C & V ski forum?
 

Slightly OT, but I know there's a lot of crossover: does anybody know a skiing forum with a similar sensibility to this one (nice people, decent grammar, appreciation for the old school)? Thanks!

not sure, but would be interested to see one

http://i.imgur.com/nftGE.jpg

I'd be interested in checking one out too, but it seems to me like there would be fewer reasons to stick with c&v ski equipment than c&v bikes. I'm not sure if there is a direct parallel between the safety advances in modern binding technology (i.e. protecting against backwards twisting falls) and modern bike components.

It's not just binding technology. Ski shape and design has changed radically in the last 10-15 years. A much more radical change in basic functionality than has occurred with bikes IMHO.

I hang out on EpicSki.com sometimes.

That a nice sentiment about C&V, but you should throw-out the appreciation of old-school. That’s one think that C&V bikes have going for them, even though they are 20-30 years old, they still ride nice. However, I wouldn’t go anywhere near the slopes with my old Olin Mark IV’s. The new radius side-cut skis are a completely different animal from the old ankles-together hip-swingers of yesteryear. I think ski pole manufacturers’ knees must be shaking because you almost don’t need poles with the new skis. (Unfortunately, very little snow this year.):(

who skis anyways, snowboarding is what's in

My ski patrol activities keep me more than busy with conversation, education, and training opportunities -- not to mention the actual patrolling days. Great bunch of people and always those with the history of skiing in their legs.

Concur with others about the older ski gear. Tack it to the wall. Alpine & nordic.

You skiers should join a local patrol. Bonus: never stand in a crowded lift line.

Need snow?? -- come to western WA. Not Utah/CO powder but plentiful, and above 4,000ft the snow has been good.

Kind of limited subject matter and I agree re performance advances and safety. BTW, snow definitely sucks in AZ high country and in CO.

Not much snow in SE MI either. And no ice! The ice-fishing report is "non-existent".

So, regarding vintage skis: you're all saying that I should never buy those old skis offered at the thrift stores where I used to get my C&V bikes?

While vintage downhill skis may be unsafe, or at least their bindings are, why not vintage cross-country (Nordic)? It's not exactly a forum, but http://www.woodenskis.com/ offers a site with information on the topic. There are skiers still who use them.

There are certainly collectors out there. I once found a set of Finnish-made wooden skis at the Salvation Army and thought twice about the $35 price tag. I went home, researched them online, realized they were desirable; then I went back and they were gone, of course.

Speaking of Finnish-made items: there's a C&V bike made in Finland advertised on my local CL that I have been trying in vain to get a friend interested in, because her family is from Finland. Unlike us on C&V, she's not interested in owning a road bike, or +1 bike. Regarding the C&V wooden skis -- in the 70's, she went to college at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan; she said she realized she was really Up North and in the sticks when the daily local radio weather reports included which color ski wax to use that day.

I lurk there as well.

No vintage ski gear in this house. We buy new every third year.

It gets super spendy with the our boys growing out of boots by the end of a season though.

Growing up within 30 minutes of 3 small ski areas (no mountains in WI), I was intimately familiar with the skis that came from Montgomery Wards, Sears, and K-mart. We could ski on night passes for $3 and rent skis, boots, bindings for another $5, so purchasing skis never entered my mind.

Once I picked up a used 6-man toboggan, my ski interest waned. They are fun, light, and have a random chance of disaster that is enough for me. They also float when you shoot across thinner ice than you reckoned it was.

I've never even seen a snowboard. My brother used to sail one of those things with 3 skates and a sail, which are amazingly fast and pretty randomly violent, as well. My last snow fun was screwing sheet metal screws into the knobbies of my CanAm and riding on frozen lakes. We also used to put the garden hose on the silo for a week and then climb the ice rocket.

Grady and others can probably relate to boredom-induced winter fun that only seems fun if there's an element of risk.

I've got a much better chance of winning the TdF than getting back on skis.
I moved here for a reason.

EpicSki? I know a few guys from Milwaukee, but I don't know him.

Yeah, I agree about old skis, boots and bindings -- good for wall decor and not much else. But there's something to be said for old-fashioned ski areas -- I'm kinda partial to the single chair at Mad River Glen, and in CO I like A-Basin -- places that don't have giant corporate lodges, and that do have kind odd, iffy, slightly more natural grading to the trails, etc. I like backcountry nordic, and I want to learn telemark. Will check out EpicSki.com. Thanks!

No, dude -- monoski. That's where it's at.
http://www.google.com/url?source=img...-Mmc6f5q_DOprg

I'm still lamenting that I gave away a pair of Dynamic VR27's...the boxed wood core, the carbon dampening layer, segmented edges.....If there ever was a steel lugged equivalent for ski's they were it! Try epicski at http://www.epicski.com/t/69076/more-retro-memories for all our " I can beieve I sold those memories"
http://cdn.epicski.com/5/58/58907a42_Dynamic+VR-27.jpg

Robbie,

If it would snow more here, I'd take out the toboggan pronto.

What a joke of a winter here in Minnesota!

A winter for wimps, that's for sure.

I'm going for a bike ride in an hour. :)

We grew up with "Snurfers" I still have a couple of them and my kids ride these C & V boards on the local sledding hills even though they seem to have some value.

We had a tobaggan slide in the back yard with a ramp built off an old chicken coop. Carried many a bucket of water to pour down it get it good and fast. Rode the snufers and the tobaggans down that thing.

I still have my Yamaha downhill skis W/Solamon 444's I bought in '78 and took them to a trip at Granite peak last winter. It was the first pair of skis I ever used with brakes and not leashes. Most of our old skis around here are now screwed to the back wall of ice fishing shacks to pull them around.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SNURFER-SNOW...item4cfe047e7e


http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-Brunswi...item3cbfa8ff13

I hate to say it, my old Rosignol S6? are great skis (to me anyway). The place that tunes them offered me new equipment to use and I tried them but it looked like big purple spiders were eating my feet. I am not a good skier and I am more confident on my old skis.

Yeah.......like compact frames, I can't figure out the new short skis out there with blunt rounded tips and agressive sidecuts. Last skis I really enjoyed were my Kastle Mid 80s from my college days!....The new skis tend to have such quick transition that they've high sided me a few times when I tried them out.......Surprised to find out too that boot design look like they've regressed back to side seamed shells with lots of buckles and high tops. I have to admit that the new (much more comfortable boots) is a development I really like!
C&V skis and boots??! I dunno........My C&V San Marco boots (cool looking white ones with the black steel mesh buckle straps) "Asploded" apart on the ski hill a few years ago......victim of plasticizer outgassing.....I suspect....I dunno if I'd want to ski plastic and foam cored 20+ year old skis either after that happened!
Only C&V equipment that might still have life in them would be older wooden skis and bindings that have zero plastic in them......Just my thoughts on C&V skis....

Chombi

20 posts and no mention of K2's....Hmmmmph, go figure?

Behhh........The flash and hollywood-like porpularity of the Mahre brothers back then seems to have preceded any technical merits that K2 would have pushed out there about their skis.....:rolleyes::D:D.

Chombi

I'm thinking true C&V skiing would have to be done on wood skis, leater boots with a free heel, wearing wool & carving beautiful turns on a double black diamond

Isn't that style of skiing more like "Telemarking" ?
I always thought telemark skiing looked so much more challenging and beautiful to watch than "regular" downhill skiing.

Chombi

What was that about K2?? Kinda makes me Piste Off(K2)! I'm a pin head and proud! LOL!! Terminator boots, Riva II bindings and K2 Piste Off boards(yah they're a few years old now) Kinda like being a knee dragger, but the grand kids what me to be one of those knuckle draggers. If I went back regular boards...I would splurge on the bindings.. Free the heal, free the mind