How it began
Jurij Franko, an engineering graduate of the University of Ljubljana, joined the ski maker Elan in 1987 as a lab manager. In 1988 he had the idea of a ski with a deep sidecut and set up a project called Sidecut Extreme, or SCX. His colleague Pavel Skofic calculated a suitable flex pattern, and the two built prototypes. By 1991 they had a finished mold for a 203 centimeter giant slalom race ski.
Before it existed
Skis of the time were close to straight. Ingemar Stenmark raced on an Elan shape with a sidecut depth of about 8 millimeters, giving a turning radius of about 41 meters. Anyone who bought a full-length Elan ski got the company's standard sidecut shape. Carving a clean turn on such skis took high edge angles and skill.
How it works
The 1991 race ski measured 110 millimeters at the tip, 63 at the waist and 105 at the tail, a sidecut depth of about 22 millimeters and a radius of 15 meters. Franko chose a turn radius and a speed, calculated the lean angle, and shaped the ski so that its edge matched the arc when tilted and bent into the snow. Because the ski followed the arc of the turn more easily, the skier needed less edge angle and could stand on a straighter, stronger leg.
How it spread
Other makers followed quickly. Kneissl showed its Ergo in 1992, and Atomic, Fischer and Head began designing skis with 15 millimeter sidecuts. One Austrian designer said that everything they thought they knew for forty years was wrong. The largest Western factories were slower because they were investing in cap ski molds, but by 1996 Salomon and Rossignol had shaped skis of their own. Elan's version became known as the parabolic ski.
What changed first
In its first local races, skiers on the SCX took eight of the top ten places. In April 1993 Elan's sales organizations saw the prototype, and sample pairs went to ski instructors in the United States, who reported that intermediate skiers could carve clean turns at once. Franko and Skofic then scaled the design down to a 163 centimeter adult ski and a 143 centimeter junior ski with the same radius. The SCX reached the market in the winter of 1993 to 1994.
What lasted
Franko and Skofic patented the SCX in 1994, and it is regarded as one of the most important inventions in the history of the ski. When the first shaped skis arrived in ski shops in 1993 they were, in the words of the International Skiing History Association, a revelation, and other makers moved to deeper sidecuts within a few years.
