About Edge Lab
Built to answer one question
"Why does my skiing feel like that?" Edge Lab is a free ski physics simulator. You set your body, boots, skis and snow; it shows what the ski is doing under you and ranks the likely causes of what you feel. It is a Dazlab product and Darren Clark's own project.
Why I built it
In Darren’s wordsMy quads burned by lunch. I knew why... I just couldn't fix it. My boots didn't fit, and my skis were way too stiff for someone sliding around inside his boots. So I kept asking the wrong question. Is it the skis?
I always had lessons. Worked on technique. But lessons happen in the morning on good snow, so none of it showed up. The afternoon did... chopped-up, irregular snow, and everything fell apart.
My feet are a strange shape. Duck feet, basically... narrow ankle, big calf, wide at the front. So boots either hurt, or they didn't hurt and didn't hold me either. Every bump and trough my foot moved inside the boot, and the rest of my body tried to compensate. That's where most of the other symptoms came from.
A few sessions with a good boot fitter. New liners, insoles, a booster strap... and OMG. Comfortable, and I could handle any snow thrown at me. More control of the skis, better balance, more energy at the end of the day. I even do up the top of my boots now.
Edge Lab is the thing I wished I'd had that season. It won't replace a good coach or a good fitter. It shows you the physics of what you feel, so you walk in already knowing what to say.
Darren, Dazlab
How the model works
Four steps, no formulae
The same engine runs the Lab, every feeling, every ski page and every comparison.
Your lift ticket.
Weight, skis, boots and snow. Four questions. Every page uses it, and nothing is saved unless you sign in.
The ski bends into the snow.
The ski is a bending beam on snow that pushes back like a bed of springs. Each ski has its own stiffness, camber, rocker and width; each snow type its own give and grip.
Pressure, edge hold, muscles.
Where the load goes along the ski, whether the edge holds at your angle, how far it sinks, and which muscle groups carry the turn. Boot play is lost and late movement.
Likely causes, ranked.
What you feel is matched against what the model shows, so the causes come out in order, each with how to tell it apart and what to try.
What it leaves out
Open the Lab and see it move- Two-ski (A-frame) physics: one ski is modelled, the inside ski is drawn.
- Measured flex: flex, camber, rocker and mount point are estimates, marked est., until a real number turns up.
- Anything about you it cannot see: injuries, fitness, nerves, the day you had.
Ski patrol says
Not lab data
An intuition builder. The percentages are relative to a typical skier, and your body will differ. Nothing here is accurate to a decimal.
Not medical advice
We record what people feel and never diagnose. Muscle fatigue is in scope. Pain or injury: see a physio.
Not a review site
We summarise reviews in our own words and link to the original. Affiliate links are labelled and never change a ranking.
Where the numbers come from
How every number on a ski page is sourced, and what is ours.
Ski specs
From the maker's public page, with the source and the date we read it beside every value. 1,056 skis from 36 brands so far.
Estimates
Flex, camber, rocker and mount point are blended from four teaching skis by waist and category. Marked est. and replaced by hand when a real number turns up.
Reviews
Our own summary of at most 600 characters, one short attributed quote, and a link. Never the full text. Some publications ask us not to read them, so they are not shown.
Resorts
OpenSkiMap, built from OpenStreetMap, under the Open Database Licence. Open downhill areas with at least one lift.
The crawler
EdgeLabBot reads robots.txt first, prefers sitemaps, waits between requests and backs off when a site is slow. Opt out with one line.
Prices
Where a maker does not print an RRP we show a retailer's, labelled as third-party, with the date.
Who’s behind it
Edge Lab is built by Dazlab, Darren Clark's studio in Australia, with the physics engine written in public: what worked, what the model got wrong, what changed. Say hello at hello@edgelab.ski.
