Talk:Elan SCX

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A fact from Elan SCX appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 February 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that the first parabolic ski, the Elan SCX, was initially dismissed as a fad but today is considered a major design breakthrough? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2012/February. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Elan SCX.

Recently an anon editor added a short section on Andrej Robic, a designer at Elan. The section claims that it was Robic that introduced the screw-set skis that were used to experiment with different sidecuts. This may be the case, but if so there is little documentary evidence to support this. What there is, in the form of two Design Patents, D287869 and D294962, show a design with a slot cut into the ski. At first glance this might appear to be similar, but close examination will show there is no screw adjustment in either version, simply some sort of rod device to keep the two halves parallel. So what were these cuts for? The patents don't' say, but based on the location I strongly suspect they were an attempt to reduce longitudinal twisting to allow the edges of the skis to stay flatter on the snow - similar to designs like the Swallowtail that was somewhat famous at the time. In any event, the patent clearly shows a design with basically no sidecut, no means of adjusting it, and none of the images show anything like the sidecut being adjusted.

I'm inclined to suggest this section is wrong, but not utterly so. I'll keep looking for supporting statements, but so far nothing.

Maury Markowitz (talk) 20:12, 16 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I spent some additional time looking into this, and could not find any documentary evidence of Andrej Robic's role in the SCX design. I have removed the section. Maury Markowitz (talk) 17:27, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm would like to question the notion of how the major players ignored or resisted the development, which is prevalent in this article. In particular, I think the following passage needs a review:

By 1994 a number of smaller companies had introduced parabolic skis of their own, including the Atomic S-Ski and similar Kneissl Ergo (which developed from Olin's earlier models). Fischer joined the fray with the 15 mm sidecut Ice and there was a similar model from Head, the Cyber 24.[12][13] The large conglomerates, Salomon, Rossignol and K2, continued to ignore...

Is it really right to classify Atomic and Fischer as "smaller companies" here? It could be they were a smaller in a than the other companies mentioned in terms of overall sales, but what seems to be implied is that they were small(er) and/or insignificant in a more general sense. Their Wikipedia pages seem to suggest that this was not the case, and they quite definitely had a presence in World Cup racing etc. Also, remember that Salomon only recently had become a ski producer at this stage - see ^[1]. 193.69.193.14 (talk) 16:04, 3 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]