Inventive Idea #1

Modified Ski

This design improves the performance of downhill or x-country type skis by reducing the amount of angle required to make a turn.  As a consequence, less effort is required from a skier to perform turns, stops and any other manuver requiring lateral motion.

Principle of Operation:  the degree of turning delivered by a given ski is a direct function of the pressure exerted on the snow surface by the section of the ski contacting such surface during the turn.  This is shown in figure 1.

Such Pressure will increase when the angle of attack increases, due to the increase in arm delivered by the weight W and also when the surface S (shown in figure 1 as a solid heavy line) increases.  This latter effect is used by the "Hourglass" design of some modern skis.

New Design:  Oval Cut Ski

In this new design presented here, the surface is augmented by design, where the ski's bottom resembles one half of an oval (Ov in fig.2).  The resulting effect is a larger surface (NS in fig.2) obtained without increasing the overall width of the ski.

This design can be applied to any type of ski, even the "hourglass" and it will improve performance as described above without increasing the ski surface.
The improvements would show as a reduced angle of inclination needed to obtain the same result in turning, and thus an easier operation of the equipment.

Oval Cut Ski published here on 6/11/01.