakers, or Rapid Transits in the backcountry any more. So wider tips, wider waist has a lot to do with letting you safely ski manky, early season snow. I know back East now, I will ski earlier in the woods, on less snow because these 108 Manhattan or 111 BD Justice waist skis just float up on less snow.
Rockered tails, not so sure. Fun at the resort, but in the backcountry I like a straight tail, for easier kick turns, and just sticking the tails in the snow, holding skins, more edge for an icy traverse. IMHO
G3 Tonics, NT Bulldogs. Nunataq, Vertical ST. rockered tips

[chamonix]

Of course, if the snow is deep enough..rocker may not matter.
Louis, BD Justice On my tonics

[Quadzilla]

Cesare, makes a good point. Go to the home page and relook at the "Beans & Rice Freeride Vid and watch those guys bleed off speed by smearing. Of course one could say, "well they are pros blah blah blah" but IMO, there are plenty of skiers here who could ski that terrain on the skis the guys were on and own it. (without the pillows and jumps)

More comments and opinions are welcome. How about some cons like they suck on hard pack or Spring snow et et..........

[Dostie]

Too much of anything is too much. Plenty of skis out there that are too wide, too much rocker, too much camber, etcetera. Moderation is the key IMO. Rocker in the tip, when done right, ROCKS! Rocker in the tail is almost always too much IMO. Just a little is enough there. Too much tail rocker and you can't jam your skis in the snow (together) without 'em spreading apart. Nor can you stuff your tails on a switchback. Those two features render the tail rocker of most skis to be too much for backcountry. And as someone else (Cham?) pointed out, too much tail rocker prevents holding a solid edge on hardpack. And I disagree with Ceasare (and many others here) that anything less than 100mm is too narrow. For me, anything wider than 100mm is too wide. Obviously we agree to disagree.

[cesare]

We definitely agree about tail rocker.

[Quadzilla]

I don't think anybody said that under 100 is too narrow. I guess it depends on wither the ski is the only ski in your quiver, conditions and maybe skier physical size. My BC quiver, the stuff I use to climb and ski and not hacking around. is 96 and 115. I use the 96 when there is a solid base and something on top of the base like shallow powder, redeposited snow, corn and Spring snow. I use my 115 when the base is unconsolidated and when there is more than a few inches of fresh. My 96's are edgy and quick my 115's are surfy and loose riding. Both are fun.

Also ski my 96 Fishscales a fair amount on rolling terrain and less aggressive tours. However, they can ski all the terrain around here but are slower and more tentative.

All these skis are rockered tips and slight rockered tails.

[cesare]

I said it, but it's only my personal preference due to how and where I like to ski. Not saying it's bad or wrong, I just don't want any ski narrower than 100mm. I have those skis in my quiver already and I only take them out for special occasions like Corn Harvest or WROD.