Casual nowax skiing technique? Sand away some grip-zone?

Are there any special points about getting best performance out of
recreational-type (wider) nowax skis in a casual setting? Any trick to
get them to glide better?

A guy emailed me saying that he finds he has to weight the heel to get
them to move out---if he keeps weight over his whole foot the ski
won't glide much.

Is the paper test still appropriate for nowax skis? Should the grip
area be off the floor when half body weight is applied?

Has anyone tried sanding off some excess nowax grip zone if it goes
beyond the kick zone suggested by the paper test or seems to be
dragging the glide?

--JP

PS: I just paper-tested my nice nowax recreational skis. Fischer
Aircore Touring, 1990's. They seem to perform OK to me. Glide isn't
super, but OK. Handling is nice. 210cm. 175lbs, 6 feet tall. The paper
test gave a kickzone 4" back of the heel to 4" in front of the
binding---kinda short on the front. The nowax pattern ended where the
kickzone ended at the heel, but the nowax pattern extended another 6"
in front of where the paper stopped sliding. Anyone else have this
kind of camber in their recreational nowax ski? I wonder if I'd lose
grip or gain glide if I sanded off some of the nowax pattern at the
front... --JP

On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:11:54 -0700 (PDT), jeff potter
wrote:

PS: I just paper-tested my nice nowax recreational skis. Fischer
Aircore Touring, 1990's. They seem to perform OK to me. Glide isn't
super, but OK. Handling is nice. 210cm. 175lbs, 6 feet tall. The paper
test gave a kickzone 4" back of the heel to 4" in front of the
binding---kinda short on the front. The nowax pattern ended where the
kickzone ended at the heel, but the nowax pattern extended another 6"
in front of where the paper stopped sliding. Anyone else have this
kind of camber in their recreational nowax ski? I wonder if I'd lose
grip or gain glide if I sanded off some of the nowax pattern at the
front... --JP

Zach Caldwell has helped people reduce the grip zone on skis like
Fischer's racing crowns.

Zach Caldwell has helped people reduce the grip zone on skis like
Fischer's racing crowns.

Did Zack grind the patterned zone (like Jeff sanding the pattern zone)
to both cut the aggressiveness of the "crowns" and increase the camber
height of the grip zone?

If Zack grinds too deep or Jeff sands too much of the pattern, the
correction is to drink beer and gain 5 or 8 kg.

On Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:58:12 -0700 (PDT), wrote:



Zach Caldwell has helped people reduce the grip zone on skis like
Fischer's racing crowns.

Did Zack grind the patterned zone (like Jeff sanding the pattern zone)
to both cut the aggressiveness of the "crowns" and increase the camber
height of the grip zone?

I think it was grinding.

If Zack grinds too deep or Jeff sands too much of the pattern, the
correction is to drink beer and gain 5 or 8 kg.

Haha.