Will Nordica warranty this?

[Silverton_Shane]

Day 2 on brand new Nordica Enforcers (love how they ski) ended with some disappointment when I noticed the damage in the pictures below. The damage was definitely caused by impact on a rock or a root but I'm surprised by how badly the top sheet separated (splintered wood visible in the split). Is this something Nordica will warranty or did I just get the most expensive 2 day demo ever? What do you think?

[Conundrum]

Doubt it. When you hit something, it's your fault. If the ski delams because of back glue, it's their fault. You can see the edge pushed up so pilot error. I doubt Ford would warranty my bumper when I run my F150 into a tree.

What I would do is call their warranty dept., be honest, and ask for a match at your cost. Or even better, have your local shop do that. If Nordica won't help with a match, inject some epoxy in there, clamp it, and make that is your outside edge forever.

[mntlion]

warranty is again "manufactures defects" you hitting a rock, is not that..

sorry.

fill with 24 hour epoxy, mask off the extra areas, heat the epoxy so it flows into the cracks.

maybe ask nordica if you can buy a cheap, used single ski?

[mtskier]

def not a warranty.

I hope you bought them locally, cause your best bet is to get a ski shop on your side to communicate to nordica the situation, and hope for the best.

sorry and good luck.

[Silverton_Shane]

Thank you. I assumed as much but wanted to see what others thought. Great suggestions about asking to purchase a match from Nordica. Hopefully I can work something out!

[marshalolson]

the nicer you are and the more accepting you are of your role in the situation, the more likely they will be to style you out... both if you are talking to the shop and if you are talking to the brand.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Damn, I've hit all kinds of rocks on my 08 Enforcers. Hope the durability hasn't suffered moving to Austria and out of the (race room?) in Italy.

[Chowda]

Did you mount them? Just looking at where it is, I'm wondering if the holes were not tapped, causing preload at the metal/wood interface. That could be way off, and probably impossible to prove, but it was the first thing I thought looking at it.

Does the damage make sense given the size of the impact?

[Silverton_Shane]

Hmm, I think you may be right. I don't think the damage makes sense based on the impact but there is also edge compression, which means I must have hit with some force. I've had much worse encounters with rocks and other obstacles and never done similar damage to a ski.

The whole process was a nightmare. A friend of a friend gave me a discount at a Christy's in Colorado but wasn't in when I picked them up. It was a morning pick-up and the bindings weren't mounted yet...I was in a rush to get on the snow that day (about 12" of new snow overnight) so I asked the guy who was there to mount them up. He made a huge mess of it. First, he tried to mount the narrow brakes bent way out. Even with the brakes up and retracted they still stuck out nearly 2 full inches from the skis and I had to plead with him to replace the brakes with the wider ones, which fit perfectly once he agreed to do it. Second, after the first run I did a base check because there was a small rock that I slipped over and I wanted to see how the bases had held up. No visible damage from the rock, but my buddy noticed that there were visible bumps where all 8 of the screws had been drilled on both skis. We went right back to the shop (at the end of the day, didn't want to miss out on a powder day) and the manager looked at, and acknowledged, that the screw marks were clearly visible on the bases. The friend who gave the discount was in this time and took a look too. He said that these skis in particular are shallow and that the Marker screws push a very small amount too far, but that it is no big deal. He said that after I had the bases ground once the bumps should all be gone and that I would be good to go. I was (and still am) skeptical about the explanation but I didn't want to push it with the guy who had hooked up a decent discount. I had the bases ground, the bumps were gone, so let it be. That was probably my big mistake...despite the discount I think I should have pushed to have the skis replaced at this point. The next day is the day I ended up with the topsheet split.

I brought the ski back to the friend of a friend to look at again (at this point I feel terrible because this poor guy hooked me up with a discount and I've come back twice with issues). He told me to throw in some epoxy, clamp it and I'd be fine and that there wasn't much he could do. I had already done the epoxy/clamp fix prior to the above pictures it split again (worse than the first time) after two groomer runs...

I spoke with Nordica today (people were very friendly) and although this isn't something they will warranty, if they do get a warranty return, they said they would send me the good ski from the return at no cost. However, they aren't sure if/when they will get a match (177cm if anyone out there has a single Enforcer...). They also recommended a potential fix: take the binding off, use a screw driver to further separate the top sheet, fill up the hole with epoxy and use a heat gun to really get the epoxy into the core, then clamp for 2-3 days. I will give that a go and hopefully be able to use these until a match turns up.

Thanks again for the tips.

[Wild4umlauts]

Yeah that definitely sucks.

Lesson learned = learn how to mount your own bindings (plenty of info available here) and keep 'em black side down on the white stuff.

BTW - Since you've already spoken with Nordica looks like you won't be getting a replacement, but in my experience there are manufacturers that will replace this kind of stuff under warranty. I think you probably just "volunteered" too much info. Both Elan and Stockli have replaced damaged skis for me and I never said anything about how the damage happened and they never asked. I just waited and got new skis a few months later both times.

[Silverton_Shane]

I should have followed-up on this a long time ago. End result was that Nordica sent me a new pair at cost plus shipping and let me keep the damaged pair (which I gave to a friend who patched them up and is enjoying them). Great result from my perspective (I also mount my own bindings now). Thank you Nordica.