Ski Builders Forum

Finally! On this Friday it was the big day of my "You never win friends with salad"!! Blackcomb Glacier Express opened! I was one of the first 50 people on the top and I was the first one in that huge snow field under the lift. The first 10 curves where great. Steep terrain, deeeeeep powder. And the skis were great!! The drive and the flex were perfect! That was the best run in my life! My new skis under my feet, they worked perfect and I was the first time in Canadian powder! Suddenly, bang! I crushed into a rock that I couldnt see, because it was under the snow. I lost one ski, but I could find it again, checked for damage. The edge had a scratch, the base too. The wood core (which is also my sidewall) was slivered on the surface, but only a little bit. That sucks I thought, but after the run I also thought: Ok, you damaged your skis, but they seem to be really robust, although the impact was really hard, they didnt broke! Nice.

Today I opened my skibag, I wanted to put some epoxy on the sidewall, so that the core stays dry. And what did i see? the core is cracked over 15 cm!!!

How could that happen? Can someone explain me that? And how can I avoid that on the next ski? And how could I repair it? With epoxy?

How can I upload a picture?

Thanks,
Karsten

i uploaded a video and 2 pictures of the crack:

http://www.stud.uni-karlsruhe.de/~uryo/blackcomb/

I think you gave us a bad link because I only see two pictures with a guy on them. I also can't see a scratch on their face ;-)

I suppose that the core cracked at the impact. You should be careful when season start: powder on top of rocks is a pretty dangerous stuff.
To fix it ,y ou should pure some resin into the crack and press the pieces together.

sorry, i uploaded the wrong pictures... i will upload the right ones when i come back from whistler.

cu
karsten

i uploaded a new picture of the crack. its the same link.

Here's my $0.02.
Looks like you've just used one plank for each ski as opposed to laminating method. Is that right?
The crack looks like it's along the grain. Is that right?

I wonder if it was just a defect in the wood itself that you didn't catch earlier. Maybe this is why laminating method is recomended.

Good looking skis BTW.

yes, its only one piece of wood. now i know that the next ski will be better! i had another look on the ski today and the crack is not as wide as it was. i hope i can fix it with epoxy.

thanks!
karsten