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Section8 2011-2012

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2011 5:42 pm
by skidesmond
I got a chance to test out the ski school ski today. The conditions were frozen granular in the morning and softened up during the day. The terrain was very limited, basically 1 trail. But there was enough terrain to crank out turn after turn. The skis held a great edge all day in hard and sift snow. Nice flex and firm torsionally. (btw typing this on my wife's new iPad. Nice machine but not familiar with cut/paste or working multiple screens/sites :) but I may have to get one :) I'll add more detail later when I get on the desk top)

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 2:03 pm
by skidesmond
Yesterday I skied both skis. The ski school ski (now known as the "dia de los muertos" skis) was awesome. Got to spend some time on them and really leaned into them, they never gave up. It's a keeper!

The all wood ski ("Wicked Wood"??) also was good. Didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked skiing on them as I wanted. The first I crashed and burned, the heel wasn't adjusted for properly and I had too much play and as soon as I cranked my first hard turn I went down and ski took off. Once I go them adjusted all was fine. The radius is about just under 17m. Big difference from dia de los muertos skis. Also the Wicked Wood skis much firmer. It's all maple core with a 3-12-3 dims. Holds very nice so far.

Hopefully I'll get some more time on them this week and will report back.

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:39 am
by skidesmond
Thought I'd give an update on the 3 skis I made this season.

Dia De Los Muertos - (Day of the Dead skis)

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These skis have been 100% great, not a single disappointment. I made them to be on the soft side yet torsionally rigid. I built them exclusive to be the ski I use for teaching. The topsheet held up ok. They got more banged up the ski storage room at the hill than on the slopes. These ski carve on any condition and hold beautifully. At times I could practically get my hip to touch the snow when cranking out turns and these skis held up. Very happy!

Lot's of compliments and questions about the graphics :-)

And being the season it's been here in the New England, I could not have asked for a better ski. So this ski design is a keeper!


Next the Poly-U ski:

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Another great ski that I'm extremely happy with this season and another keeper! This ski is an experiment in using poly-urethane glue (Gorilla Glue) in place of epoxy. All the tests I ran said it would bond to the materials so I gave it a try. So far this ski has stay bonded! No delams at all. Now I'll just need more days on the ski for durability but I think it will hold up.

I'm using this ski as a racing ski for out beer league racing. Is performs great and I'm having a great season on it. It's a bit shorter than last year GS skis I raced on. That was a 180 all maple skis and a very firm flex. This ski is a 175cm. It's also a bit softer in flex but still torsionally rigid. A great combo!! I think this ski has allowed me to turn quicker and get over to the other edge quicker.... at least it feels that way and my times/placement have improved slightly from last year. No Olympic or World Cup medals on the horizon but a lot of fun!

So this is another design that is a keeper. As for the continue use of poly-u glue, I'll wait till I have more time on the ski. But it seems to be working.

Lastly the "Woodie"-

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This is the all wood ski with a typical wood core that's vertically laminated and then poplar veneer horizontally laminated in place of FG. For me this is a fat ski. Patterned after the Rossi S86. It also came out very firm since the wood core was +12mm, layering 2 layers of poplar each being 1.5mm made the ski pretty firm. Torsionally I'm not sure the ski can be bent/twisted :-). That's the part I like.

I had the chance to ski all day on it yesterday at Stratton Mtn Vt. Conditions were packed powder with loose top of 1-3in fresh snow and frozen granular. Typical N.E conditions. Got quite a few inquiries about the ski. People are very intrigued with hand made skis. That's goes for all the skis in this post.

What I liked:
- Carved very nice.
- Great at nice big GS style turns
- Great edge hold
- Shorter turns ok, but more work

What I didn't like:
- Chatter. I noticed on my first run I hit a steep and hard pack area (not quite ice, but that white hard pack snow) with some speed. When I tried to hit the breaks hard the ski chattered hard! Like going over mini ski bumps very fast. I had to quickly change my edge or my fillings would have come lose :-) Since there's no dampening material to speak of I'm contributing that chatter to that. However, I also noticed the chatter subsided when I stayed balance on the front of the skis. When I was up to straight or in the back seat even a little bit, the chatter came back. So once I discovered that I just stayed forward and balanced and that took care of 90% of the chatter. So the chatter only occurred during heavy braking for the most part or side slipping on hard pack too fast.

- Retrospect I think a 10mm core would have been plenty. I may make another ski like this next season. I would like to pursue this all wood ski concept more.

Not sold on the wide ski for typical N.E. conditions. If there was say 6in of fresh snow I think this ski would have been perfect for that type of snow conditions. I have skied the ski in soft snow and it perfectly fine. Of course I'm basing my experience of fat skis solely based on this ski so take it with a grain of salt.

So a full day of skiing on these was great and it was nice to get some vertical in for a change. Skied from 9:30-3:30 non-stop (15 min lunch, pee break) was pooped at the end of the day but with a fat grin!

This ski was also made using Poly-U glue.

Overall a thumbs up. When I found the sweet spot, which is narrow, I was happy. I'll make more all wood skis next season but try a GS or more traditional width ski.

That's it for now. SKI ON!

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:00 pm
by Richuk
I think we are all lost when it comes to finding the words. I'm going to stick with 'Outstanding', although I'm happy to share!

Rich

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:59 pm
by uncski
Awesome!

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:38 pm
by Buz
Agreed, great write-up Desmond! Love the woodies

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 4:19 pm
by vinman
Nice write up and your skis look great Des, but I have to disagree on your description of topics NE conditions, least people think that the EC doesn't get powder. You should come up to Smuggs sometime and I'll show you around and how good they "typical" NE conditions can really be.

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 6:06 pm
by skidesmond
Yea maybe I'm a little to harsh about the conditions. But down here in Mass it has been 99% man made, machine groomed to the Nth degree. I just haven't been able to travel to the real snow.

Some day I'll take you up on your offer about Smugs. I haven't been there in 20+ yrs. I checked out the pics of Stowe a couple weeks ago and it looked a like winter should look.

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:06 pm
by vinman
I hear you on the low snow totals, especially this year, very frustrating. We are probably done ~1/3 our more from our usual level. But we have had some decent skiing with some powder even.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:36 pm
by skidesmond
I know this post is from last season but I wanted to give an update on the Poly-U ski. I'm using it again this year for our wed night race league. It's holding up great, no signs of delam or other malfunctions. I refinished the top sheet w/ a light sanding and fresh coat of poly. Tuned the ski and so far had 2 successful nights of racing on them.

(* read my other post about using Poly-U glue if you're thinking about using it *)

Ski On!