All Mountain Tourer - From Perth W.A.......
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 5:22 pm
Hi Everyone,
Firstly, a huge thank you to this community for the plethora of resources and information available to budding skibuilding enthusiasts.
Secondly, I'm based in Perth Western Australia and have been stuck here since the pandemic struck. I have had a dream to build skis for 12 months and have finally completed the build of my first set. I video documented the entire process beginning to end and am in the process of editing that now. I was so happy with how My initial set turned out I wanted to share some photos with you all ahead of a more in depth writeup about my process and design methodology.
Some basic information:
- 100% laminated maple core and top sheet, tip to tail. Maple core was profiled to 1mm for the tips and tails. The topsheet was only profiled tip and tail to 1mm, the rest is 3mm. Total max ski thickness is 9mm, I wanted the topsheet to contribute to the performance of the ski.
- Flax fibre composite layers and carbon fibre stringers between core and base and core and topsheet. West Systems epoxy 105 and 206.
- vacuum layup, I have an industrial Dynavac vacuum pump and pulled a near perfect vacuum for approximately 17 hours.
- Dims are 115 - 89 - 114, 180cm in lenth, early rise tip and tail, camber approx 6mm graduating. Waterproofed finish using 100% Tung oil cut with gum turpentine to penetrate the topsheet and core, 4 coats. Ski only weight for the set is approximately 2kg, the flax really helped offset the maple, was incredible to feel the difference in fabric weight and amount of epoxy between glass and flax. I will do a weigh on digital scales in the coming days.
- An overall all mountain gun. Based on a race stock junior GS ski, sturdy yet playful enough for all conditions. Plenty of rebound and a fantastic consistent flex. A nice stiff tail for really pushing hard in harder snow with the forgiveness of the early rise in the tip and a loose tail for washing off speed. I'm weighing in at 62kg and 162cm, so I enjoy riding on slimmer skis for edge to edge speed in steeper "balls to the wall" terrain. Dynafit Beast 14 bindings, I have them on a set of Whitedot skis and have the helicoil inserts so I can swap and go etc.
My partner, dog and I are moving to France January 16 2022 permanently to be closer to the mountains. We are in the mountains, the perfect base to test my designs. I used to ski guide and instruct all over Australia, Colorado, Japan and Austria for nearly a decade so really looking forward to skiing again more consistently.
More write-up and photos/video to follow. Thanks again to the community, this has been a fantastic project and I've started on 2 more sets for my partner and big mountain set for myself.
Photos:
James.
Firstly, a huge thank you to this community for the plethora of resources and information available to budding skibuilding enthusiasts.
Secondly, I'm based in Perth Western Australia and have been stuck here since the pandemic struck. I have had a dream to build skis for 12 months and have finally completed the build of my first set. I video documented the entire process beginning to end and am in the process of editing that now. I was so happy with how My initial set turned out I wanted to share some photos with you all ahead of a more in depth writeup about my process and design methodology.
Some basic information:
- 100% laminated maple core and top sheet, tip to tail. Maple core was profiled to 1mm for the tips and tails. The topsheet was only profiled tip and tail to 1mm, the rest is 3mm. Total max ski thickness is 9mm, I wanted the topsheet to contribute to the performance of the ski.
- Flax fibre composite layers and carbon fibre stringers between core and base and core and topsheet. West Systems epoxy 105 and 206.
- vacuum layup, I have an industrial Dynavac vacuum pump and pulled a near perfect vacuum for approximately 17 hours.
- Dims are 115 - 89 - 114, 180cm in lenth, early rise tip and tail, camber approx 6mm graduating. Waterproofed finish using 100% Tung oil cut with gum turpentine to penetrate the topsheet and core, 4 coats. Ski only weight for the set is approximately 2kg, the flax really helped offset the maple, was incredible to feel the difference in fabric weight and amount of epoxy between glass and flax. I will do a weigh on digital scales in the coming days.
- An overall all mountain gun. Based on a race stock junior GS ski, sturdy yet playful enough for all conditions. Plenty of rebound and a fantastic consistent flex. A nice stiff tail for really pushing hard in harder snow with the forgiveness of the early rise in the tip and a loose tail for washing off speed. I'm weighing in at 62kg and 162cm, so I enjoy riding on slimmer skis for edge to edge speed in steeper "balls to the wall" terrain. Dynafit Beast 14 bindings, I have them on a set of Whitedot skis and have the helicoil inserts so I can swap and go etc.
My partner, dog and I are moving to France January 16 2022 permanently to be closer to the mountains. We are in the mountains, the perfect base to test my designs. I used to ski guide and instruct all over Australia, Colorado, Japan and Austria for nearly a decade so really looking forward to skiing again more consistently.
More write-up and photos/video to follow. Thanks again to the community, this has been a fantastic project and I've started on 2 more sets for my partner and big mountain set for myself.
Photos:
James.