Rocker Primer

I'm talking ski rocker here, not heavy metal rocker, although I have recently seen mötley  Crüe  in concert. I'm planning on writing about some of next year's skis that I've been testing. I like skis that are versatile enough to ski the resort in the morning and then do some touring in the afternoon, so these will be my primary focus. In order to better understand some of the technology in these skis I put together this little primer on rocker. I've noticed that many people are a bit confused by it. Rocker is essentially a bending of the ski in fore-body and sometimes the tail. If you hold a pair of rockered skis together at the waist, the tips will be splayed apart. We used to throw away skis that were bent like that, but now it's done on purpose. Interesting. Anyway, I'm a big fan of rocker, which is sometimes called "early rise" or reverse camber, depending on the manufacturer. The idea is that with tip rocker you can ski a more aggressive position in powder or difficult snow conditions, pressuring the front of the ski like you would on hard snow. The rocker makes it difficult for the tips to dive, and you can ski more efficiently without having to worry about keeping wait back on the tails. With rocker in the tail of the ski, you get an effortless pivoting ability in soft snow and crud that is very confidence inspiring. The only downside is that by shortening the distance between the contact points of the ski, you are reducing edge length and this can make the ski feel squirrelly or even downright terrifying on harder snow. The trick is to get the right amount of rocker, both in the height of the bend and length of the bend, for the type of skiing you want to do. If, for instance, you plan on using the ski only for stepping out the door of a helicopter in Alaska, then you want all the rocker you can get. If you are looking for versatility in an Eastern ski, then the situation is a little more delicate. Too much height in the bend makes it more difficult to initiate a turn on hard snow. It effectively removes much of the ski's sidecut and requires strong pressure on the front of the boot to get the turn started. Kind of like a GS ski from the late 80's. Too much length in the bend and there just isn't enough edge contact for the ski to feel stable on hard snow. But if you get it just right, everything comes together and you get outstanding soft snow performance and surprisingly good hard snow performance. I think many manufacturers have gotten this combination dialed for 2010 so we should have plenty of good skis to choose from. The photo is of a 2009 Salomon Czar, which for comparison sake has a lot of rocker.