Top selling skis of all time by model?

[crgildart]

Late 70s hart freestyle would be up there too.. Head Yahoo, Fischer C4s..

 

[crgildart]

I think it's the Pro-STink.

Fixed it for you!

 

[Bill Talbot]

Late 70s hart freestyle would be up there too.. Head Yahoo, Fischer C4s..

hart freestyle, 1974>, 85-66-75
Head Yahoo, 1976?, 93-73-82 This was a wide ski for it's day
Fischer C4 Racing, 1976, 86-67-77

 

[ScotsSkier]

@newfydog, can you put a year on these Kneissl White Star Super RS skis?

View attachment 1719 View attachment 1718

Bill, what binding is that?

 

[James]

@cantunamunch,
Elan SCX, 1998, 112-60-100

View attachment 1714

Those are late Scx's. Earlier ones had more sidecut. Well not sure about that. Could have been with the graphics they looked like they did. I had a blue/white pair with huge "scx" on it. I'm thinking it was 96ish vintage. Actually skied it at Tuckerman's since it was the lightest ski I had.

I also owned that red/black monohlock one. It was too long though I think it was 176 or 3. The hot one was I think the 163. I do remember the edges kn the red/black. They were too thick. You actually could feel the drag from the steel. Those red/blacks were not particularly good. Not stable at speed though Elan did make some that were. Plus stable at speed at that time was compared to a 205 that was. At least in huge turns or straight. But those had a lot of sidecut coupled with floppy wasn't good.

There was a race Elan radical sidecut. Never saw it but I remember Gravity who used to post on epic talking about racing on it. His posts on it were prob around 2001?

Elan tested their prototypes of the Scx at Okemo in I think 1992. (Why I don't know) They had some 200'cm ones with those enormous sidecuts. Someone who tested them told me they were terrifying because they didn't want to release the turn.

 

[newfydog]

@newfydog, can you put a year on these Kneissl White Star Super RS skis?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I can get close. The original Star graphics (White Star, Red Star, Blue Star) were unchanged for many years. Somewhere around 1967 they added the "alu T top edge" which many claimed slowed the ski down, but the graphics were unchanged. I raced on the all red Red Star in 1969-70, but those were the 68-69 skis.

Those side stripes first appeared in 1970. I asked my sponsor for a longer pair to use in the DH at the Midwest championships in 1970 hoping to get a ski like that. Instead, I was given K2 Comps and never skied Kneissl again. I don't know how long they lasted, but the entire line started to fade away, and pretty much vanished with the retirement of Karl Schranz in 1972.

Nice Skis! Are they black bottoms? They had yellow bottoms up until at least 1969, then started advertising that they added carbon to the bottoms to make them faster.

There are some on the rack in my post here:

http://www.pugski.com/forum/threads...hould-i-get-for-my-wife-thread.435/#post-7048

 

[John Webb]

Some of these were made in big numbers (had to be with all the warranty replacements!)
K2 four competition, 1972?, 86-64-74
K2 four winter heat, 1973?, 85-65-75
K2 five competition, 1975?, 86-66-76
Rossignol Strato, 1967-1970, 87-69-78


View attachment 1711 View attachment 1710 View attachment 1709

Did not have any of these skis. But still have all 3 of these bindings in a pile. The black Looks are "newer"
I also have red and silver ones. Got rid of the bindings on the Strato 102. Look like the notched toe Marker Simplex.
I had them "marker out". Rotomat heel side barrel screws unscrewed while skiing and landed flat on my face. Not hurt!

 

[Philpug]

Those are late Scx's. Earlier ones had more sidecut. Well not sure about that. Could have been with the graphics they looked like they did. I had a blue/white pair with huge "scx" on it. I'm thinking it was 96ish vintage. Actually skied it at Tuckerman's since it was the lightest ski I had.

I also owned that red/black monohlock one. It was too long though I think it was 176 or 3. The hot one was I think the 163. I do remember the edges kn the red/black. They were too thick. You actually could feel the drag from the steel. Those red/blacks were not particularly good. Not stable at speed though Elan did make some that were. Plus stable at speed at that time was compared to a 205 that was. At least in huge turns or straight. But those had a lot of sidecut coupled with floppy wasn't good.

There was a race Elan radical sidecut. Never saw it but I remember Gravity who used to post on epic talking about racing on it. His posts on it were prob around 2001?

Elan tested their prototypes of the Scx at Okemo in I think 1992. (Why I don't know) They had some 200'cm ones with those enormous sidecuts. Someone who tested them told me they were terrifying because they didn't want to release the turn.

Lets see if we can get @Bob Barnes to chime in here on the SCX, IIRC he was working with Elan at the time. I do remember when the ski came out, Elan took some key retailers to Sugarbush to ski and test them with some of their test team including Bill Irwin and Geoff Bruce. Geoff was an ex racer when helped design it, he was on some 163's and they were stacked real high. Bill, who is 6' plus plus was skiing the 193, which skied huge. I remember being fairly skeptical after taking them for an unsupervised test ride and hating them. Once we went out and was show how to ski these new fangled skis and having that light bulb go off, I was immediately a believer. The first year, the red Monoblocks came in the 163, 183 and 193 and the Blue came in 163 and 183. The next season (or late first season) the 173 for both were brought into the lines. Elan then added the RP (Raised Platform) and later the PSX which had a bit less dramatic sidecut and I believe that is what Bob was involved in. These skis we called "Parabolic" an term that was blanked all over all shaped skis.

 

[Bill Talbot]

@newfydog, can you put a year on these Kneissl White Star Super RS skis?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nice Skis! Are they black bottoms? They had yellow bottoms up until at least 1969, then started advertising that they added carbon to the bottoms to make them faster.

@newfydog, Yes, they have black bases.
Now am I correct in assuming that the White Star Super RS was the top dog and the White Star Racer RS was the next tier down?

 

[Alexzn]

Any mainstream rental model probably outsold most of these skis.

 

[newfydog]

@newfydog, Yes, they have black bases.
Now am I correct in assuming that the White Star Super RS was the top dog and the White Star Racer RS was the next tier down?

.

OOOH, now that is a tough one....

For years the White Star was the top of the line, though the Red Star was considered by many to be the better racing ski and the White Star more of a smooth luxury ski.
When they put those stripes on they also put out something like a Gold Star or something as a high price luxury ski, which never caught on. I got to ski a day in mixed mud/snow on a demo pair in November of 1971 I think. The fact my sponsor gave me those to borrow shows the limited regard they had for them.

I thought that was a change which made the White star the clear top of the line for racing. I never realized they had a WS super and WS racer. Can't imagine what the difference was.

 

[James]

Lets see if we can get @Bob Barnes to chime in here on the SCX, IIRC he was working with Elan at the time. I do remember when the ski came out, Elan took some key retailers to Sugarbush to ski and test them with some of their test team including Bill Irwin and Geoff Bruce. Geoff was an ex racer when helped design it, he was on some 163's and they were stacked real high. Bill, who is 6' plus plus was skiing the 193, which skied huge. I remember being fairly skeptical after taking them for an unsupervised test ride and hating them. Once we went out and was show how to ski these new fangled skis and having that light bulb go off, I was immediately a believer. The first year, the red Monoblocks came in the 163, 183 and 193 and the Blue came in 163 and 183. The next season (or late first season) the 173 for both were brought into the lines. Elan then added the RP (Raised Platform) and later the PSX which had a bit less dramatic sidecut and I believe that is what Bob was involved in. These skis we called "Parabolic" an term that was blanked all over all shaped skis.

We used to teach on the psx's. They had 113cm,123, and 133. The idea was to go through the sizes after starting on the short skis. But that died pretty much before it started. So we just used the 123's I think. Possibly the 113's.

I used to have all 3 sizes. Took them all to the shop to have them stone ground which was tough for the small ones. Now I think I just have the 113 and 123 with half a pair of 133's after a friend broke one. The little ones were fun for carving big turns.

 

[Uncle-A]

The numbers are never produced as fas as actually hay many of each model ski is produced from season to season but I would venture to say the top model skis sold were the following (in no particular order)...

• Rossignol 4S
• Olin Mark IV
• Salomon X-Scream
• K2 Four
• K2 Recon

I think the Rossi Soul7 might be on this list when it ends it's cycle.

Maybe the Rossi ST Comp or STS would give the 4S a run for the top selling ski because they were the starting point for the 4S. Any shop I worked in could not keep enough of them on the rack.

 

[Jack skis]

I go back a long time when it comes to selling skis, the 1950's, and the Head Standard must be one of the most sold ski models of all time. It helps that they were produced for a long time while other manufacturers changed models more often. In "ordinary, wooden" skis a company like Anderson & Thompson would have a moderately priced ski imported from Japan (different graphics each season) that shops sold with bindings. The shop I was with sold a bunch of'em every year for $30 as I remember. Heads were about $100 w/o bindings. If skis like those A & T beauties were considered one model, they'd probably be up on the list of all time sellers.

 

[JayT]

Pretty sure the Soul 7's have already made the list by now. I see people flailing all over the mountain on those things. ;-)

 

[slowrider]

Pretty sure the Soul 7's have already made the list by now. I see people flailing all over the mountain on those things. ;-)

It's the go to gape ski.

 

[tch]

T
Elan tested their prototypes of the Scx at Okemo in I think 1992. (Why I don't know) They had some 200'cm ones with those enormous sidecuts. Someone who tested them told me they were terrifying because they didn't want to release the turn.

Whoa! I actually remember seeing guys on these "new and radical" skis one day at Okemo back then. They were leaving beautiful, deep, railroad tracks in the snow. Today, that doesn't seem so unusual, but I remember looking down at the runs from the chair and being just amazed at those curves. I rode up a chair with two of the guys wearing these cartoon-looking skis and they were telling me how this was going to revolutionize skiing.
I wasn't so sure, but I sure was intrigued.