Horror Bases from Park Skiers

[Frankly]

Forgive me, I'm old school and used to tune skis for a living back in olden days. Now I'm watching the kids sliding on rails and beating the begezzzus out of their (ski) bottoms... I just watched a Candide Thovex video of him crushing it through grass and dirt.

I can't imagine what the their bases and edges must look like? I used to get a heart attack over a simple P-tex repair or edge hardening on my precious race skis, I just can't comprehend sliding nice skis down steel railings....

Any horror stories you wish to share? Photos appreciated. I have a special fondness for shop stories about parents buying their little angels new skis weekly.

 

[crgildart]

Pfft.. And stone grinding race training skis every three or four days wears the bases and edges down to nothing in a couple months. Pot, meet kettle!

 

[John Webb]

What about horror stories about what the park rats do to their bodies? Trish and I rode up the lift with one
at Northstar. He was 28 and we asked him if he ever gets hurt - he has only broken 28 bones so far !

 

[mdf]

What about horror stories about what the park rats do to their bodies? Trish and I rode up the lift with one
at Northstar. He was 28 and we asked him if he ever gets hurt - he has only broken 28 bones so far !

Seems fair... time for round 2!

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Pfft.. And stone grinding race training skis every three or four days wears the bases and edges down to nothing in a couple months. Pot, meet kettle!

If you could afford to stone grind every 3-4 training days, you wouldn't care about the skis wearing out. Does anybody do that?!?!

 

[crgildart]

If you could afford to stone grind every 3-4 training days, you wouldn't care about the skis wearing out. Does anybody do that?!?!

You can also take a lot of life off a ski with heavy hand tuning and filing.
You think park rats really care about their skis wearing out? For starters, they aren't skiing injected ice so clean, sharp edges aren't high on their utility list. It wouldn't surprise me if they de-tuned tip to tail heavily.

 

[crgildart]

What about horror stories about what the park rats do to their bodies? Trish and I rode up the lift with one
at Northstar. He was 28 and we asked him if he ever gets hurt - he has only broken 28 bones so far !

That sounds like a lot of bad skiing to me. I'd wager that big mountain cliff hucking extreme skiers destroy their bodies more. Ever watch the movie McConkey?

Downhill racers probably get hurt more regularly. I haven't heard of any retired pro freestylers going out like Bill Johnson did.

I skied USSA Freestyle competitively for 3 years with no helmet and still occasionally hit the smaller and medium jumps in the park 30 years later. The only bone I ever broke was my thumb.

Sorry, but it irks me when clueless people go out of their way to bash freestyle/park skiing.

Full disclosure, I did get some minor race training and coaching in the gates when I worked as an instructor (clinics) and ran in a few beer league races post freestyle days. I still enjoy NASTAR. I like a lot of different ski disciplines.

 

[Frankly]

Pfft.. And stone grinding race training skis every three or four days wears the bases and edges down to nothing in a couple months. Pot, meet kettle!

No usually once you get the base flat structured you leave it alone and just sharpen and deburr the edges. And this stuff called wax.

 

[Monique]

Can we start over and just call this thread "Ski damage porn"? Then @Doug Briggs could post his recent ski damage, and we could avoid arguing about which skiers do the most damage to themselves and tgeir bases ......

 

[crgildart]

No usually once you get the base flat structured you leave it alone and just sharpen and deburr the edges. And this stuff called wax.

Disagree. Training ski edges get tuned away thinner and thinner. Even just filing the side and resetting the bevels has this effect. That's why folks sell their used training skis super cheap even when the dimensions are still competition legal. The edges have little or no life remaining after only a few months of hard training.

I will say that back when I skied a lot more often and tuned a lot more often (70s and 80s) this wasn't as much the case. Edges on skis used to be THICKER to start with. Nowaways they are a lot thinner and have fewer tunes in them to start with.

On topic, the higher end park skis are advertised to have thicker edges and an additional bottom metal layer for durability.

Edges... help me through the bulls*it: 1.7mm 2.2mm 2.5mm ??? Thickness/Width, who uses what/

Park ski on left, all mountain on the right

 

[crgildart]

Can we start over and just call this thread "Ski damage porn"? Then @Doug Briggs could post his recent ski damage, and we could avoid arguing about which skiers do the most damage to themselves and tgeir bases ......

I'm OK with that but felt the need to debunk some misleading info. Frank seems like a good guy that knows his stuff in most areas, old school racing, racers etc.. but this is one where he's a little off base.. See what I did there? :-P hahahaha!

Now, on to a better area of focus... bashing snowboarders!

 

[Frankly]

I'm OK with that but felt the need to debunk some misleading info. Frank seems like a good guy that knows his stuff in most areas, old school racing, racers etc.. but this is one where he's a little off base.. See what I did there? :-P hahahaha!

Now, on to a better area of focus... bashing snowboarders!

All good. I've purposefully ignored the last 20 years of ski shop trends and haven't examined twin tip fat board construction because I never even walk over to that side of the store ;-p But I wasn't trying to be snide (I respect their ability and pain threshold), more just interested in how messed up their skis must get!

Ski Damage Porn would be perfect, that was my intent.

(And yes once people started beveling I knew skis would wear out faster! Nice 90 degrees edges last a lot longer, old wood and aluminum solid GS laminate skis (K2 810, Spauldings, Rossi Roc) were the choice of ski patrollers for good reason.)

 

[crgildart]

(And yes once people started beveling I knew skis would wear out faster! Nice 90 degrees edges last a lot longer, old wood and aluminum solid GS laminate skis (K2 810, Spauldings, Rossi Roc) were the choice of ski patrollers for good reason.)

The best bump skiers of the 80s were also skiing on GS skis... before they had a lot of metal in them.. I once saw the USSA US moguls and all around champ beat the ski school director, several of Eric Sailer's assistant race coaches, and a couple of pro tour skiers in an end of season GS challenge. Full disclosure, there was a lot of drinking going on that afternoon and the Buck Hill conditions were total slush. That bump skier skied Olin Mark VIIs, not 210s but often over 200 for the bigger runs. He did ski a little shorter Mark VI for midwest competitions where more short radius turns were required to win a bump event.

 

[oldschoolskier]

The big secret to having the sharpest edges on skis is to set them and just touch them enough to keep them razor sharp. Done correctly, you actual remove very little and extend the life of the edge as large corrections rarely ever get made which wear out the edge.

I see damage as a.....You can't ski, ski damage just proves it! .






Added, the fur is going to fly over the last statement.

 

[newboots]

 

[oldschoolskier]

Deleted accidental post

 

[Bad Bob]

Total disclaimer. The only time I get near the park is to poach the edges or play with the sides of a jump.

But a question on park skis. Are the convex, and if not why not? It seems from an observer's perspective that this (and very hard P-tex) would make features a lot more friendly.

 

[crgildart]

The big secret to having the sharpest edges on skis is to set them and just touch them enough to keep them razor sharp. Done correctly, you actual remove very little and extend the life of the edge as large corrections rarely ever get made which wear out the edge.
.

Not much point in even a self funded serious racer doing that when FIS and USSA make last season's ski illegal next season over and over.

Most park skiers aren't concerned with sharp, clean edges when the terrain they prefer to ski is soft. They just need skis tuned well enough to get to and from the park. In fact, super sharp edges and high side bevels would make sliding rails harder. I'd think slightly detuned, perhaps majorly detuned tip to tail (full 1.5-2 degree base bevel?) would be better for that. A big gouge that causes a ski to track funny would be a problem though. Need solid straight tracking when hitting a jump, especially when trying to hit it skiing backwards..

 

[John Webb]

Ski Damage Porn would be perfect, that was my intent.

(And yes once people started beveling I knew skis would wear out faster! Nice 90 degrees edges last a lot longer, old wood and aluminum solid GS laminate skis (K2 810, Spauldings, Rossi Roc) were the choice of ski patrollers for good reason.)

Rossi Roc's bent easily but you could clamp them in a vise and bend them back.

My Rossi ST650's (same vintage as Roc's) but fiberglass and foam core "exploded" when I landed on a rock.
All tte foam core blew out for about a foot under the boot. Amazingly the top, bottom sheet and binding were still in place.
I was not hurt and actually skied another run on them at Jackson Hole as it was 3:30 pm.

avoided this !

 

[crgildart]

Total disclaimer. The only time I get near the park is to poach the edges or play with the sides of a jump.

But a question on park skis. Are the convex, and if not why not? It seems from an observer's perspective that this (and very hard P-tex) would make features a lot more friendly.

Most that I've seen including a pair I purchased new last June came a little base high but not outright convex. Most have at least 75% camber and some sidecut radius. You need to be able to turn quickly when skiing the half pipe, but not so much slopestyle or rails. Again though, too base high would make it difficult to get solid, straight approaches to the jumps. I'm no expert here. @dean_spirito would know for sure what the real park rats go for in a tune. I'm just an old poser.. I file mine flat because I still spend more time carving regular trails than fighing my age in the park. The twin tails are just to spray the people behind me hahahaha..