A little help with binding placement

[Waternut]

I'm struggling with where to put the bindings on my Radar Annex. One thing I read was the water should be breaking under your front foot when riding flat if the bindings are in the right place. The problem with that concept is the water always breaks under my front foot. I don't know whether I'm naturally adjusting my body to compensate or what but it doesn't matter if I move the boots an entire inch forward or backwards, the water always breaks right in the arch of my front foot.

 

I've noticed if I move the boots too far back, the ski will slide out on a hard off side turn but feels safe across the wake. When I move the boots forward some, I no longer slide out on off side turns and I feel more acceleration through the wakes but if I'm even slightly out of position and/or start to get tired, I feel like I'm going to go OTF.

 

I'm still learning the course and have completed a maybe a quarter of my passes in 10 sets but haven't really felt confident enough with my passes to go past 28mph yet. If I try to tweak something on the ski, it could make it so I'm comfortable and in control with decent body position but not making passes or twitchy and out of control but making passes.

 

What's too far forward and what's too far back?

[SkiJay]

@jfw432 As much as I love to promote experimenting with ski setups, I think the best thing you can do at the stage you are at is to make sure everything is as close to factory specs as you can get it and leave it there at least until you start shortening the rope. The front-binding to rear-of-ski measurement should be as close to stock as your binding plates will allow. Your three fin measurements should be within .001" of factory recommendations and should be measured by someone who knows what they are doing. Then you should probably remove the wing altogether as this will help you develop speed and balance.

 

Changing ski settings is a way for skiers with tons of skiing experience to adjust the gear to their individual quirky habits. The best thing you can do, being new to the course, is to form good habits. If you mess with the stock settings, you risk forming habits around a wacky setup which may not be in your long term best interest.

 

If you constantly feel exposed to going OTF with the stock setup, move your binings back one hole from stock for safety, but know that the problem is your technique, and get some good coaching to address the REAL root of the problem. In fact, the more professional coaching you can get, the better.

 

You are at a really fun stage of skiing cause you get to set PBs on a regular basis. Enjoy the journey!

[Waternut]

When you say "The front-binding to rear-of-ski measurement should be as close as your binding plates will allow", are you saying move the front boot as far back as possible or was it supposed to say "as close [to nuetral/factory recommendations] as your binding plates will allow"? I did go ahead and pull the wing off based on recommendations from others at the lake.

[SkiJay]

@jfw432 I meant that the front boot should be as close to the factory recommendations as possible.

As a starting point, the rear binding should be as close to the front boot as your toes will allow. However, this is a possible exception to leaving everything stock for now. While I recommend leaving the front boot at stock (or back one hole for safety), you might try leaving the front binding at stock while moving only your rear binding back different amounts. This will reduce your OTF exposure, possibly improve your on-side turn, and should have very little of the "sliding out" effect you experienced on your off-side by moving both bindings back. You can go back and forth with the rear binding as much as you want, then settle in on what feels and works best for YOU.

[Waternut]

Thanks for the help! I will move them up and give that a shot tomorrow on open water.

[Waternut]

Well I moved the boots up a good bit and gave that a shot. It was still comfortable and controllable but I was on open water so it was hard to tell how hard I was cutting. What shocked me the most was when I asked Radar for the stock specs for boot and fin placement. I bought the ski new and the only thing I've ever done to the fin was move the back edge up 1/32" to make it turn a little easier on my offside but the fin was WAY off from stock specs.

 

Recommended specs are:

Front Boot - 28.75

Fin Length- 6.84

Fin Depth- 2.48

Fin DFT- 0.75

 

Specs before this post were:

Front Boot - 28.00 (today was 28.6)

Fin Length- 6.91

Fin Depth- 2.466

Fin DFT- 0.821

 

That's a lot of changes all at once but I've got everything written down so I can go back if necessary.