breakable crust - ski/ski tune question

IMO-I have gotten to the point that I think the best way to ski breakable crust is a series of kick turns and glide like making a downhill skintrack. Less chance of pulling something and making it possible to ski another day. 

This technique was exactly what Jill and I used a few years ago when descending Signal Peak in The Sierra. It wasn't pretty but we arrived at the RV intact and ready for a cold one. 

Randy,
I love your rocker mod. One of my Bakers has some "rocker" after a crash, maybe I'll see if I can even them out by bending the other one!

And if it all goes south... well, I guess I'll just have to buy new skis.

...
BTW, Randy, like your tip rise mod. Pretty cool. The shuksan has a couple sheets of metal so I guess it wouldn’t work. Although, I might still be tempted to try it..so I’ll ask, what happens when you do your mod when the ski has metal in it? Irreparable damage? That might be kind of fun and a good way for the shuksans to go out in style (assuming I find a good replacement).

Unknown with metal -- but two things about metal layers in skis that would make me wary of attempting a DIY tip rocker mod:

1) Metal layers aren't going to deform at temperatures that wouldn't set the rest of the ski on fire.

2) Metal layered skis already have problems with delamination between the metal layers and the fiberglass layers.

So this might work with a metal sheet in the ski -- but it seems less likely to succeed in a useful manner.

Anyway -- Obviously this kind of craziness should only be applied to skis you won't cry in your beer over if they fall apart during or soon after attempting the modification. Oh and it would probably be wise to work in a well-ventilated area and have a fire extinguisher on hand.

For my mod on the BD Machines I used two pieces of 1x2 stacked under the tip and another piece of 1x2 about 14 inches back from the tip on the top to pad the foot of a large C-Clamp. I applied the heat from a heat gun in a circular pattern until I saw wrinkles start to appear on the top sheet -- a primitive way of seeing that the "plastic deformation" temperature of the epoxy in the ski had been reached, undoubtedly there are better ways to gauge the when the skis have been heated enough to "set" the curve being added-- I likely overdid it on the Machines.

I may do this mod to an old pair of Atomic TM-EXs as well -- I think it would be better to use two C-Clamps to form a two stage curve instead of the one stage curve I got on the Machines.

I like levering the ski on top of a door and the top of the door frame. May be more dangerous but getting real buzzed before you torque the ski will give you the courage to bend the ski beyond something you see in a circus. A lot of force will do it but be careful or you may win a Darwin award.

Lots of info on rockering skis on (shock!)
TGR. One example: www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.p...a-rocker-in-my-Sumos