Ski Cambers and Their Affect on Glide
Today, most Classic skis are made of fiberglass and have what is known as a double camber construction. This double camber construction mixes the camber at the tip and tail of the ski with the a camber in the middle of the ski for the wax pocket. The tip and tail camber is designed so that the skier's weight is evenly distributed along the length of the ski. The wax pocket camber is designed to keep the kick wax on a ski from contacting the snow until the skier engages the wax pocket with a 'kicking' motion. For skate skis, there is no wax pocket, but most skate skis are still made with a double camber construction. The main difference in cambers between a skate ski and a Classic is that the skier should not be able to fully compress a properly fitted skate ski, but should be able to fully compress a properly fitted Classic ski.
What affect does the camber have on the gliding capabilities of a ski though? Well, the camber of Classic skis cause the ski to have less of a contact zone than that of a skate ski. With less of a contact zone, a skiers weight is more focused at the contact points which creates a larger normal force than the normal force in skate skis. With a larger normal force, the Classic skis will tend to have a higher amount of friction than skate skis. This is why skate skiing is generally faster than Classic skiing. But when the temperatures are really cold, a Classic ski will become faster than a skate ski. This is because of the greater amount of friction. The Classic skis will have enough friction to create small sheet of water in the colder conditions; whereas the skate skis won't be able to have enough heat from friction to create a suitable sheet of water to glide on top of.