DR STRANGE LOVE (Pin-tail Design)

Specifications

tip-wait-tail: 136-126-113 mm
length: 174 cm
tail-tip type: twin-tip
materials: Purpleheart veneer, triaxial fiber glass (22 oz.), core (maple, and poplar sidewalls) and UHMW tip and tail spacers, triaxial braided fiberglass (2-layers), clear base material and edges.

Miscellaneous

weight: n/a
tipspacer:  wood
inserts: none
width of wood core strips:  n/a
epoxy:  QCM; resin: EMV-0049; hardener: ECA – 408 (45 minute set); 4 to 1 mixing ratio
bladder pressure:  45 psi
duration of pressing:  heated press -  110-degrees F for 5 hours, then 170-degrees F for 30 min, and finally cooled in the press under pressure ( see our heated press)
other: wood veneer topsheet

Graphics - wood veneer, natural.

Builder -   Kelvin Wu

Date Manufactured - January 2006

Comments (by Kelvin Wu)

I really liked how easy the Upper Krusts are to turn and how well they worked in the deep. However, they are a handful on hard snow and the turns on them are more sliding turns than carving type turns.  The idea behind the Dr. Stangeloves was to keep the easy turning and powder performance while trying to make the ski a little more versatile. I thought moving the widest point away from directly underfoot would help stability and making it a pintail would keep them floating and make them easy to turn. The widest part of the ski is about 10” back from the tip.

This is the first pair of skis made using the zero camber heated press. I was afraid of getting the same camber problems due to thermal expansion as our previous few skis, so I was fairly conservative on the heat; 110 f for 5 hours to set the epoxy and 30 minutes at 170 f for post cure. It turned out perfect and there is zero camber.

I’ve wanted to try wood veneers for a while and was able to order some from the internet. They are pretty easy to work with and on these, I just laid them on top of the fiberglass with no topsheet.  I was expecting to varnish the top for protection, but the epoxy soaked through the veneer and created a nice smooth surface. There are a few spots that the epoxy did not soak through and that is why there are some splotchy spots.  The epoxy also turned the wood brown, whereas the parts that didn’t get soaked remained purple. I put a coat of varnish on the top and sidewalls.

How do they ride?

Jackson Hole, WY 1/12-1/17 After a just a few turns, these skis live up to their name. I was hooting and hollering like Slim Pickens riding the nuclear bomb in the movie. I got to try them out in all conditions, ranging from 8” of fresh untracked, to cut up snow, moguls, and machined corduroy. They worked great in all these conditions, but were really fantastic in the powder and cut up stuff. Even in the harder groomed runs, they performed well. The only thing I noticed on the groomers is that the tails tend to wash out on the last ¼ of a turn, especially tele turns; parallel turns weren’t as bad. It was predictable, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing high speed turns. The width of the ski also made shorter radius turns a chore. I brought 3 pairs of skis on this trip and used the Dr. Strangeloves for most of the time.