SkiJay

Issue: The tail gets loose during my harder passes Excellent question @Krlee, and I'd like to address this in detail. The generic WhisperFin setup is aimed at mid-level skiers and advanced finesse-skiers (I've seen a number of finesse skiers ride the generic setup into -41, but they're not mere mortals). For most strong and or advanced skiers, the generic setup doesn't provide enough tail support during advanced passes—as you've noted @Krlee. When smear is perfect in earlier passes but gets looser as the rope shortens, it's usually because we tend to drive more tip into the water around turns in our harder passes. And the level of tail grip that was perfect while skiing with more finesse through easier passes is insufficient to keep up with the increased tip engagement. This is why it's important to tune our skis for our harder passes. That said, don't try to calibrate your setup to your hardest pass (the one you usually fail at). Most skiers' technique degrades too much during their hardest pass, and ski-tuning in response to the resulting mistakes leads to comprised setups. Instead, focus your ski-tuning efforts on your second hardest pass (the hardest pass you make most of the time). If you find that with the generic setup, the tail of your ski feels too slippery through your second hardest pass, you'll need to: reduce tip engage by moving the fin's leading edge (LE) back, increase tail support with a forward binding move or more fin area, or both reduce tip and increase tail support. You'll need video to establish if the tail is loose because you have too much tip in the water at the time, or if the tail is loose despite nice balanced tip engagement (with the water breaking between 4" and 12" ahead of your front toes. If you are regularly burying too much tip into the water (usually yawed tip engagement) then move the fin back to achieve a more manageable tip attitude. If tip engagement looks good, then the problem is insufficient tail support. If the tail is too loose through mid-turn at max lean angles, then move the bindings FORWARD. If the tail smears nicely around the turn but doesn't stop smearing soon enough as you roll out of the turn (over-smears briefly into too much angle), add fin area, trying to keep the index marks equal. Note that using binding location for mid-turn smear and fin area for turn-exit smear is for skiers whose hips are within 12" of the water around the ball. This advanced smear-tuning technique (and this article) is unnecessary for skiers not achieving max lean angles. Skiers who don't lean to extremes never roll their fins out of play, so all of their smear tuning can be done with the fin (reduce fin area until the tip starts to grab, then replace some fin area). Don't let the resulting numbers constrain your tuning. Your bindings will almost certainly end up forward of factory settings, and fin depth (FD) may go as deep as 5.600+. I have one powerful pro at FD = 5.585 and the ski behaves brilliantly well into -41. This deep fin setting is largely the result of running out of forward binding movement. But it's important to understand that even at supper deep FD settings, roll resistance feels normal because of this fin's small size. To summarize, it's perfectly normal for the generic setup to get looser as the rope shortens. And there is more than enough adjustability to dial in perfect tail support and angle out of turns for any skier. I encourage you to experiment, basing your changes on ski behavior, not any preconceived notions of what numbers you are seeing.

@customski, yes, all of the principles outlined in Fin Whispering apply to the WhisperFin, including LE-neutral DFT adjustments. In the book, I was explaining how we can adjust one isolated ski behavior at a time. The tuning method I'm promoting with the WhisperFin is focused on maximum simplicity.

@richfoster, Everyone is different. But yes, I'd leave the bindings at stock on the KD to start. You can always move forward from there If the ski's tail is too loose.

@Wish, Yes. I used to use the two terms interchangeably, but it's been evolving. Tip bite seems more like a description of how much bite or traction the tip has. And tip grab is what happens when the tip developers too much bite/traction.

Notice: Consolidating questions and comments into one thread Thank you to everyone for your questions and comments on the WhisperFin. This fin release has generated a tsunami of questions across a wide spectrum of social media, and I'm struggling to keep up. So to make my time on BOS easier to manage, I'm going to focus my attention on the original thread "Presenting – WhisperFin #1." This will make it easier for all of us to share and find info in one place as we unpack the potential of this new tuning philosophy. If you have questions or feedback, please click on this link: Presenting – WhisperFin #1

@Ed_Johnson, You are correct. You probably saw that in the WhisperFin Ski-tuning – 101 instructions that came with the fin. Keeping the index lines equal at the front and back of the fin sets the turbulators at the ideal angle for maximum efficiency/power while accelerating. That said, I don't think small deviations from this ideal angle of attack make any material difference. And yes, keeping the index marks equal means FL changes with FD adjustments, but this makes tuning with this fin super easy. To adjust tip traction, move the whole fin back and forth (forward for more tip bite, and back if experiencing tip-grab). To adjust tail hold, just move the whole fin (front and back) in and out of the ski with an equal and opposite DFT adjustment to maintain an unchanged level of tip engagement. Example: for more tail hold, turn the FL and FD adjustment set screws 1/4 turn clockwise each, and the DFT adjuster 1/4 turn counterclockwise. The DFT adjustment compensates for how the the deeper longer fin would have affected tip engagement. No special tools or advanced tuning knowledge necessary.

I wish I could do some name dropping here, but the elites are being either protective of what they are up to or wanting to get more time in before going public—totally understandable. But one good example is someone you all know that was having trouble running the occasional 39. With the WF, they've been running 39s daily, even back to back, with two tournament scores nicely into 41 already. Not PBs specifically yet, but early and dramatic signs of improved scores and consistency. Does that count, @Sprayblaster? And what about Bruce Dodd's national record? That's a PB. Andrew Bergman ran his first 39 in two years after putting on the WF. Does the 11 year old running a -28 PB at Matt's today count? The rollout is only weeks old. Nothing is fully dialed in yet, not technique and not even these fin's. FWIW, I'm getting a lot of enthusiastic feedback from people at all levels of the sport who simply don't want to post on BOS.

@DavidN, The KD's design (rocker, bevels, shape, etc.) give the tail of that ski more traction than most skis on the market. That's why if you compare factory binding recommendations across brands, you'll notice that KD recommends mounting the bindings further back than most. Terry's binding settings are based on the water breaking about 6" from the tip. Do you have this much tip in the water prior to offside balls? If not, Terry's binding setting will make your ski turn like a bus. The reason for this is that moving the bindings forward effectively makes the tail of the ski longer, giving it more surface area and a longer moment arm from the bindings to the fin (giving the fin more leverage). That will reduce smear and cause incomplete turns. My best guess In the absence of video, is that you can move your bindings back 1/8", and reduce fin area a quarter turn counterclockwise on both top adjusters and moving it forward half turn clockwise.

@DavidN, If by "stalled" you mean "isn't finishing the turn," then either there's not enough tip in the water through the end of the turn, or there's too much tail support. You are correct in that moving the bindings back would help this. But since the goal of this setup philosophy is to establish how small you can run the fin, I'd reduce fin area before moving the bindings back. But first, I'd recommend using video to establish if the ski isn't finishing turns because there's not enough tip in the water, or if despite good tip engagement, the tail isn't smearing enough. If there's not enough tip in the water, is it your inbound move, or can the fin be moved forward without causing tip grab? The flowchart at: https://finwhispering.com/whisperfin-tuning-flowchart/ can help walk you through sorting this out.

@jimski, tuning is important at all speeds and line lengths, but for different reasons. Low speed skiers don't lean over as far as fast shortline skiers, so their fins are constantly in play. Shortline skiers roll their fins much more out of play at extreme lean angles around turns making binding location more critical than it is at lower lean angles. Slow speed setups can focus mostly on how the fin affects the ski around turns. Shortline setups need more of a focus on how the ski behaves through transitions, like rolling out of turns, through the edge change into the outbound cast, and turn initiation. Stock settings vary among ski companies from very good for a general cross section of skiers to safe but nothing special for anyone. And a poor setup can be as harmful to a beginner who's struggling to learn as it can be to an advanced skier who's depending on the ski to do what's expected.

All outstanding WhisperFin orders will be filled by Wednesday! Batch 4 is here, batch 4 is here!

This will be batches three and four @Fehlindra . And don't worry, nobody is cutting any corners.

FWIW, five pros are now using this fin, by choice. They're not being paid for it. They're choosing it because they want to win prize money and set records. edit: Just in ... make that six.

Regarding Backorders My sincere apologies for the slow pace of deliveries so far. Building these fins is a multi-step process, and every one of those steps got held up by an unexpected upturn in Calgary's oil industry this January. The various shops understand the importance of getting these fins out for the start of the season, and two of them have literally put on 24 hour shifts, to get more WhisperFins ready for me to bring back to Florida this weekend. I think most, if not all, of the current backorders will be shipped by the end of next week.

@Scaramanga I've only skied in seven tournaments, and none in about a decade. I raced cars and motorcycles for forty years and just don't enjoy the stress of competition anymore. I love working on my technique, and it's the best it's ever been, easily good enough to ski well into 38. But at 62, I'm nursing injuries that are easily aggravated. So maximum enjoyment for me is skiing for fun, fitness and learning. A set full of stylishly stroked 28s and 32s that proves out a design or setup theory is bliss. That I regularly get to test these concepts on many of the best skiers in the world is its own thrill. And applying these things to help skiers run more balls at all levels fills a need to contribute. I'm a very happy skier in the autumn of my athleticism. And trying to maximize my ball count by taking risks and skiing to failure every day just undermines this whole joyful program.

Hey @Horton, 95% me and 5% you is kind of out of context. I'm with @GaryWilkinson (good eye Gary). The previous setup was much better at keeping the tip down and locked. This setup was an experiment on both our parts to see what would happen if we replicated the same (leading edge location) LE as your standard fin. It did what we thought it would do, but didn't I say that ideally, LE needs to go forward from there to keep the tip down, way forward from there?

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!

@waterskicorey, your fin will be shipped before Friday. This second batch of fins will cover more than half of the backorders, and about 10 days later, the third batch should cover most, if not all, remaining backorders.

Thursday or Friday :)

Radar skis and fin blocks are cut to very close tolerances. Occasionally, they can be quite tight even for the thinner fin. If your fin, standard fin or WhisperFin, doesn't move around easily when the fin clamping bolts are loose (on any ski for that matter), read this post to see how to make fin adjustments without damaging your fin: https://finwhispering.com/tight-fin/

For those receiving their fins, don't throw out these WhisperFin-specific ski-tuning instructions by accident. They are on a waterproof crease-proof card that should survive in the wettest gnarliest ski bag for a long long time. You may want to keep it for future reference.

I think those were my exact words to the plumber who was at my house last week, @Jody_Seal, and I got a LOT less in that transaction than my customers are getting.

So you know, the enclosed ski-tuning instructions in that kit are printed on a plastic card that is nearly indestructible so it can live forever in a wet ski bag.

Almost?! :'(

Most of my prototype fins were .080" or thinner, and they worked in every fin block out there. They only worked okay in the one-piece Goode fin block, but the Radar fin block fits perfectly on Goode skis if perfection is important to you. The thicker fin fits in all skis except Radar and Mapple, and it's too thick to install there, even with force. I'd say there are two options. If you want one fin for all of the skis in your future, get the .080". Or use the right fin for your current ski and either sell it with that ski or sell it separately to a buddy or on Ski-It-Again.com if you think you'll never need it again. Supplying two thickness is not convenient for me either. But there are good reasons for using the correct fin thickness in your ski.