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WATERSKI MagazineFor the first time since the days of the TRC, you can ski on the exact same O'Brien ski used by world record holder and world champion Andy Mapple. That may not sound like such a big deal until you realize that once Mapple got on the new ski this past fall, he went on a tear. He ran 39.5 off an amazing 17 out of 18 rounds on O'Brien's innovative G4 Siege (which he helped design).
O'Brien opened everyone's eyes two years ago with the introduction of the G3 Revenge, a ski that incorporated features such as flex adjusters, hourglass perimeter shaping and pressure release flutes. In 1996, it added an anti-drift mini-fin. The all-new G4 Siege takes the design revolution a step further with an adjustable rocker system that enables skiers to actually change the turning characteristics of the ski. Here's how it works: In the top of the ski, beginning under the rear binding and extending to the fin block, is a long, narrow channel. It is just deep enough to lay two small stainless steel rods, about 3/16-inch in diameter, on top of one another. On the other end, the top rod enters the fin block and is constrained into a blind hole. The bottom rod passes through the fin block, where an adjustment nut tensions it. When the bottom rod is tensioned, the top rod is forced into compression, which makes the rods bend. The ski bends in response because the rods are captive inside.
O'Brien didn't stop there. It added a variable side-wall thickness (thinner in the tip and tail and wider under the bindings) and conical (half tunnel, half concave) bottom. With these major designs, the test team found the G4 to be more forgiving and stable in the turns than the G3, which established a love/hate relationship with skiers. The test team consistently reported four things about the new ski: 1) very stable and almost impossible to blow out the tail; 2) you can carry speed and still make a tight-radius turn; 3) you must be aggressive behind the boat, but the ski stays with you even when are in trouble; and 4) the ski seems slow, but you are always wide and early.
