Do slalom skis “wear out”

[MitchellM]

Don't ignore the excitement, anticipation and the honeymoon effect of skiing on a new ski.  Without a measurable metric, these likely color our opinion about equipment degredation.

[Horton]

@Killer so you're really just speculating that the skis wear out? 😁

[DW]

Very hard to do but rebound could be measured by video at a very high frequency capture rate, akin to hitting a tuning fork.  I do feel a torsion test would be of value , it is a standard in the automotive motorsports environment.  The one test I found to work, have two skis setup exactly the same (a known good or new one & the one in question) and go ski the course.  The experiment I was able to run using this technique left me feeling that the one in question seemed to have a slip angle or downcourse slide (did not hold edge as well) across the wakes.  For me personally, I could not tell or feel if the turn radius had changed although I felt the start point of going cross course was still the same.  In this case I was really lucky as I had two skis from the very same batch or born by date to give me more confidence of a valid test.

[Than_Bogan]

Riffing off something @DW mentioned, has anyone tried to measure a resonant frequency?

For some 3D printers, the actual recommended method to test belt tension is to pluck it like a guitar string and use a tuning app to get the right frequency. 

I wouldn't be very surprised if the resonant frequency of a new ski is different from an older one (of the same model), but I'm not sure how to measure that!

[DW]

@Than_Bogan - a good ear and a hammer 😆

[skibrain]

A ski without bindings does hum a bit like a tuning fork when thumped….