Will a wing tighten up turn radius at all?

[Chef23]

My son who is 12 is running into 34 mph at 15 off and is on a 65.5" D3 X5. He weighs about 140 pounds. As the speed increases the ski seems to be slower to turn than is optimal at the faster speeds. We are working on body position and getting him to turn earlier at the faster speeds but I was wondering if the wing might help tighten the turns up a little.

 

Right now he is running the following: binding (Reflex w/RTP) is 29 3/8, depth 2.495, 6.90 length, .75 dft. I got these numbers from Paul Crawford who suggested the wing at 7 if I decided to put it on.

 

My other thought is to move the fin up some.

[Horton]

Can't hurt to crank in 9 degrees and see what happens.

 

Feed the kid steak and beer....

[Chef23]

The kid is big enough as it is.

[Jim Neely]

I have a table of fin adjustment suggestions that I use. Here's the entry that relates to your question. If you want I can email you the whole document.

 

Symptom

Ski won’t make a tight turn, won’t turn on a tight line

 

Suggestion

Too little tip

[bbrannan127]

Chef-

 

How recently did your son up the speed to 34? Two summers ago I was in the exact same spot, trying to go from running easy 30's to 34's, and I had a similar problem. I could run 32 around 60% of the time, but it still felt fast, so when I tried 34 it was very hard. I couldn't get angle, couldn't get early, and had a few nasty crashes. After a couple months of working at it these problems were worked out as I got used to the speed. Once 32 and 34 started to feel normal, I could crank turns and get much more angle.

 

I would suggest a set or two of free-skiing to help with this. If you only ski at a private lake free-skiing is redundant, but my family takes trips to a large public lake every summer, and if you get up early the water is great and you can get over 100 turns in just one set.

 

Note: I've always skied with a wing, no idea what angle it's at though as I don't mess with fin settings.

[Chef23]

Jim, I tried to send you my email address in a conversation so you cold send me the document. If you don't get it let me know.

 

Mark

[clemsondave]

Higher degree on a wing will put more tip of the ski in the water which will allow it to turn more. Having said that, it could be a million other things. I bet 90% of the time, when the ski is not turning it is either technique or people adjusting for the wrong thing. The first thing you want to look at is if he is getting to the buoy wide and early enough. If not, they making it turn harder is not the solution. The fix is to work on technique, the angle through the gate or adjust the fin so that he does get there at the right spot (like moving fin back).

 

If he is getting to the buoy at the correct spot and it still doesn't turn, you can add tip to the fin, add a little wing or adjust the boots.

 

I always adjust the fin and my technique to get the proper angle, course width and early. If I'm at that spot, I can turn almost anything (when I don't screw it up!).

[Ali]

/vanilla2/uploads/FileUpload/3/943.jpg

 

photo could help?

 

cheers

Ali