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Finesse and Power?

tromano

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The terms are not totally useless.

Life is full of compromises, and sliding scales.

Speaking as a light skier (140 lbs currently, and for most of my skiing life), who used to have freakishly strong legs, but now has normal-strength legs, I cannot (and never could) make a "power" ski or a "charger" ski function well at slow speeds; I need (and needed) a "finesse" ski for that. If you weigh 220 lbs, you won't quite need as much of a "finesse" ski to make it work well at slow speeds. On the other hand, even as a light skier, "finesse" skis just don't cut it at high speeds; there is no way to make a "finesse" ski work well at high speeds and the forces that come with high speeds, even for a 140 lb skier. As an engineer, I reason that the speed and the performance limits on that finesse ski would be even lower for a heavier skier.

If you have a particular purpose/performance in mind, the terms finesse/power can be useful in making up your mind what ski to use for that.
Charger skis suck at low speeds for me also. Either too much work or too little fun.

I personally think the finesse vs power slider thing in a ski review isnt helpful. The written description is much more helpful in communicating what the ski is all about.
 
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Bad Bob

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In technique-
Finesse-Skis the fast line slow.
Power-Skis the slow line fast.
Think you are on to something with this analogy Phil.
The finesse-oriented skier will float off of a bump, power skier will fly.

Suspect when the recreational finesse skier starts pushing outside the comfort zone, they will start losing continual snow contact.

The great skiers are finesse but have the ability to dial up the power to '11' at will. Marcus Caston would be an example; he is pretty well glued to the snow unless he
chooses to float for a while.

I want to ski like Marcus when I grow up. (Maybe in my next life)
 

KingGrump

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It's all in the mind.
 

slow-line-fast

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Finesee skis-Have a maximum speed limit
Power skis-Have a minimum speed limit
This nails it for how skis feel, if we have already narrowed it down for skier weight, skill, and intended use. Then this difference could be different lengths of the same model, or different models.
 

fatbob

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Think you are on to something with this analogy Phil.
The finesse-oriented skier will float off of a bump, power skier will fly.

Suspect when the recreational finesse skier starts pushing outside the comfort zone, they will start losing continual snow contact.

The great skiers are finesse but have the ability to dial up the power to '11' at will. Marcus Caston would be an example; he is pretty well glued to the snow unless he
chooses to float for a while.

I want to ski like Marcus when I grow up. (Maybe in my next life)
Yeah don't really understand these fast line slow aphorisms - a bit too trite.

Surely slow line fast involves the optimal blend of finesse to waste no energy and power to deliver that energy. So it's not really a sliding scale between them it's how much of each different dimension that an individual brings to bear?
 

TheArchitect

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But can both power and finesse skis be Playful. Discuss. ;)
 

Philpug

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"finower" Def: the balance of Finesse and Power. In a sentence, "That ski had great finower."
 

François Pugh

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Depends on what you mean by playful. If you mean bouncy, lively and reactive like Tigger, the power skis can be playful at the upper end of their speed range. If you mean drifting every corner, like you are misbehaving in a car or playing with low traction conditions in the rain with your motorbike, then no.
 

Tony S

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But can both power and finesse skis be Playful. Discuss. ;)
Those people in Pamplona may have thought they were being playful, as might the bulls who gored them. I'd say they were both deluded. So ... no.
 

Seldomski

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I read them as:

Finesse = compliant, friendly, easy to turn, progressive flex with progressive feedback/response
Power = obstinate, burly, stable, stiff with sharp or immediate feedback/response

Depending on what you want to do, one can be better suited than the other.
 

tromano

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Is calling a ski burly still the kiss of death?

Or do we all want maximum strength?

 

ski otter 2

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A true finesse skier would never get close to being "on the edge of control."
Unless they purposely, routinely, put themselves in situations where they have to improvise, are challenged (to summon appropriate finesse - and power - to meet the moment with spontaneity - to go unconscious creatively, in synch, like some great basketball players).

Like Michael Jordan in his heyday (finesse from a power player), or like Steph Curry in this recent finals series (a pure finesse player doing the seemingly impossible in the midst of much bigger men) - just pushing the limits of what they can do, for the play/fun of it.
 
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ski otter 2

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"Ain't no stoppin us now,
We're on the move.
(Got to move.)

Ain't no stoppin us now,
We've got the groove.
(Really got that groove.)

Ain't no stoppin us now.
(Just bust a move,
We got that groove.)

Ain't no stoppin us now.
It's time to move.
(Time to trust that groove.)"

- McFadden & Whitehead

 

markojp

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Not that it matters much, but skiing a powerful, narrow ski requires finesse, particularly when skiing snow outside of its design brief.
 

AlexisLD

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Not that it matters much, but skiing a powerful, narrow ski requires finesse, particularly when skiing snow outside of its design brief.

My understanding of this discussion is that finesse means "a little bit less ski" and power means "a little bit more ski". It is more about skiing aggressively vs laid back / effortlessly, and figuring out how much force you apply to the ski to fine tune your final decision after also having considered you weight, skill, speed, etc.

I agree with you that skiing a narrow ski outside its design brief requires skills, but this doesn't seem to be really related to the use of the word finesse here. You could be a beginner skier who demonstrates finesse (or power) but would still be incapable of skiing a powerful narrow ski outside its design brief.
 

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