Keeping the ski moving through the On Side Turn

[Stevie Boy]

Nowadays, I  generally do not mess with my fin too much, running a 2023 Radar Vapor Pro on stock settings including bindings.

I  seem to struggle getting a smooth hook up at the end of my onside turn, I always get a bit of a jolt, not too big but it,s annoying, like the ski has stalled a little.

It,s very likely to be where I  am on the ski, but is there a  fin movement that may help the ski come through for a smoother hook up ?

[scoke]

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Edited July 17, 2023 by scoke

[jjackkrash]

My experience with the vapor is once bindings are optimal, play with DFT and reduce just a hair in your case.  For me less dft seemed to smooth out (but slows down) the turn and more dft makes it easier to turn but it will also start to bite.  Make very small adjustments.   But I would also micro-adjust the bindings back and fourth first if you haven't.  

[Mastercrafter]

Are you  S/D or L/S fin settings?

I did a tear down & clean of my ski (2022 Vapor using 2023 settings) this winter and accidentally put it back to SD rather than LS, where I had skied well the latter half of 2022. 3 months into ski season I realized this, now back to L/S, and the ski feels a lot better to me and comes around a lot smoother on my onside. 

Dumb move but glad I realized now vs. never. 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Mastercrafter

[Stevie Boy]

I am S/D on the fin, the ski feels solid, the offside is money, think I  will go with @jjackkrash and look at DFT, consider a move to L/S would be a bigger change than 3-5 thou on the DFT.

I pretty much like the ski as is, apart from the small glitch.

[jimbrake]

I know you want a fin setting solution, but also consider your vision - whether you look across course, out in front of the boat at the next buoy, or down the buoy line, keeping your vision up and long distance generally always helps you to carve a smoother finish back under the rope. I still don't have this fully ingrained, but work on it every set and it clearly helps (me). If you're focused on the buoy you're coming into or looking at the water where you think you want to finish your turn, then that usually results in a less-than-ideal finish. 

Edited July 18, 2023 by jimbrake

[skibrain]

My onside smooths out when I remember to add a little knee bend / weight-forward. And keep my head up. (Keeping eyes more level to horizon vs dropping head to inside of turn). 

instead of a small grab / small wheelie / slack sequence, my tip stays down and I carve a turn back into load with a tight line. 

[Horton]

So much of OnSide is dictated by connection off second wake and into the ball. The Vapor really likes a tight line there to start early tail slide. If you do that every thing else should just happen.

[ColeGiacopuzzi]

Before moving your fin, I  would definitely play around with where you're standing on the ski and focus on your outbound direction and making sure you're moving out as best as possible, if you do those two things everything will start to fall into place. since we're more open going into our onside its easier to make adjustments. 

[jimbrake]

9 hours ago, Horton said:

So much of OnSide is dictated by connection off second wake and into the ball. The Vapor really likes a tight line there to start early tail slide. If you do that every thing else should just happen.

John - so true. First things first. Before we worry about vision in the turn, we have to have that outbound connection to swing up on the boat and not take a straight, disconnected line into the turn. Thanks for adding that. 

[Adam Caldwell]

Ski might be too under you and decelerating too fast through the finish of the turn.  

Might try bumping the fin back, longer shallower a touch to help keep it in front through the finish more and also get more tail support into apex and finish.  Should make for a ski that will continue to slip and sustain lift as it comes back under the line and not reach a stall speed as quickly and clean up the speed differential as you reconnect with the handle.

Or, try bumping one or both boots forward (unless your already stuffing the tip rocker too low)

Edited July 20, 2023 by adamhcaldwell

[Stevie Boy]

Managed to get the rear foot closer to the front boot, has helped smooth things a bit, I am not feeling any tail slide on either side tho.

[Stevie Boy]

Thanks for replies, had somebody sit in and watch, after 12 passes and a discussion, he noted that from odd to even bouys, I  was Front foot dominant to the point where my back foot didn,t come into play, heel was lifted with no pressure on it.

Resulting in me getting peeled in heavily on the front foot into 2 and 4 ball

I  have started to change the way I  hook up 1/3/5 going to evens, both feet planted, feels odd but the ski seems more efficient + 2-4 ball much better hook up.

Concertrating on keeping outbound shoulder high.

Thankyou again for responses.

[whitem71]

A good tip given to me by Andrew Bergman at Drews was not to snatch at the handle at the back of the ball, but to drive the outside hip through and let the ski tip come right under the line or further before connecting the outside arm back to the handle. In fact he said ‘imagine you are trying to ski almost back to the whitewash with only your inside hand on the handle before reconnecting’. Try it. It’s incredible how much speed you can carry around and through the turn using this tip and it really smooths out the finish of your onside. Obviously, you need the width coming into the ball and a tight line off the second wake to enable this, otherwise you’re going to ski straight at the ball and way down course pretty quickly. As AM always said, finish the turn AT the buoy, not after it’

And incidentally I’ve always found that moving the front binding back one hole helps the onside turn…