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June, 2025

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The case for comp jocks to remove their brakes

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alpineplease
Posts: 2797 - Karma: 1,804
Just rewatched Kelly Sildaru's second olympic run with a stomped switch 10 - that resulted in a ski getting hung up and popped off after landing switch. Been seeing a lot of switch landings this olympics with skis popping off. Wondering why athletes don't just clip their brakes - keep the integrity of the binding - but remove the steel brakes that happen to cause disaster on a switch landing.

tldr; remove the steel brake prongs for comp athletes to keep their shoes on.

My '08 bentchetlers had the brakes chopped, never ran into this issue.

Thots?
3 years ago
14 0
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CatdickBojangles
Posts: 6489 - Karma: 66,545
It’s all fun and games til someone’s ski pops off on the bottom jump of the slope course and decapitates half of Eileen Gu’s child labor ski tuning team.
3 years ago
84 0
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Malcolm
Posts: 15953 - Karma: 9,501
We're due for a brake redesign. I always thought it would be cool if there were brakes that rotated outwards so that they wouldn't get mangled if the ski popped off in switch.
3 years ago
16 0
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TheButterHashira
Posts: 9691 - Karma: 1,702
^ Yeah it seems like a fine idea until a freak accident happens and a runaway ski gets someone bad.

Its hard for a ski to pop off if you're landing perfectly. I didn't see the sw 10 with the lost ski, but she likely was landing with lots of rotation, or on a heavy edge or something for her brake to get hung up.

Maybe if they secure the bottom of the course, or have some spotters available to retrieve any skis then it would make sense. Just seems to me like the risk of a runaway ski is a bigger concern than someone getting robbed of a good run because of equipment malfunction.
3 years ago
5 0
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Squirtle
Posts: 288 - Karma: 1,584
Wasn't He Jinbo riding without brakes in qualifiers? Not entirely sure it was him, but someone was. Kinda sketch honestly haha
3 years ago
2 0
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armchair_skier
Posts: 2706 - Karma: 34,684
I ride pivots and sometimes the brakes just remove themselves
3 years ago
16 0
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sexyjulian
Posts: 873 - Karma: 11,245
CatdickBojanglesIt’s all fun and games til someone’s ski pops off on the bottom jump of the slope course and decapitates half of Eileen Gu’s child labor ski tuning team.


Yo 🤣 💀
3 years ago
3 0
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Jibber1.3
Posts: 19 - Karma: 84
Didn't bobby brown use to cut off the inside brakes on his skis?
3 years ago
6 0
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asparagus
Posts: 2500 - Karma: 28,453
TheButterHashiraIts hard for a ski to pop off if you're landing perfectly.

marker squires have entered the chat
3 years ago
19 0
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DominatorJacques
Posts: 11247 - Karma: 76,550
alpinepleaseJust rewatched Kelly Sildaru's second olympic run with a stomped switch 10 - that resulted in a ski getting hung up and popped off after landing switch. Been seeing a lot of switch landings this olympics with skis popping off. Wondering why athletes don't just clip their brakes - keep the integrity of the binding - but remove the steel brakes that happen to cause disaster on a switch landing.

tldr; remove the steel brake prongs for comp athletes to keep their shoes on.

My '08 bentchetlers had the brakes chopped, never ran into this issue.

Thots?


You are nuts. Some ski brakes come way up out of the way, but some don't.
The snow was grabby AF, so those skis should have popped with the way the skis hit.
Better to drop a ski than lose a knee.
Folks who ride park seem to like those FKS, whatever things, but the damn brakes don't go high enough, and retract inward at all, but that's another story.
3 years ago
2 5
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snomaster
Posts: 3348 - Karma: 5,783
was it colby or alex that said they caught brakes on a takeoff in the slope finals?
3 years ago
5 0
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weastcoat
Posts: 6508 - Karma: 75,459
Ride higher din on pivots, problem solved.
3 years ago
1 4
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RyanG603
Posts: 94 - Karma: 535
MalcolmWe're due for a brake redesign. I always thought it would be cool if there were brakes that rotated outwards so that they wouldn't get mangled if the ski popped off in switch.


Look should def do this with the pivot, their heelpiece already rotates 360, they should have their brakes pivot back and forth, just with a limit so they still work at the end of the day.
3 years ago
1 0
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GrandThings
Posts: 3326 - Karma: 34,428
On Mathilde's first run when she fell on the first rail it looked like some sort of binding issue. Idk exactly what happened but when she got to the bottom and was waiting for her score one of her brakes was totally fucked up.
3 years ago
1 0
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KCoCM
Posts: 963 - Karma: 8,787
seems like having a small elastic piece to connect say they heel piece of the binding to a small knub on the back of the boot wouldn’t be too hard and would prolly do a good enough job keeping the ski from shooting into the crowd. only problem with something like that is when colby double ejects again and instead of his skis falling off and out of the way he is dragging them through the air getting all tangled and mangled. so ya prolly not a good solution
3 years ago
1 0
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3mania
Posts: 2653 - Karma: 10,894
I have a devised an (almost) fool proof remedy for this problem. It involves rubber bands of different thicknesses and a carbiner. I'm gonna test it for the rest of the season and I'll release the findings from my experience with this fix for specifically Pivot brake issues.
3 years ago
3 0
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alpineplease
Posts: 2797 - Karma: 1,804
Alex. Qualies
snomasterwas it colby or alex that said they caught brakes on a takeoff in the slope finals?
3 years ago
3 0
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