What are the effects of more or less tunnel?

[Horton]

Tunnel creates grip. Less tunnel makes the ski more free and lower drag. More tunnel means more drag and more grip. A ski with more grip will hold more angle and may actually be faster than a ski with less grip.

 

Tunnel depth, shape and volume are only a few of many factors that impact how a ski works. Changing any one parameter may or may not change the performance in the desired way because all of the design aspects must work together.

 

To answer a question from 2 other threads….. is a ski with more or less tunnel faster or slower? It depends …

 

[Kroeks]

I was just thinking about this. Well said. If nothing else is changed, more tunnel should make the ski slower. (But what if the extra stability helps the skier get into and maintain a better position for generating speed?...)

[Horton]

Exactly

[Ed_Johnson]

@Horton.. May explain why you seem to like the C75 so much !!!

 

 

[Bruce_Butterfield]

Wow! Incredible words of wisdom from the great sage @Horton: “it depends”

 

:D

 

[Horton]

Well @Bruce_Butterfield if you decrease tunnel without changing anything else the ski may be lower drag but it COULD hold less angle and end up sliding in the direction of the boat becoming inefficient and slow by some definitions. It depends on bevels, rocker, torsional rocker, profile shape, sidewall thickness.... It depends.

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@horton exactly.

You need to add a Captain Obvious icon to the flags!

[Horton]

@Bruce_Butterfield it is obvious to you

[skibug]

What about ski width? Also effecting tunnel design?

[Dirt]

Look. Its simple. I have two skis that came out of the same mold. One is black and the other is blue.

I like the black one better. Blue skis suck, but not enough to to throw them away.

Unless.... I find another ski I like better than both.

[Horton]

@skibug the point I'm trying to make is that each individual parameter is important and they all have to work together. When you change a skis width you may or may not need to change a number of design elements. A wider ski will glide / hold speed better which will be offset by the additional volume of the tunnel if the tunnel is also wider. A wider ski also will roll over less which then changes acceleration and deceleration rates. And so on and so on

[JaredSmith]

Got it, thanks.