How To Judge Used Ski Camber ?

[Avid Old Fart]

Real skimpy cover in south east B.C. this year, and lots of hard snow at the resorts, so I got the craving for carving, since there's no fluff.
I went looking for a good used pair of sl racing skis, and bought a used pair of Volkl Racetiger SL's with Marker piston race plates and bindings online.
So I get them, adjust the bindings and go skiing.
First couple of runs, they don't seem to give me much "pop" out of the turns, so I stop and examine them and there is almost no static camber. I continue skiing the day and the skis have pretty nice grip at speed, but no pop at the turn transition (I'm used to skis like this really giving me a boot in the ass) .
At home, I checked static camber with a straight edge and fiound .020" to .030" gap.
I contacted the seller and he told me his coaches 2010 Volkl race skis as well as his buddies Blizzard sl racing skis are the same way.
Could the piston race plates have an effect on static camber --- eg. flatening out the midsection and/or dampening the rebound I'm expecting ?
I have no experience with the Marker piston plates, their behaviour and adjustments etc., so any input and/or advice will be appreciated.

[DropCliffsNotBombs]

That binding should have no effect on the skis camber. More and more skis (even race-carvers) are coming with less camber these days. That ski should still "launch" you at the end of the turn though. Especially compared to most twin tips.

[Beyond]

These have metal in them, so shouldn't decamber like some beat race skis used to. OTOH, pistons are an acquired taste. Ski will feel damp (piston likers) or numb (piston haters). Either way, you'll find it works, really glues the ski to ice.

[Vitamin I]

Even without good camber, you can get good rebound by loading up a stiff, lively ski. Camber is only the little follow-through at the end of the rebound stroke. Besides rebound, good camber can improve fore/aft self-righting and keep the extremities from flapping.

How To Judge Used Ski Camber ?

If skis are in hand, I hold skis upright base-to-base with pinky finger between skis up at the top of the running length, then use other hand (and knees) to squeeze skis together down at the binding area. The pinching force felt by pinky finger gives an idea how much force will be provided by the tip extremity when ski is running flat or when ski is at the end of the rebound stroke. One could repeat this for the tails, but I don't bother. This check exposes many used skis that retained their HUGE camber yet actually provide none of the performance you expect from camber, because the tip/tail extremities are so soft.

If evaluating camber over the Web, all you can do is try to see an image of the static camber shape (distance between bases underfoot), research how stiff they would be if new, and ask about their usage/softening history (how many days skied, how hard, how heavy the pilot, soft vs hard snow, etc).

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