Sidecut Radii?? (skis vs. snowboards)

snowboards are twice as wide. ??

are the terms “sidecut” (snowboards) and “turn radius” (ski’s) synonomous?

Most skiers up until recently skidded all their turns. Sidecut, relativly speaking, is a new thing in skis. Even advanced skiiers are still running with their tips down the fall line the bulk of the time. Snowboards were designed to turn quickly, and with the advent of terrain parks, a 7m sidecut radius is failry common. On the otherhand, most slalom snowboards have sidecuts in the 9-10m range, while most GS boards are aprox 178-185cm with a sidecut radius of around 15m. Its rair to get a board over 19m in radius, and even then its usually a custom super g/ way open GS. Snowboard races are often won by who spends the most time carving, on edge. Seems to have changes a bit with tighter dual format racing though… Compaired to modern slalom skis, boards are fairly close, though GS skis seem to be closer to 20m sidecut radii (sp?). Again, I think that due, in part, to the tips being focused down hill more.

Now, in regard to edge grip, I think we really need to be concerned with sidecut depth, a point illustrated in the above pic. The shallower a sidecut, the less one needs to weight the board to get that edge to engage. A 155 board with a 6m disecut radius is going to grip (as far as egde %) better then a 170 with a 6m sidecut. I prefer mid/long boards w/ less sidecut depth for steeps, ie, aprox. 165-170 with aprox. a 10m sidecut radius (like the Donek Incline 164 I have w/ a 9.65m sidecut. Pretty huge by modern freeride standards.

That said, i still dig my 186 Coiler board with a 15m radius as my general feel good- great grip board. But I like to arc that thing across (and up) the fall line way more then most of my skiier buds.

Skis have needed to get wider for the sidecut numbers to become “tighter”. There is only so much that you can do with a very narrow ski, even with lifters for the binding. I think that on snowboards the sidecut is too tight, with numbers like the 161 mtn. gun at 8.55. I personally would like to see that one be up around 9.5 to 10 on the sidecut. It would be better on the steeps, and you could open ‘er up on wider slopes and carve turns with more stability.

Maybe one reason for the big difference in sidecut between snowboard and skis is that on a board, you have all your weight on the one “ski”, wheras on skis your weight is distributed between the two skis. With all your weight on the board, it’s easier to flex it such that the entire edge is in contact with the snow. But it would be interesting to try a board with a more ski-like sidecut. That Lib tech idea sounds really interesting too.

Maybe with most snowboarders standing sideways on the board, a bigger sidecut helps with a relatively big transition from heel to toe and back again. A hardbooter with bigger stance angles and shoulders more square to the fall line, like a skier, wouldn’t need such a big sidecut.

I know there are guys on this forum who work for snowboard manufacturers and maybe they could shed some light on the subject. My guess is that its probably experiential – most snowboarders like bigger sidecut for what they’re doing. As the current designs show, the freeride and big mountain boards have less sidecut because people like that better when it gets steep and firm.

Sidecuts in skis have really grown in recent years and that re-thinking was likely in reaction to the success of bigger snowboard sidecut. Maybe skis would benefit from even bigger sidecut for most applications (not steep & firm!) but skis are just phyically to narrow to cut any deeper. Instead, they get more sidecut by widening the nose and tail, but there is a limit to how far they want to go with that…

Holy crap! I didn’t know Shaq was into skiing powder! 😆