Do new skis need tuning?

[Frenchman]

(See above disclaimer. Sadly it's too late for my feet, I made a couple mistakes with them and boots.)

 

[Henry]

Sometimes at the factory the skis are tuned before the epoxy in them is fully cured. This results in a cupped ski. It'll ski just awful until the bottoms are flattened. I've also had top quality skis where the structure is so coarse that, on the snow I was on that day, the skis darted around like the structure was fins telling the ski which way to go. It needed a good grind. And the edge angles can be either inconsistent or not what the skier likes.

A true bar or other precise straight edge is good for seeing if the bottoms are flat with two caveats. A coarse structure on a flat bottom will let light through the structure and look like a cupped ski. And a very wide ski with the inch or so along each edge flat but the center concave is OK...grinding that one truly flat would remove too much of the edges.

I've had new Head skis with cupped bottoms and other new Heads with superb factory tuning...except for my edge angles. And I had new Stöcklis with the too-coarse structure. My last two new pair got DPS Phantom bottom treatment that almost eliminates the need to wax.

 

[Slim]

I have been reading the Skialper buyers guide (for AT skis), and they check the tune on each ski the review. I would say at least 80% of the 30 or so reviews I read had issues with the tune.

I also don’t see why you would use a ski without waxing, unless you were in a huge hurry.
Ski bases need lots of wax. Some brands do better at prepping the bases than others, but Why risk it? Another wax layer cerainly won’t make them worse.

 

[Atomicman]

There is a fair amount of generalizations and misstated info here.

The correct way to measure the base bevel is 60MM across the ski. 1 MM of gap 60MM across the ski when your true-bar matches the edge = a 1 Degree base edge bevel (.5 =1/2 Degree) forget the .0035 BS on the edge.

If a ski is simply concave in the center but is flat about 10MM in from each edge it will ski just fine.

Folks know what their ski should feel like. The ski shouldn't be fighting you to control them and they should come on and off edge smoothly, no grabiness. But generally speaking an inaccurate tune isn't going to do this unless they are under-beveled in the tip and tail. Almost 100% of the time a hanging burr is the issue. I have had many a shop tune that made my skis worse not better......in fact it's what prompted me to learn to tune myself.

If a rec skier can't tell their skis are are skiing poorly , it is probably not a tune issue. Hanging burr is usually what the problem is, yes even on new skis. And I submit anyone can tell if that is the case.

My advice is to the OP is scrape the travel wax off 'em have them properly waxed and skip the tune for now. Go ski them and see what you think. If you are happy with the performance that's all that is needed for now.

If your skis are fighting you, have 'em tuned and be sure they knock off the hanging burr as the last step in the tuning process.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

What makes it harder is the skis are for my son, who is a beginner like me. I'm not sure if we could detect or correctly recognize a tune problem.