Global Skiing

This is a remastered release (2018) of one of the most eye-opening conversations I’ve ever had about skiing.Before I had proper mics or a real podcast setup, I sat down with Jurij Franko - the physicist, former racer, and engineer behind the original shaped-ski revolution at Elan. The audio is now cleaned up, and I’m thrilled to bring this episode back because it genuinely changed how I understand skis.Jurij’s story starts in the late 80s, when he became the first person to apply mathematics to ski design. His work validated the idea of sidecut and helped spark the carving era we now take for granted. In this episode, he explains the thinking and experiments that shifted skiing from tradition to science — and the breakthroughs that came from asking the questions no one else was asking.We dive into ski behaviour in a way few people can articulate:• why a ski carves vs. skids• how torsional stiffness and center of mass influence grip• the real physics behind vibration and “feel”• and why so many long-standing b