What does that thingy on your skis do?

A lot of us have watched skis change over our time.  Yes, there have been a few big advances to skis over the years.  However, many of those don’t actually make a big difference to the typical skier.  The advent of powder skis and or shape skis might actually be pretty significant.  Yet, on the east coast do the powder skis do much for man-made groomers?  No.

It is fun to look at evolution over the past 30-40-50 years versus yearly updates.   There have been so many attempts to garner our attention and buy “that” product.  There were gimmicks, tweaks, incredible vibration eliminating substances/stabilizers that were sold to us.  Oh, and we were all fooled by fancy ski graphics that have made all the difference. 

Back in the Eighties, my friends and I got to a point we were breaking skis left and right in the moguls.   We kept going into our basements and garages to pull out something that would allow us to keep skiing that season.   My 4 friends and I all wore a size 9-10 ski boot that allowed us to trade equipment.  We would dust some of those relics off and we would each take turns skiing them. We loved proving we could take something built 10 to 30 years earlier and master it down the hill.  It was the only way to keep skiing as we couldn’t afford to buy new ones that season.

The highlight of this time was trying that pair of wooden orange spray-painted skis with screwed in edges and not a single logo or name.  Those skis jammed through the bumps as each we each wore them as a badge of honor.  We each took turns and had a blast.  Also at that time we enjoyed taking turns at trying 214s and 217 GS skis.  Turning was a challenge, but boy did those edges hold on ice!

I think of this because I struggle buying new equipment at full prices when I can buy something that was winning the Olympics back around 2010.  I normally pay $25 - $50 dollars for my relics at thrift stores.  In the lift line I sometimes hear things like “those are old school” as gawkers laugh at my funny skis. 

I also get questions like “what does that thingy on your ski tip do”?  I might say it reduces vibration or helps you not clip the gates while racing?  I also might make something up.  Does it do anything, I don’t know?  It was a selling point in one ski review 15 years ago.  It may have saved .002 seconds and turned Silver to Gold?  True there have been some advances as it is harder to break skis now and my $25 relics pile up in the garage.

I can tell you for the past 50 years, I have had tons of fun skiing.  It has been fun skiing all of those different skis over the years.  Don’t think that you can’t get back on the slopes because you don’t have anything made in the last 3 years.  Take what you have, set your bindings and go hit the slopes.  If your skis have some funny little device on the tip tell them what you want.  I could say it is a flux capacitor that lets me travel in time down the slope.  All I really know is getting on the slope is what matters.  I hear too many people say “I don’t have any gear”.  Many of those people actually do.  Almost all had fun the last time they went out no matter what gear they had. 

 What does that thingy on your skis do?  Helps me have fun!

Time to ski!