What line lengths are you at with the whisper fin

[Scaramanga]

What line lengths are you at with the whisper fin

[Horton]

Metric? I need a conversion table. I ran a bunch of Blue yesterday.

[Than_Bogan]

I find myself curious what the point of this poll is.

[Chef23]

@Than_Bogan I could see it being would the Whisper fin help longer line skiers as much as short line. The poll likely doesn't exactly answer that question but it moves in that direction.

[BraceMaker]

Probably also a bit premature if they dont even have the third batch shipped.

[ozski]

Would be interesting if there was an option for the Denali CG fin also.

[Horton]

@ozski different product / different conversation. I'm nowhere near ready to get into this in-depth but I would say totally different approaches and methodologies.

 

Generally speaking, I think it's bad form to talk about competing products and thread about a specific product.

[Than_Bogan]

@Horton From the perspective of someone running an industry web site, yes.

 

But nearly every skier is planning to just have one fin on their ski, and will decide among traditional, CG, and Whisper. And most won't care about approaches, methodologies, or whether any of the theory behind either design is even right. They'll simply want to know which ones gets them more buoys. And if that is the same, then they'll want to know which is easiest to set up, easiest on the body, more consistent, etc.

 

Personally, I think the traditional fin is at end-of-life. The CG is just better at everything. I don't know the first thing about the Whisper Fin, other than it seems well-received so far. So putting on my Nostradamus hat, it seems like in the relatively near future people will be deciding between CG and Whisper. This makes the comparison very important, even if it's not really possible for @Horton to offer that.

 

That said, I still can't see how the results of this poll will provide any insight. What does the distribution of the population of people trying a fin tell me?

[ALPJr]

Will be interesting to see if and how the larger skiing population and the established ski design / manufacturers respond to the new fins, and if the new fin designs sustain the test of time.

[Steven_Haines]

I think that it’s a comparison that people will need to make on their own. I totally agree that the traditional fin is on its way out as I have the CG fin and think that it’s AMAZING! I’m glad that Jay and the Adam’s have blurred the lines of what we thought we knew! Thanks guys for your out of the box thinking and you’re desire to give us a better product and another option to get more buoys!

[Horton]

@Than_Bogan the reason why it's not easy to give a simple answer is that the whisper fin requires a completely different set up methodology. Your ski setup is going to be far different with the whisper fin then it would be with long shallow or short deep.

 

I'm still wrapping my head around the pros and cons of this new setup method.

[Than_Bogan]

Hmmm.

Shouldn't that be orthogonal to the fin design itself? Could it really be that a particular shape of fin requires a rethink of the approach to finding the best parameters for an individual? I would think that if there is a better setup approach, then it should be usable for any fin -- you just might have to start closer to optimal and use smaller increments for fins that have narrow performance zones (like traditional ones!).

[SkiJay]

I welcome comparison. But this poll is a bit premature. The CG has been out for a year. The ceramic coating is barely dry on the few WhisperFins that have been delivered so far. Love the enthusiasm though!

[pgmoore]

Shouldn't that be orthogonal to the fin design itself?

@Than_Bogan really tremendous use of "orthogonal". Perfect in the circumstances! That is not a sentence you see every day and I appreciate it a ton! :)

[Than_Bogan]

Yeah I can only imagine how much "my" high school jumpers make fun of my verbiage behind my back. I mean, seriously, who says "verbiage"?

Half the time, I don't even realize I'm saying things that people don't understand until the blank looks get extra-blank :).

[Wish]

@Than_Bogan please stop using words that make me have to look stuff up. I stopped attempting to learn new things after college...except waterski stuff ?

[Than_Bogan]

@Wish As long as you can remember that the zero vector is orthogonal to all other vectors, including itself, then you'll be fine. And don't worry, it's obvious from the dot product.

 

And I have plenty more helpful hints where that came from!!

[Steven_Haines]

@Than_Bogan, I too appreciate the way you so eloquently used the word oth....WUT???

[Wish]

Than....at least it's easy to spell.

 

I think these fins will go the way of Reflex bindings...seen as the benchmark for high performance. Wonder if manufactures will sell blank slalom skis without a fin like the do with boots.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@Than_Bogan ".....They'll simply want to know which ones gets them more buoys. ..."

 

That is a common misconception that leaves a great many skiers disappointed. Whether its a fin, binding, or whole new ski, nothing is going to get anyone more buoys - unless of course their current setup is really hosed. The important thing to be looking for in any new widget or adjustment is consistency - from buoy to buoy, pass to pass and day to day. That is the dominant effect of everything below the ankles.

 

If a new widget lets you tie your PB on the first set, but you miss your opener the next 3 days out, is that a good thing? What all of us really want is a setup that helps us get close to our PB almost every time out. Only then, can you really start to learn the technique changes needed to get an extra buoy or 2.

 

The CG fin certainly did that for me and many others. My guess is that the Whisper fin will do it as well. As for a direct CG to Whisper comparison, I'll make a large wager it will come down to which works better for each individual skier.

[The_MS]

You can bet @MrGoode will have something soon

[Horton]

I had to look up "orthogonal".

 

Mmmm @Than_Bogan perhaps it should be orthogonal but MY experience with the whisper fin has been more of a journey down a different fin and binding setup than a simple swap of hardware.

[jayski]

 

[DaveD]

Is that a picture of @Horton when he had long hair? Maybe separated at birth?

[Drago]

18% @ -43. Impressive. Huge improvement.

[lpskier]

Well, I haven’t tried the Whisper fin but I watched Nelly Ross from the boat during Open Women’s at Drew’s today and I have to say I can’t recall ever seeing a ski that is better set up. She’s on an Evo with a Whister Fin.