new skibuilder - new skis

[SleepingAwake]

As kitesurfer my brother and i built about 40 kiteboards and skatebords. But if you life in switzerland, kitesurfing isn't the best free time acticity for you.

So i decided to build a pair freeskis to expand my quiver to rip powder

the dimensions are 183 * 135/104/118 and i will use them mainly for snowkiting.




the bottom side (not sanded yet):


the touring binding is mounted with metrical screws in stainless inserts:




the topsheet is printed with a laser printer. usually i'm painting my boards, but i thought that isn't the right thing for a ski...
however - it didn't tourn out very well.



the sidewall is made of birch plywood


the first who ripped the ski


and some impressions out of the factory










the "lightweight press". just wanted something simple for the first pair, and it didn't worked to bad. the sandwich is pressed together in a vacuum, then the press is bending the whole thing to get the profile:






so... with the final result im pretty happy. there are several things i'm going to change at the next pair, but i think thats normal.

Aloha, Reto

[skidesmond]

Very nice, especially for your first pair! Let us know how they ski.

[Misha]

I like your design! It is very sweet
sidewalls - plywood?
congratulate on the first experience. Look perfectly!!!

[Jibber]

Very nice ski as known from your kiteboards.

Cheers, Christoph

PS: I like the coop naturaplan bio epoxy (swiss insider)

[Richuk]

Great job - will be interested to hear how well they deal with Snowkiting. What's the deal with the bio-epoxy guys?

[Jibber]

Great job - will be interested to hear how well they deal with Snowkiting. What's the deal with the bio-epoxy guys?

Reto mixed his epoxy in an empty bio yoghurt cup. So just fun...

Cheers, Christoph

[SleepingAwake]

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I had now the opportunity to ride them two times. Not yet with the kite, because there wasn’t enough snow on the snowkitespot to ride the new skis…





The first ride then in perfect fluffy powder - and they did a great job. Maybe a little more lift wouldn't be bad, but that’s already everything negative I could find.

Then the second time. The snow was, well, let’s say “difficult”.

It was to warm and the strong wind did the rest.


In these conditions they didn’t performed very well. It felt like they were to loose and a little unpredictable. I’m not a pro skier and a smaller ski is for sure a better choice for such conditions, so I will continue testing them. Maybe it was just my fault



and it was fun anyway…

[Richuk]

Flysurfer - quality! Really impressed by the low tech approach guys. Looking forward to future updates when conditions improve!