BallOfSpray

Rini: My Grampa, Mom and Aunt all skied so I first skied at my Aunt’s house like just about every Canadian does in the summer. My brother, Dan, and I used to spend a lot of our summer vacation with my Grandparents, and there was a ski club right by their house so we both joined. We used to spend all day hanging out and skiing…we didn’t know any better so we would ski as many times as our name came up in the rotation some days it was 9 or 10 times.

 

Horton: By your mid twenties you had a few Canadian National titles and were a member of the Canadian world team. How did you go from national champ to world class coach and ski designer?

 

Rini: I skied with Mike Ferraro for a lot of years. His way of coaching always made me think and question the usual coaching I heard everywhere else at the time. He would always ask me to coach him or coach the kids at his school. When I hit my twenties and couldn’t make enough money skiing, coaching was a natural transition for me. My passion for ski design came from Mike as well. He always worked for Herb. When I opened my own school, I used HO gear so whenever something new came out Mike, Drew and Wade would ask me my opinion. From there he hired me and I have been working for Herb ever since….well, of course, Sully is my real boss!

 

Horton: How would you describe your coaching philosophy?

 

Rini: I have this evolving blue print in my head, and I am forever trying to refine and simplify the method I use to get people there. Although I may have a picture in my head, I do not try to fit everyone in the same box. I take what people do well and try to balance out their weaknesses.     

 

Horton: You have a reputation for coaching kids. What advice do you have for parent coaches?

 

Rini: Have fun with your kids and tell them how awesome they are ALL the time! Never sacrifice the basics or the big picture of their development for a tournament. Keep them working hard on their physical literacy…running, jumping, catching, balance; anything that makes them a better athlete, in the long run, will make them a better skier.  

 

Horton: You work for one of the God Fathers of modern water skis, Herb O’Brien. Do you have a favorite Herb O’Brien story?

 

Rini: My favorite story about Herb is his life story. He has so much passion for water skiing and has directly or indirectly influenced just about every product we enjoy today. Not many people can say that! I have mad respect for Herb.

 

Horton: It is no secret that everyone at Radar is very excited about the new ski. How long did it take to develop the Strada?

 

Rini: Yes, we are all very pumped about Strada. I took us about 16 months once it was game on, and we tossed around a bunch of ideas before we got started so it was really longer then that.

 

Horton: Besides yourself, who are the key members of the Radar test team?

 

Rini: The test team: Rossi, Sully, Eddie, Me

 

Horton: When starting to design a ski from scratch, what is the first step?

 

Rini: First step with a new ski is the sidecut.

 

Horton: What were the original design goals of the Strada?

 

Rini: We wanted a ski that was fast, stable and rides balanced on both sides of the course. We wanted to create a ski that Rossi could run 41 on, Whitney could run 39 on and also everyone who demoed it from a shop would not only feel comfortable on it but shred right away. This is obviously both ends of the spectrum, but we really have built a ski that satisfies every level of skier. This is regardless of both boat speed or ability level.

 

Horton: Back when I was doing the Ski Tests, I found that a lot of skiers are obsessed about how fast a ski is. I believe the speed can mean different things to different skiers. What does speed mean to you?

 

Rini: Speed to me is how easy the ski gets side-to-side, how early it makes you for the next ball and how well it maintains speed after the edge change. This is where the confusion begins. It’s achieved two different ways… 1) make the ski ride higher in the water or 2) make it track across the course better. The latter is better for skiing in the course. The former is perception of speed that may not be of benefit to the rider.

 

Horton: How do you make a ski faster or slower?

 

Rini: There are several ways to change the speed of a ski. Bevel size, thickness and side cut are probably the biggest factors. 

 

Horton: What are the compromises or trade offs of making a ski faster?

 

Rini: The biggest factors are stability and feel for the water. Compromising stability and feel for speed is not a good trade in my opinion.

 

Horton: How do you rate the speed of the Strada?

 

Rini: I feel, the Strada is the perfect blend of speed and stability. You do not have to work hard to be early in the course and even when you make abrupt moves it rolls from edge to edge silky smooth.

 

Horton: I understand that you have uniquely designed the shape of the bottom of the Strada to channel water more evenly and increase stability. Can you explain how this works?

 

Rini: It’s called our 5-Speed Bevel. We have 5 radii (the standard ski has 3 radii) in our forebody bevel creating a hybrid style rail. The 5 radii (similar to having 2 flat spots in the bevel) in the front of the ski give us a hybrid design between having a tunnel and a concave configuration. We know that tunnel skis are easier to turn on the off side because the width of the water flowing under foot on a tunnel ski is consistent, allowing for a sturdy platform and tip “pull” into the water. On the other hand, a concave ski is easier to turn on the good side because you naturally use your back foot more, allowing the skier to predominantly use the back of the ski. We figured out where you want the water to break for a primo good side…then matched that water-break with equal width in the front of the ski. This gave us the second set of radii in the front of the ski. The extra dimension to the bevel was not our target. It was creating the ski that would turn the best on both sides of the course. The result was our new bevel design. The front half of the ski is based on where you naturally stand on your off side, and the back half of the ski is where you naturally stand on your good side.

 

Horton: For the last few years, the trend has been to make skis wider. Did you experiment with many widths before settling on the final version of the Strada?

 

Rini: In some of our early tests, we widened the tip but none of us liked it. Early on, we knew we want straighter cleaner lines…we have talked about this for years, running straighter lines to the tip and tail from the widest point. At its widest point, the Strada is no wider than the RS-1… BUT we managed to add over 7 Sq. inches of surface area to the ski by using a slower taper to tip and tail. Besides making the ski faster, it makes the ski easier to stand on when it’s on edge and widens the sweet spot because there’s less belly with straighter lines.

 

Horton: How is the final version of the Strada better than a slightly wider version would be?

 

Rini: With a wider wide spot, you lose the feel of the water, and it’s harder to get as high an edge angle. We feel, for our high end ski, the width we settled on is perfect. 

 

Horton: Rocker, multi-stage with or without flat spots: what does is all mean, and what can you tell us about the rocker of the Strada?

 

Rini: Most of the skis being ridden today have a flatspot under foot. This is usually the focus of the rocker setup. From that point, fore and aft, there are a series of kinks to create platforms and to reach tail and tip height. We really considered hydrodynamics in this point of the ski and replaced them with tangent flowing arcs to speed up the ski and make transitions smoother when going from the front of the ski to the back of the ski . Waterflow is obviously crucial for a ski to function correctly and support can also be based on the way the lines in the bottom of the ski flow together. The rocker also affects the way the concave runs out in the front of the ski to the flat surface in the tip. This is the part we really concentrated on. Consider this… The full depth of concave is maximum amount of grip. The flat surface in the tip is the least amount of grip. If we control the blend of these two concepts, we get a graduated amount of support as the two blend together. What this means to the skier is that when you move forward on the front of the ski, your support will be smoothly increased as you get to the tip. This feature stops the ski from biting or having too much suction when you need to keep speed. Riding our ski with the tip engaged is like a longboarder hanging ten “toes on the nose”. You can get to the front and run with speed not stall out. It’s an amazing feeling. Plus, it’s a confidence mechanism for when you’re late and need to throw the ski out. There is less risk of the tip stopping forward progress and hucking you. You are less likely to stick the tip on our ski with this feature.    

 

Horton: Sharp bevels or round bevels - what is the difference?

 

Rini: Sharper bevels give the ski more grip and direction; this is usually the front of the ski. Rounder bevels slide a little more and edge change a little smoother but don’t set an edge as well or keep direction as well off the second wake. We run rounder in the back of the ski. It’s a great feeling on the Strada.

 

Horton: How sharp or round are the bevels on the Strada and why?

 

Rini: Short answer both… and then some. The Strada top and bottom bevels in the tail are only slightly rounder than on an RS-1, but we made the connection line between them bigger and rounder. We kept almost all the direction of the RS1 but with the bigger rounder middle part the ski rolls side to side much smoother and is WAY more forgiving when a skier makes an abrupt movement. The other cool thing that we did was make the front and back bevels closer in size…bigger in the back and smaller in the front. This also adds to the seamless water flow we were looking for when a skier moves around on the ski.

 

Horton: How would you describe the turn radius of the Strada?

 

Rini: The Strada allows you to turn it however you want. We didn’t want a ski that turns too hard and gets you back under the rope real fast and looses speed. I feel the Strada carves from the edge change, around the ball and right back to the wake. The cool thing is, if you are running straight into the ball and have to, you can push on it, and it turns a little quicker and keeps speed all the way through.

 

Horton: How does the Strada differ between “On Side” and “Off Side”?

 

Rini: Once you trust the ski (usually less than 6 passes on a Strada) the turns are the same. I have never ridden a ski that turns the off side so good without needing most of the ski in the water. The Strada lets you stand back further on your off side and still make a great turn. As a skier, you feel so much less vulnerable when you don’t have to move up onto the front to make a turn.

 

Horton: Are all sizes of the Strada scaled versions of each other or is each size a slight redesign?

 

Rini: Right now we have a 65, 66, 67, and 68. They have all been scaled from the 66 which we did first. 

 

Horton: Please explain scaling.

 

Rini: Scaling a ski means change is % based. As you change length, the width changes the same proportionately.

 

Horton: I presume the Strada is designed to be a high end shortline ski. Who will you be recommending the Strada to as opposed to the Annex, Senate or Theory?

 

Rini: Yes and no. We, of course set out to build a hi-end ski. But, I truly believe that this ski cannot be pigeonholed as the world record ski we built for Rossi and Whitney. I have not ever seen a hi-end ski demo so well on intermediate skiers or even free skiers. Our shape is so efficient that it makes it easy for anyone to ride. I’d hate for someone to miss out on riding the Strada because they think it’s “too good of a ski” for them. The Annex is the RS-1 mold with a polyurethane core. We know it went out on a high note last year with a World Championship and multiple professional victories. The shape is amazing. It’s just a different riding style. The Senate is also an amazing ski. Due to the amount of surface area it has, we don’t recommend riding it over 34 mph. Theory is another fun ride. We recommend that it be ridden at a max speed of 32. Two Tenths of an inch in width is the only difference between the Annex compared to the Senate, and another two tenths separate the Senate from the Theory.

 

Horton: I believe that most factories manage to find significant improvement every 3 to 5 years. Do you agree? If so, how is it that you know that much more then when you designed that last generation of skis?

 

Rini: I think our company makes significant improvements every 4 to 6, months but there is a financial limitation to testing and creating new products so I think that is why you only see them every 3-5 years. Rossi, Sully and I have very similar philosophies about technique so we’re constantly trying to design more efficient products that make your skiing easier. This is every part of your equipment. Plus, between Rossi and I, we watch a ton of skiers, we have a feel for what is needed at so many different levels of skiing.

 

Horton: In sports like auto racing, the equipment is always under development. Is a Radar slalom ski constantly in development?

Rini: Yes

 

Horton: It is not a secret that composite sporting goods do not last for ever. How often you do think a shortline skier should change skis?

 

Rini: It depends how much you ski…but I would say every year. Even though skis may flex the same numbers, they loose that new ski rebound over time.

 

Skimech from the BallOfSpray Forum asks: Has the Senate-C's design, flex and other characteristics changed from last year.

 

Rini: The Senate C only has a graphic change for 2010. The Senate mold is a widened version of the RS-1 with a round tail (same bevels and rocker). When we add the widt,h we leave the tunnel width the same and add the additional width in a rail on the outside of the concave. We created this 4 years ago and have found it very successful to balance the feel of the ski versus the amount of surface area you are riding. This gives the ski a little more support at the slower speeds but still allows the ski to roll over and reach the same edge angle as a narrower ski. We do the same with Theory and P-6 as well. 

           

davemac from the BallOfSpray Forum asks: 

 

I believe Matt does a lot of coaching with kids. I would be interested in hearing his thoughts on coaching kids. 

 

Rini: Kids are incredible to work with. I have learned a lot coaching my daughter, Paige. I taught her when she was learning how to move on two skis that she should shift her hips in the direction she wants to go. As she progressed to one ski, it was a natural way of moving. Once she started running the course, the buoy was the perfect cue of when to shift her weight to make the ski turn when she wanted to. Since the original concept was explained to her on two skis, I have never had to tell her anything about her turns other then a few little things about reaching and her head and shoulder position. It is really cool to see skiers now growing up with more efficient techniques to use from the beginning.

 

H2odawg79 from the BallOfSpray Forum asks: I'd really like to see Matt break down the wide ride characteristics. I have a Radar Theory and trying to find any help with set up and/or ski technique is just short of impossible. These ski's simply do not act or ski like skinnier racier ski's and some things that may apply to the typical high end ski fly right in the face of the wider higher riding slower (INT) mph ski's...

 

Rini: The way we widen our skis as they move down the line we try to make the characteristics stay as close to the high end ski as possible. The width is built into the ski to give the skier a bigger window at the ball when the speed is slower. I have lots of students who come and can’t comfortably run their fist pass but say they can’t go slower because they sink. The wider skis are designed to allow you to go slower and not sink. Now that being said yes the combination of the bigger ski and slower speed there is no way you are going to get turns like you can on a Strada @ 36 mph...nor should that be the goal of that level of skier. We put a drop through fin on the Theory to make slight adjustments forward and back. If you are struggling email or come and ski with either Rossi or I and we can get your ski working best at your speed, weight and ability.

 

disland from the BallOfSpray Forum asks: 

 

I would like to hear his perspective on the variability of manufacture. Have ski companies become better at making each ski out of the mold perform the same?

 

Rini: I can’t speak for other manufactures, but Strada has a balanced lay-up so our there is virtually no change in the ski when it cures. I have been amazed with this ski how consistent they feel. I believe some shapes are more finicky then others and so little differences in manufacturing can be felt on the water especially in skis that are a little less stable. As far as raw flex numbers go; in a run of 50 skis with the same lay-up we are seeing very little variance in flex numbers. I think skiers can get to hung up on flex numbers…if you give me three skis with different flex numbers after a couple of sets on each one I can make them feel almost exactly the same with fin adjustments. I have probably skied on 10 different Strada’s with some pretty good variances in the flex numbers but I have not changed my fin setting by more then a couple thousands of an inch.

 

Ski with Matt http://www.mattrini.com/