Blog – Fin Whispering

Avoid Doing Damage When Adjusting a Tight Fin

You can hardly wait to try the latest setup numbers for your ski. But when you loosen the fin block, and try to move the fin, it won’t budge. Not [...]

DFT (Distance From Tail) Measurement Made Easy

The tails of most skis are a collection of round surfaces making it nearly impossible to get an accurate DFT (Distance From Tail) reading. Here’s a simple way to take [...]

D3’s NRG Compared to the ARC

D3’s new release of the NRG has a lot of skiers wondering how it’s different from the ARC. I haven’t done a back-to-back comparison between the two, but I’ve spent [...]

When Should I Adjust My Ski Setup?

Skiers who’ve never played with their setup may find themselves wondering when might be the best time to pursue an improvement. How do you know when to stray from the [...]

Binding Placement and Smear

The more testing and tuning I do, the more I realize how critical it is to fine-tune binding placement to control smear—especially through the middle of the turn. If your hips are less [...]

Long/Shallow vs. Short/Deep Fin Setup

If you’ve hung around many starting docks, you’ve probably heard hotshot slalom skiers talking about their preferences for long/shallow or short/deep fin setups. If you’ve found yourself wondering what they’re talking [...]

Radar Vapor Gets a Thinner Fin

The new Vapor Pro Build has a thinner fin than last year’s Vapor. Yes, it will feel slightly faster than the old fin, but the bigger story is in how [...]

Porsche Cayman GTS vs. the Tail of the Dragon

As much as I love my new life in water skiing, there are times I miss my former life as a race car driver. So I’m going off topic here [...]

Tuning the Schnitz Speed Slot Fin

I’ve recently had a few skiers ask what I think of the Schnitz slot fin and speed slot fin. Personally, I think they have a lot of merit, and I’ve [...]

Binding Spacing

It’s widely believed that mounting the bindings further apart “should” provide a more stable stance, but maybe not. Clearly, a wide stance on solid ground is more stable than a [...]

Who Needs Ski-Tuning?

Water Ski Setup Matters to Skiers of All Abilities Moving the fin on a slalom ski by the width of one human hair can change the ski’s behavior enough to be noticed [...]

How to Make Precise Fin Adjustments

Adjusting fin settings with any degree of accuracy is an acquired skill. While it’s not too hard to get fin depth (FD), fin length (FL), and distance from tail (DFT) [...]

Fin Length vs. Leading Edge

It’s commonly believed that fin length is a measure of tip-sensitivity, e.g. making fin length longer will make it easier to engage more of the water ski’s tip—especially during offside turns. [...]

All Slalom Skiers Should Own a Caliper

It’s not unusual to find an avid skier with their own 8″ caliper tucked into their water ski gear bag. But this sight should be a lot more common than it is. In fact, [...]

Should You be Skiing With a Wing on Your Fin?

Modern skis all come with wings, so why do so many good coaches suggest that novice skiers remove the wings from their skis? Here is some information that may help [...]

Fine-Tuning Binding Placement

If your bindings are screwed to your ski using the middle mounting holes, you may be leaving significant performance on the table. The middle mounting holes may get you close to [...]

Cold Water Skiing

There may not be a more controversial topic in the water ski world than how to best adjust a ski for really cold water. Not to worry, I’ve got it [...]

What is Smear?

Smear is a relatively new term to water skiing describing one of the key dynamics of ski behavior. Since understanding ski behavior is a prerequisite to understanding ski-tuning, we need [...]

Welcome to FinWhispering.com

Welcome to the Fin Whispering website and blog. This site is dedicated to promoting best practices in slalom skiing, water ski setup and custom ski-tuning; to establishing a common descriptive [...]

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