When shopping for a new pair of skis or snowboard you will come across many parameters in technical specifications. For example, people talk about the width, the camber profile but also the “effective length” of the steel edge. What is the “Effective Edge” of your Ski or Snowboard?
That “Effective Edge”, also sometimes called the “running length”, has nothing to do with the total length of your new Snowboard or Ski. Okay, indirectly of course, so the “Effective Edge” will always be shorter than the total length of a Ski or Snowboard. This term specifically stands for the length - of your new Ski or Snowboard - that touches the snow. So when you are driving on your side, for example when turning and carving.
There are 2 options, namely:
- long “Effective Edge”, or
- short “Effective Edge”
How longer the point of contact of your steel edge hitting the snow the more stable your ride will be. There is then more contact with the surface. On the other hand, a shorter length rather create a loose, or floating, feeling, which in turn can help make it easier to get through the bends.
Every type of Ski or Snowboard has an “Effective Edge”, although it is easier to explain how this works with Camber profiles. Your Tip and Tail will push more into the ground when carving than, for example, the Rocker, whose Tip and Tail have the natural property of pointing into the air.
Tip from Wax & Board! read it article about Camber profiles to better understand why Rocker Camber profiles have a shorter “Effective Edge”.
It is important to note that the type of surface has an impact on the Edge length. For example, the Rocker's total contact length will increase sooner in deep powder snow than on a hard frozen slope; because this board can then sink deeper.
If you are considering purchasing new Skis or Snowboard with Rocker, and you would also test exactly the same model with Camber (e.g. Rocker 154 or Camber 154), you will notice that the Rocker, with the same total length, is more likely to has features of this same Camber model, but the short version. For example, a Rocker 154 will feel more like a Camber 148. This phenomenon applies to both Snowboards and Skis.
This is important to know, of course, if you want to purchase your new Ski or new Snowboard. You could consider buying that new Snowboard in a longer Rocker format because you will of course glide more stably. But you have to ask yourself whether the advantages of a Rocker at that moment outweigh the normal size Camber. Yes, Camber will be more difficult to turn compared to Rocker, for example, but know that the length of your new Ski or Snowboard today is more related to your body weight. The time when a new Snowboard had to reach your chin, for example, is a thing of the past for ten years!
Think carefully about what you are looking for when purchasing your new Ski or Snowboard, and be sure to look at the technical properties to make the right choice.
