Imagine and build your dream ski

[DGamms]

Ok, warning. More mental masturbation forthcoming. Not a lot of work and lots of time on my hands, sorry!

But here’s the question: if you could build your own custom dream ski, what would you build and why? Length, dimensions, weight, mount point, rocker/camber profile, flex, core materials, topsheet design, etc...

I’m lucky enough to have a friend who is super into ski building, so I got the opportunity to do something close to this a few months ago.

For me personally (5’ 9”, 145lbs, old man skier trying to progress in the park each season), I was hoping to design a do-it-all Park City ski for me. Something I could ski in the park and also ski all mountain with on low tide days. Compared to the other skis in my quiver, I basically wanted something that looked like a longer, heavier, wider version of my 178cm Line TW Pro (117-90-112 with a mount point of around - 3cm from true center, 1780gm).

So I tried to build the NoPro with the help of my buddy in Silver Creek, who happens to have his own ski press:

- Length: around 183cm straight pull
- Weight: 2050-2150 gm
- Dimensions: 128-99-122
- Flex: soft, symmetrical flex of the tips and tails, medium flex in the middle half of the ski
- Build: Bamboo core, multidirectional fiberglass and VDS rubber
- Rocker/camber: moderate tip and tail rocker extending over 30 cm of tip and 20 cm of tail, minimal camber height underfoot
- Mount point: 3.5cm behind true center
- Taper: similar to the TW Pro. Subtle symmetrical tip and tail taper extending longitudinally over the the last 15-20 cm of the ends of the skis

Building the skis was pretty damn fun in its own right!




Unfortunately I never got to ski them with the COVID-induced resort closures.

But I did mount them a few nights ago as a 1am insomnia project...




If I’m going to speculate on changes I’d make if I ever get to build the NoPro version 2.0, I’d say:

- I would stiffen up the ends of the ski a bit. They are soooooft in this version (as I requested)
- I would increase the amount of taper a bit both tip and tail
- I would add 3-5 longitudinal carbon stringers for a little more rebound energy out of a turn or out of a tip/tail press
- I would try harder to center the topsheet graphics left to right

All speculation! I may try to walk up somewhere on snow and give the skis a whirl this week just for kicks.

Anyway... if you could build any ski you wanted, what would YOU build? And why?

[m2711c]

those look sharp. I'll be very interested to hear how they ski.







damn.... now i gotta get a fucking giant press.

[poleplant]

That’s awesome you got to build your ski. That would be such a fun project.

My ski would be 141-112-133, 190cm straight pull length, mount point -4cm from center, twin tip. Turn radius around 25m.

Maple/ ash wood core with a weight around 2100g per ski. I want it to be decently light, strong, with a nice pop. The flex would be 10 underfoot, 9.5 on either side of the bindings, with a nice transition to 7.5 in the tip and tail (the numbers are in the common flex unit of course).
Fairly deep rocker lines in the tip and tail. Say about 30% in the tip and 25% in the tail. Deep rocker lines but a shallow tip splay, so most of the edge still engages. Then about 3.5 mm of camber. Slight to moderate taper.

Full vertical sidewalls, thick bases and edges, and textured top sheet. Graphic would be like a geometric Godzilla over the whole ski in matte black, dark grey, and light gray tones, throw in some orange and red highlights to match the forza bindings. The bases would be On3p style but red instead of green (max speed) and instead of On3p the bases would say “ski fast eat ass” or “best skier on the mountain” one of those two.

I like the 112 waist for being the go to ski for 70% of days out west, I would just have something about 100 underfoot and around 120 for the other days. Progressive mount for spins, jibs and maximum fun. Lightweight and poppy material to boost off everything in sight. Strong flex and longer radius for stomping airs and holding up to high speeds. That would be my ski design.


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[mr_pretzel]

Dgamms, those look sick. How soft did you make them compared to the blends?


Poleplant, that skis is pretty close to the praxis MVP. Get on photoshop and get that topsheet done.

[SirVicSmasher]

I just want a modern pow ski at 210 cm

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[madriverfreeride]

I want a 1000 gram ski that skis like a 2700 gram ski, and I’ll take them in 100mm, 108mm and 120mm wide with rocker profiles to match the purpose of that width.

[mall walker]

Super cool DGamms! I am jealous.

I dunno if I'm inventive enough to need a fully custom ski, but it would be somewhere in between the Down LD90, Down LD102, Black Crows Solis and PMGear Bro. 180cm, ~99mm, 25m radius, LOW tip rise and even lower tail rise (like 3-4cm tip, 1cm tail, but a longer rocker length in each), stiff. ~1700g.

Maybe just a Down CD104L? But I am extremely, extremely happy with the 180cm Solis so far after ~65k' in every kind of snow. Don't think anything else will get the call for a while...

[stuntmanbo]

116mm 4FRNT Raven 187

[snowaddict91]

Jealous you got to build a pair of skis DGamms! I hope to someday.

191 blizzard bodacious.

Also, for touring, 110 underfoot, 30m radius, 185cm with minimal taper and subtle rocker profile. Basically an old Blizzard scout. Would love to give a pair a try if I ever stumble upon a pair of 185s.

[XXX-er]

I just want a modern pow ski at 210 cm

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the local ski maker did a 206 ( AKA the Tomski ) for my buddy Tom so I asked why 206 ?

the ski maker said he bought a 40' steel beam which he cut into 4 equal pieces for the press

206 is the longest ski he could make in the press

[Core Shot]

I just want a modern pow ski at 210 cm

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Why stop there. With tip and tail rocker a big dude could ski a 220 pow ski.
Ultimate compensating.

[ZomblibulaX]

Very cool opportunity, dgamms.

I’m with you, there’s so many great options for pow skis I would have a hard time justifying building something custom for that purpose, unless I had a very specific objective in mind.

For me it would be:

Stainless steel frame
2.8l V6
Gullwing doors
Ability to reach 88mph
Flux capacitor capable of generating 1.21 gigawatts of power

And I would go back to 2004 and buy five pair of 194 Stockli Scot Schmidt Pros, 123/91/111. Fuck that ski was good.

[pfluffenmeister]

Didn't I sell you a pair of those?
Too long for me.

I did track down a 186 SS Pro though.
Great ski.

[Marshal Olson]

how did you talk your way into Kam's "garage"?
nice one.

[arild]

As someone who had Igneous build my design once upon a time (20Xcm,134/120/124,56mR),I'll hold for a while on the compensating. Awesome skis, did what they should, let me do my thing, but easily could"ve been 10cm shorter (tip cut, mostly), 10mm narrower in the waist, reduced sidecut radius by almost 20m.

The whole design idea was to go really fucking fast in just about any condition, no pesky tail hooking, still float well, and lay edges hard for a carve when needed. Turns out, 56m radius turns are really long, and that long a radius is rarely needed to prevent tail hooking in shit snow. Also, one has Pro Riders for that.

Now, these were made around the same time that Simen and Geo at Down started, and stupidly, I never got around to just buying their CD3s(turned into SD115, which are now SD105) , which would do for me what my stupendously expensive custom project could've done, in an overall more easy to swallow length and pricetag.

Fast forward to the present, I have both the first gen SD105 202,second gen 187,and the CD114 bimboes edt. I can count my days on these with one hand each sadly, but those three skis, excellent in their own ways, cost me a fuckload less than just one pair of full customs, combined. The feel is obviously different, but given the full hindsight wisdom, I'd choose something in stock every day if the week.

The lesson here is that one should never go full retard without checking out smaller indy outfits first. If you are a yeti with funds, by all means, go nuts. If not, someone employed in an indy has probably thought of a better design than you're able to.

/end patronizing spiel

[DGamms]

Dgamms, those look sick. How soft did you make them compared to the blends?

Too soft. They are a bit softer than the 185 Blends at the tip/tail, especially the tip. The NoPros are the softest ski I have ever personally hand flexed.

I ended up basically making a 1cm longer Blend instead of an 7cm longer, 1 cm wider TW Pro... but it was still super fun to build a ski. Who knows, maybe these will turn out to be the ultimate butter training tool?

[gregL]

Sweet, that guy's a friend of mine, too. Don't see him much now that he's not in Seattle!

[detrusor]

Holy shit this is awesome! Are you going to try again?


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[DGamms]

Also, for touring, 110 underfoot, 30m radius, 185cm with minimal taper and subtle rocker profile. Basically an old Blizzard scout. Would love to give a pair a try if I ever stumble upon a pair of 185s.

Maybe the new WNDR Intention 110 in a 185cm? It’s expensive, but the dimensions and profile look great for a quiver-of-one touring ski for snowy locales. And I bet it skis long radius turns well despite having a shorter stated radius than the Blizzard Scout.

how did you talk your way into Kam's "garage"?
nice one.

Ha! Yeah, Kam is the man. Normally, a guy like me wouldn’t be allowed in such a hallowed space as his ski workshop... but our kids go to school together.

Holy shit this is awesome! Are you going to try again?

Hey Detrusor! Sorry to miss you on the hill last week. Not sure if I will get another chance to build a NoPro v2.0, but here’s to hoping! Let me know if you and the family get out to tour PC this weekend.

[Caucasian Asian]

I have a second pair of OG 186 Bodacious that I’m really thinking about putting on a diet.
Mntlion got me thinking about it after his straight-cut Sanouk experiment. If The Tune Shop can cut the sidecut off his Volkls and put new edges on, why can’t they make my 118mm skis 100mm skis? Keep everything the same, just router off 9mm from each side and re-profile the tips/tails.


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[DGamms]

Took the skis out today... so fun!
Hard to separate the joy of getting a ski day in vs. the individual attributes of this particular pair of skis.





Whatever... it was a good day. Hope you all are finding your path to some good days during these challenging times too.

[waxoff]

Holy crap! That's some high caliber tip plant!

[DGamms]

Holy crap! That's some high caliber tip plant!

Like I said... softest ski I’ve ever hand flexed personally

[detrusor]

When the tips rebounded did you get and extra rotation???


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[swissiphic]

Thanks for the inspiration to actually sit down and really think about a true no holds barred, unlimited funds and projecting into a realm of design where today's materials and technology are not a limiting factor. Got something figured out. Just gotta start cutting up some old junkers to illustrate the concepts...i'll check back in a few months after i've cobbled a model together.