Question on late 70s/early 80s Head skis

[Dave Petersen]

Terry Godbout from ELITE SKIING is trying to track down some info on a particular ski:

"Hi Dave, I vaguely remember a HEAD ski, possibly the XRC, that was all fiberglass and had three hollow tubes running the length of the ski., Seems to me that they had massive quality control problems with them. What do you have on them?"

"I am sure the skis I am thinking of were Heads. They were as rare as hen's teeth at the time as I only saw one pair. Pretty sure it was in the very late 1970's or 1980's. The technology was also used by HEAD in tennis rackets of the period."

"Seems like they had bright orange and/or yellow graphics".

Any help would be appreciated!

@Joal @Mack

 

[Dave Petersen]

@Bill Talbot

 

[Dave Petersen]

 

[Dave Petersen]

SKI Dec 1971

 

[Dave Petersen]

Winner Winner Bill -- Terry said that is it: HEAD XR-1

@Bill Talbot

 

[DanoT]

I had a pair of Durafiber skis in 1976. I changed bindings to a touring binding and did the mounting myself but I didn't have any of those little plastic plugs for the old screw holes so I epoxyed steel wool into the holes. Well, fibres of steel wool broke off inside the ski's hollow channels, so every time that the ski was turned upside down you would hear a tinkle-tinkle from the tiny bits of loose steel wool inside the ski.

I thought it was a great ski, btw.

 

[eok]

I actually still have an old set of Head XRCs buried deep in the shed. Got 'em in the 70s. When a shop I was working for went belly up, the owner gave 'em to me to make up for not being able to pay my last week's wages. As I remember, they were a little more expensive than that year's VR17s.

The XRCs I have do use the hollow tube core. Topsheets are white with graphics in blue & green. I think the bases are white Ptex. They were supposed to be limited edition. Each ski had an "edition number" - mine are in the 1300's. I'd take a photo of 'em & post it, but it would be a major expedition digging them out of the shed.

BTW: Skiing wise, I remember I found them disappointing. Iffy edge hold (little torsional rigidity) and unstable at speed. I don't think they had any metal in the layup. I think I skied them less than 10 days (total) and then put 'em away forever. I remember taking them to Heavenly to ski 'em for the first time, taking a run and thinking "what the hell is wrong with these skis??!". They were the only skis I took on the trip. Hence the vivid memory.

 

[RickyG]

Gang they also blew the side wall plug out often. That is where the tubes where removed and then the "plug" was glued in.