To Wing or not to Wing

[SunriseH2OSkier]

I'm not a skier mind you, so this is just an outside observation. But I seem to see a lot of good slalom coaches that lean toward wanting people to start without the fin, learn technique & once that's solid, then add things like the fin as it seems appropriate. Seems like solid advice to me & judging from what I've seen, scrubbing speed off prior to the turn isn't something that most people that are learning the course and technique need to worry about. In fact if you think about it, it seems to me that it could teach you or allow you to get into bad habits that you'll have to break in order to progress.

JM2C, smack me back out of the thread if I'm way off.

SMACK! j/k, although I will say that I've not considered, nor have I picked up on any of the slalom gurus pushing getting rid of the fin. Only the wing on the fin!

Edited May 12, 2006 by SunriseH2OSkier

[WakeGirl]

Smack indeed, can't believe I did that.

[skisix@38]

Girls!

[SunriseH2OSkier]

Wakeboarders!

[WakeGirl]

A girly wakeboarder that was having a brain cramp.

[vette-ski]

Well, as a novice, I will give this a try. I'm going south to TN with the boat next week to get some time on the ski before the clinic (hope the weather pulls through). I can see some of the points, and I did at least read the instructions that came w/ the ski to somewhat understand what the wing did. I sorta liked the idea initially of using the wing as a brake of sorts to help slow me down some. I guess it's that initial fear as a beginner of having too much speed and being out of control, IE lack of confidence. But as pointed out it's probably setting me into some bad habits. I don't have regular access to a course, so I'm a free-skier, but I typically like 15' off at 31mph or 22' off at 30mph. The time or two I have been on a course, it was a whole different game.

[SunriseH2OSkier]

A girly wakeboarder that was having a brain cramp.

[skisix@38]

Here's a different way of thinking about it. For me, FWIW, one of the most fun things about slalom is getting free of the boat to make a good, smooth turn. If I were going 30 mph or so and free skiing I would want to still get that feeling. The only was to do it is to get faster then the boat as you come into turning. To make a good turn the skier can't be pulled upon. Having a wing(it's a wing Tracie, did you not learn anything from riding in the boat for 6 hrs, LOL) installed reduces the chances of getting free to begin with and if you do get free of the boat, you'll slow down more quickly at the very least.

[VinRLX]

A girly wakeboarder that was having a brain cramp.

Cramps of some kind. Glad some idiot caught this before I got here.

[SunriseH2OSkier]

A girly wakeboarder that was having a brain cramp.

Cramps of some kind. Glad some idiot caught this before I got here.

That was a good one Jack! "Glad some id..." HEY!

[WakeGirl]

A girly wakeboarder that was having a brain cramp.

Cramps of some kind. Glad some idiot caught this before I got here.

If that were the case, I would have donned my "La Biche Supreme" hat & torn all of you to shreds.

[Killer]

Remember folks that your ski is not passing through a solid medium in the turn. It's partially railing on the surface of the water, and partially sliding through the water. Look at an overhead shot of Wade Cox to see what I'm talking about. The fin is what's keeping your tail in the water by being angled downward and forward from the apex on to the turn finish. The wing is actually angled in the opposite direction. If anything, a wing will generate a little bit of lift at the finish of the turn by being oriented in this fashion, perpendicular to the fin.

I don't think the wing does jack squat in the turn itself other than create turbulence around the fin and add effective surface area to the bottom of the ski, meaning more force is required to slide it around to finish the turn. Where it helps is when you're front loading the ski in the pre-turn to scrub some speed. More weight forward means an increased angle of incidence on the fin means more deceleration.

At least that's how my engineering mind visualizes it...

I have to agree.

I've always told beginner to intermediate course skiers to take the wing off. It was always my understanding; both through pros and my own testing that the wing was a "cheater fin" to help decelerate the ski more in the pre-turn. You'll notice a difference in the pre-turn without a wing if you've always used one.

once you get used to using the wing and you progress to shortline, you will have to learn how to decelerate again. I know because it happened to me.

On the mapple siege I've been using recently its a lot more squirly I feel in the pre-turn, but you do generate more speed out of the turn. I also notice a quicker edge change without it on this particular ski. You also have to exagerate the weight you put on the front in the deceleration phase, helping to slow the ski down -> what the wing is supposed to do.

So in lamens; i've always found a ski to be more stable with the wing, but slower when not at 34-36mph and shorter than 22off.

Once you can ski at 28off without flaw put it on if you wish is what I told students.

have fun with it!

[VinRLX]

That was a good one Jack! "Glad some id..." HEY!

If that were the case, I would have donned my "La Biche Supreme" hat & torn all of you to shreds.

Maybe your family will get you a different hat this Mother's Day.

[Okie Malibu]

GalaxyToad,

Sounds like you made it out to Oklahoma....I'm assuming your referring to Outlaw in Marlow. Tell those guys I say "hi".

Tear that wing off until your running 28' off!

ALH