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A guy named Urs Moeker from JustTryingToMakeALiving.Com (cool site/company name btw!) sent us a little product called Camber Keeper.

The Camber Keeper

The Idea of The Camber Keeper

The idea of this product is pretty simple – maintain the camber of the skis during storage. The manufacturer also states that the Camber Keeper will prevent your skis from scissoring, which can dull and damage your metal edges.

I am not sure yet if this product is only a glorifed ski strap or whether the product really enhances ski maintenance and durabily in the long run. But let’s let the manufacturer have a say:

“The camber distance varies depending on the ski manufacturer, the type of the ski, and the length of the ski. Camber affects several areas of the ski performance including, exerting the tip and tail pressure, providing pop (or rebound) for a ski, and also helping the ski to carve. For proper performance of the ski it is important to maintain the ski’s camber. Most skiers interlock the ski binding brakes to hold the skis together for storage and tranportation. Depending on the interlocking pressure of the ski binding brakes the bases if the skis may be forced together flattening the ski’s camber. If skis are stored this way for extended period of time and/or in a hot environment the skis may lose some or all of their camber. The camber keeper is placed between the skis, creating space, which helps you maintain the camber of your skis.”

Right on.

Do We Need That Much Camber in Today’s Skis Anyway?

But one question arises – how about the new trend towards relatively flat camber, even zero or reverse camber (so-called rockered) skis?

I strongly believe that the freeskiing sticks are going that way in the near future. Too much camber is just bad in powder anyway. (And if you don’t believe me, read the “Spatula manual” by Shane McConkey himself, there’s a link in this earlier post, “Funshapes- Skis with decamber and/or negative sidecut”). Some might also argue that with today’s increased sidecuts not that much camber is needed to initiate the turn (think about modern style with little up-and-down movement, centered on the skis, carving low – it is totally different from the old school turns!)

Ok, most of the “normal” carvers are still going to have some camber, not to mention the race skis. And many of the so-called all-mountain skis still need it. Last winter I just happened to discuss with some friends that even in powder it is sometimes nice to have a ski with some serious stiffness and camber. The “pop” or rebound built in a turn and used to start the next turn is a pretty cool feeling. Surfing on the surface  of the snow and “slarving/schmearing” your turns is a totally different type of skiing. Both of these styles have their time and place though. So, camber isn’t necessarily a bad thing, even in freeskiing. It is all about one’s personal preferences and style. And for race skis one could say that camber is always going to be an essential part of the design.

Putting the Camber Keeper to The Test

My park skis, Salomon CR Johnson LAB’s have a decent amount of camber. They are pretty fun and “poppy” skis and I’d like to keep it that way in the future too. So I put the Camber Keeper to the work. Let’s see if it has some real impact in the long run? I will report more in the upcoming season. We’ll see if this product works at all or if it is just a gimmick in the end?

The Camber Keeper at Work

My first impression of the product was ok. At least the Camber Keeper works as a nice and easy ski strap, the magnetic “clip” that attach to the ski edge is pretty clever, I have to say. I am not sure if I would buy one based on that alone, but it’s a nice little feature anyway. Thanks to Urs for sending us the product. If you sell skiing related products – just go ahead and contact us, we are more than happy to test any skiing related products!

If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed or Email Newsletter. This article was written by Janne Niini and its original location is in HomeboySki.Com skiing blog.