Rudi Depowski had once again smashed his skis, shot irretrievably into the afterlife. A shark suddenly emerging from the wonderful powder head-on split his best pole in two. New skis are not on the cards, especially now that the biggest north jam since 1999 is looming within a week. What to do? Crystal clear: they have to build their own skis! A few desperate thoughts later, Rudi thinks of his buddy Tim. He can do anything: certainly build skis. Call, palaver ... it works. Tim has built himself a ski press and has already conjured up a few skis from the press, the necessary material is also there, so let's get to it! Once they arrive at Tim's, beer opened, the two of them sit down at the computer and draw the ski. Rudi knows exactly what he wants, so that's pretty quick. A powder ski with full throttle potential, the thing doesn't need to turn in the narrow forest, he doesn't like riding there anyway. The ski also has to lift 87 kilos of empty weight. So it quickly becomes clear what the ski has to be able to do. Steel girder model with a long and flat shovel. Quickly drawn, printed out and off we go. The two of them quickly build a template and use it to cut out the ski bases. A little sanding until everything looks good and then the ski edges are glued on with superglue.
The be-all and end-all of ski building: reward beer and good preparation
A fresh reward beer is needed now at the latest. Rudi and Tim still have to prepare the ski cores anyway and set the mold for pressing the skis, line them with foil and also adjust Rudi's desired ski shape. Tim is well equipped and everything runs like clockwork. Preparation is crucial, if you mess up you will be punished later, namely with a bad ski. So you have to work carefully. The bases with edges are ready, the wood cores are freshly sanded and the mold for pressing is also ready. The only remaining question is the design. A wood veneer as a decor. That's what Rudi wants. Alternatively, he could negotiate with his local beer supplier to pay for the ski material in exchange for his logo being displayed on the ski. Win-win, so to speak. To get the logo on the ski, the two of them could use a thin printed cotton sheet and a topsheet from the ski hardware store. That would work perfectly. But he'll do that on the next ski. But now it's really time for the two of them to start building. Everything is ready, all the fiberglass layers have been cut correctly and are ready, the mold and the base fitted into it are ready, the ski is pressed with a vacuum, so let's go!
Stamina and precision are required
First of all, open a stamina beer, because now nothing can go wrong. Mix the epoxy resin and spread it nicely on the surface, apply the glass fibers, fit the wood core, glass fibers again, the wood veneer and finally everything is packed into the vacuum bag as a nice package. Barely 40 minutes have passed, everything went well. Now the vacuum pump just needs to be connected and run smoothly. By now it's getting pretty late, so they end the evening with a well-deserved after-work beer. Early in the morning it's time to continue, the new skis have been in the vacuum bag in the well-heated workshop for 10 hours, which is easily enough. So we unpack them and it's like Christmas. Tim saws out the skis with a jigsaw and Rudi sands the good pieces on the sidewalls with sandpaper. He also removes any remaining adhesive tape and resin residue on the base, which is now rock hard. The ski can now be flexed for the first time. It has become a powder board like no other. The two congratulate each other. Rudi leaves the skis in a warm room for a few days after waxing so that they are finally hardened. Then it's off into the northern snow ... A perfect ride on his own sticks ... until the next shark arrives.
Outlook
In the following two episodes, you can find out how Tim, a thoughtful and experienced ski builder, builds his own skis in a detailed guide. Preparation and basics as well as the construction phase are explained in detail here. Episode two of the ski building seminar is all about the basic know-how of ski building and the necessary preparations. Text: Bernhard Scholz - As a balance to his work as a copywriter and concept developer together with his design partner (joteska.de), Bernhard has been building his own skis and instructing ski construction students at Pepperblue GmbH for over seven years. He is one of the co-initiators of the ski building seminars.
