3.15-16.07 Kaweah: Sawtooth Nat. Forest, ID and Snowbird, UT

[bigKam]

my two friends (Chris Cass and Skip Swenson) and i traveled to ski in the Wasatch mountains in Utah this past week. on our way we took a quick detour and i skied the Kaweah for the first time in the Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho -- the Magic Mountains to be exact. it was a quick tour. i noted earlier that the Kaweahs are very soft. in fact, they're too soft for my taste, but i decided to ride them as hard as possible for the fun of it (and a good cause). here's a photo taken by Chris as i flex a Kaweah:


the previous day, i weighed them at Kelvin's place: 3.5 lbs/each. not bad.
my first impression after skiing them was they were easy to manuever, mostly due to their weight and the semi-deep sidecut i chose. the other thing that immediately caught my attention was they were extremely soft and i had to pay attention to where i loaded the ski. one thing for sure: there was not enough support at the tail to get sloppy, so i really had to stay balanced over the skis; otherwise, it was wheelie time! and of course, they felt damp, but i needed more proof, and skiing them inbounds would provide more meaningful vertical.

the next day (Friday) i skied Snowbird resort in Utah with a handful of friends. the weather was incredibly beautiful, but hot. spring conditions all over the mountain. at first i was concerned about how soft the Kaweah were and there was a good chance of breakage. but i set all reservations aside and skied them anyway. yes they're soft and yes i had to stay balanced, but they were surprisingly fun. by design the skis were incredibly damp -- the rubber, AL, and steel seems to make a difference. i skied them rather fast and felt very comfortable at high speed. the tips did not chatter and they maintained comfortable edge grip throughout the turn. even on hard-pack (and icy patches), they carved beautifully with good edge hold. i will continue to experiment with these materials.

the next day (Saturday), i skied Snowbird again and i met up with Wheezer (Tom) and powdercow (Ben), two members of our forum. it was nice to put faces to forum names. we had a great time chatting about skis and skiing. Tom had some beautiful skis and he skied them in great form. (unfortunately, i missed his son Armada. next time!) Ben's craftsmanship was impressive -- his skis looked like something that came out of a big-name factory -- very clean! he too was skiing very, very well. i was impressed and very excited to meet passionate skiers on homemade boards. thanks for skiing with me and my friends, Tom and Ben! i shot photos and videos of the two of them skiing. below are a few photos of Tom and Ben. i'll make a video soon and have it posted.

as for the Kaweah, i skied them even harder on this day. no breakage, just a big smile on my face at the end of the day. i'm cooking up another pair based on this design....

Wheezer (Tom)



powdercow (Ben)

[RoboGeek]

Ahh.. the joys of late-season sking! Sound like your design might kick butt with v.2

And I just have to say.. you guys suck!!! No more skiing till next year for me..

[hafte]

Glad you guys had fun, wish I could have made it down. As it turns out I got nothing done this weekend. I came down with bronchitis.

Kam the skis sound sweet. Could have been interesting to put a fat crack like me on them to see how they do. I have been very surprised at the range of peoples weights that work on the Doods. Everyone form 145-245 lbs. The lighter guys want a shorter ski for them.

Hafte

[rockaukum]

Good update on the skis and I'm sure great time with fellow builders! I was wondering why you figured that the new sticks were going to break? What was it that was going to happen? I have seen your "tests" on other skis and they look to hold up just fine.
RA

[freestyleskier]

Looks like u guys had a nice day of spring skiing, although, I wish winter had stayed a little bit longer( not enough powder days lol). Sorry i couldn't make it up, spending all of my money on my press right now haha.

I'm curious about the aluminum, I thought it would make the ski a lot stiffer? Was this maybe due to the maple core?

[bigKam]

freestyleskier: sorry we missed you. next time.

here's a quick video of the Kaweah in action (Click here (1.4 MB)). Note: i'm skiing them alpine-style on tele bindings, just to get a feel for how they perform at high speed.

i'll have some video of powdercow and Wheezer soon...

[powdercow]

Just wanted to insert my perspective on Saturday. It was without a doubt one of the best days I have had on skis. Kam’s posse (Skip, Todd, Eric, Cass, Jen, and Allyson) are ripping people and ripping skiers. From the first run in mineral basin it was obvious that this would be a day where I would need to push myself just to keep up, which of course led to a rather spectacular crash, I was glad Kam and his camera were already down the hill.
After a couple of runs we met up with Wheezer and his daughter and the ripping continued. Wheezer and I laughed about how both of us felt like we were on some sort of a pilgrimage to the ski building temple to visit the guru. Kam obliged us by looking the part, complete with elaborate headdress (partly visible in movie).
It was very fun to see that many homebuilt pairs in one place and talk skis with everyone. In fact we got so into our ski building discussions that I was afraid we were boring Kam’s friends. That is until they started throwing out ideas and suggestions of their own, including field replaceable dampening materials and a very unique topsheet material.
Watching Kam ski was also fun since the combination of soft ski and very smooth tele technique gave the illusion that he was drifting along effortlessly even at high speeds. It was actually a little deceptive or disorienting to watch. The thing that struck me the most about the whole day is how fun it might be to get everyone together sometime. This season is probably to far gone but maybe next spring we should plan something out. If there is interest I would be happy to help organize.

[G-man]

Rockin' on the Kaweah and lookin' really good.

pilgrimage to the ski building temple to visit the guru

I, too, hope someday to partake in said pilgrimage. Looks and sounds like a very good time.


bigKam,
Couldn't see the headdress too well, but sure do dig the red shades .

G-man

[Wheezer]

A picture on the home page of SkiBuilders! Even better than getting your picture on the cover of The Rolling Stone. I really enjoyed meeting up with Kam (Big) and Ben (powdercow). Both are awesome skiers. At first I thought Ben didn't bring his homemades cause they looked flawless. He really does nice work.
Neener neener to all of you who couldn't make it to Snowbird Saturday. Bluebird sky and great spring conditions. Next year let's all try to get together!

[allyson]

i don't know if i've ever been surrounded by so many homemade skis before this weekend...? (except in the garage) anyway it was a blast for sure being up at the 'bird, and i too enjoyed putting faces to names to skis. thanks for a great day you guys!

[bigKam]

just finished the video of powdercow and Wheezer skiing at Snowbird. click here to download (*.wmv, 8MB).

enjoy.

[powdercow]

Thanks for making that video Kam. As usual the quality is top notch. That is my first time watching myself ski and it's definitely humbling, so here's to many seasons of improvement. Skiing with ski builders is excellent so lets do it again soon.