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Your old skis are fun!


eleeski
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My ski broke this summer - just as I was figuring it out. My backup ski had become too experimental and my scores really suffered (sometimes it is the ski not the skier). So I dragged out a ski from several years ago and skied it. Substantially different feel from the skis I've ridden lately. It took a few trys to make a pass. But after a couple of sets, I'm liking this ski more than my current options. One of my tournament PBs was on this ski a while back so it is fundamentally sound.

 

It may be a worthwhile project to take a few sets on that favorite ski from a couple years ago and re-evaluate it. Perhaps the ski hadn't really broken down but just the ride was stale. A fresh perspective might help the buoy count. Or convince you that all that money you just plunked down on the latest and greatest was really worth it. Either way, it will build skills. And maybe make the few rides that you can sneak in the off season more interesting.

 

Eric

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In really regret selling my Goode 9700. In 08 ran 1 @ 41 in practice and 4.5 @ 38 in tourneys twice. That shoulda been mounted on the wall. But nope, was to cheap and needed cash for the new stick which turned out to be a dud. Happily sold that and picked up an S2. The S2 will be saved. Went just inside 6 ball @38 in the last tourny this yr. so hopefully 39 will fall. If it does.....I'll frame it.
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@oneski, my ski in high school and into college was the EP Comp 2 honeycomb. I loved it and could slide so far on it, I could bounce across the water on that thing.

 

@Wish, k, question. EVERYONE I ski with is in love with the Nano and other Goode products. I realize that at your guys levels, even the smallest difference makes a huge difference in your performance. Tell me specifically what the S2 does differently than the ski that was a dud and why did you sell your 9700 if it was so dialed in.

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@oneski - a good friend skied on a Comp 1 for 30 years and still has it. It was a real wall-thrower for sure but tiring to ski on and the sweet spot was pretty touchy. I tried it and was told I looked better on it than on my ski.

 

@madcityskier - I have a really nice Li'l Monster too. I've skied on it, but it is the corner piece in my man cave. I've got some other old wood skis that I think are going to be hung up in my screened porch sometime soon.

 

I just wish they'd bring back more of the awesome colors like the '70s skis had. And the matching bindings. Those were neat. Or at least stop making gray skis, especially gray undersides, since they are hard to see in the water. My dad almost chopped up my Concept with the prop because it was floating upside down after I fell and I hadn't gotten back to the ski yet. I yelled and fortunately he turned the key off right before it went under the boat.

 

For a taste of history, I like my old Westerns. The Funnel Tunnel is like skiing with the brakes on. The XL7 can really cut once you get the feel for it but is very tiring. That's the one I'm on in my profile photo.

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@Brady, the 9700 was a great ski but had a small window for success. Small sweet spot. Had to ski technically perfect IMHO. Also for me when things went bad it went really bad. Poor consistancy (great or bad) and often recked my back. Went for a 9800sl do to the more "consistent nature" of the ski, but went backwards on that ski...dud. Just seemsd slow and took as much or more physical effort. Spent a summer 2011 away from tournaments and tested every ski I could for a week or two at a time. . Including Goode mid (great ski). All the skies had possitves with few negatives. But, S2 seemed to have the least neg at the time and alot of charactoristics of the skies I really liked. The goal was to find a ski that was physically easier on my body but kept or surpassed my average. Large sweet spot and less effort and easier my back sold me on the S2 when testing. . Took much of this season to couple it with the correct ZO setting for me but once I did (C1 for me) all was back to if not serpast that 08 season (no running 39 though..that may never happen again...freak day). Would love to take a ride on the 9700 again to get perspective on advancement in ski design. I think the S2, Nano 1, and A3 are some of the most out of the box designs to date. Could toss in the AM (coreless) but that's not made anymore..kinda.
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Phantom was state of the art when it was new. Fred Flintstone's car was also state of the art when it was new.

 

By todays standards the phantom is terrible.

 Goode ★ KD Skis ★ MasterCraft ★ PerfSki ★ Radar ★ Reflex ★ S Lines ★ Stokes

Drop a dime in the can

 

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@skibrain, I had the Wayne Grimditch poster in my room my entire childhood! I have tried and tried to find a video of him skiing. But no luck. Your ski was almost what I had, I had the comp 2 honeycomb version. Great pics!!! I am jealous you still have it
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@skibrain Very cool ski! I wonder how it would ski with modern materials, fins and bindings. Hmmm, maybe I should copy it with Boron and carbon.

 

I loved the EP Comp 1, the Obrien Comp, HO turbo, HO VTX and Connelly HP. I'm not sure which ski would be the most fun to copy with modern materials. My skis started as the HO VTX with some customization to the front end of the ski. In fact, the ski I am riding this winter (until I build a new one) hasn't evolved too much from my first modified carbon VTX. My enjoyment of that old (but modern construction) ski started this thread.

 

All the modern skis appear quite similar in design to the legacy skis. Terry Goodman claims that all of the modern skis started as copies of the EP Stiletto - certainly plausable if you just eyeball the skis. The minor tweaks in edge, tunnel, rocker and shape along with the major differences in weight and stiffness translate to a significant difference in feel and performance for modern skis. I'm not advocating a return to the legacy skis - just they might be worth a ride or two. Some fantastic performances were achieved on these old skis - can you match them?

 

Eric

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@skibrain

I learned to slalom ski on a Comp X 2, and we still have it. I don't know how you made it perform like that! I tried it just for kicks last summer and it slid right out from under me on the first turn attempt.

 

@Zman

I jumped on my Radius right a couple of years ago, and it felt like it had a sandpaper bottom - slow!! Almost threw me OTF.

 

We also still have a Jobe Carbon V with a wing that could lift an A320. Classic:)

 

It's amazing how much better our current gear is. It makes me wonder if I'll ever get on one of today's skis someday, and wonder how we did it.

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I still have a number of my old skis but haven't been tempted to ski on them. I have a late 70s to early 80s Stinger honeycomb in orange and red with a Maja high wrap on it, an 80s Connelly HP in awesome shape and my old EP Comp 1 that was my first non-wood ski that I got when I was 12 it is a 64" ski. I really wish I had one of the Maja wood skis my dad had when I was a kid those things were works of art.
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I'll outbid Horton on the Comp X2 by bidding $21. Only thing is, I don't need any more skis and wouldn't want to take away a piece of your youth :). That thing is awesome though.

 

@eleeski - Connelly is making the HP with more modern construction, but I don't know if it's the same ski as the older HP?

 

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Does anyone know of a list of what the slalom records have been through the years? Even better, one that shows what skis they were set on? It would be cool to put some of these old skis in perspective. I've Googled and Googled and can only come up with who the people were, but nothing that says what the record was at a given time and what ski it had been set on.
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@tfriess sorry for late response. I was only meaning to say I look forward to taking both the MC Radius and the HO Phantom for a fun set (or whatever happens). I think @Horton said it best, "in its day".

The Radius was really good in its day and (maybe) one of the first to be asymetrical. Before I bought mine, I asked friend Jen Leachman if she thought this asymetrical thing was the real deal, or just marketing hype. She timidly commented "well, I set a world record on it". Guess it worked - in its day.

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Don't forget about the Connelly Short Line. That was my very first ski purchase as a kid. Took a lot of my paper-route money and ponied up 200 bucks for a brand new 67 inch short line. The cover was just as bright as the ski! Great ski too!

 

My first time slaloming was on an old Jobe with the "then brand new" triple wrap, which consisted of 3 pieces of velcro. Man we thought we were cool!!!

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@Brady - I wish that more of the new skis had those older style bindings like you're talking about. The Cam Adjustable front wrap on my '98 Connelly is about as dangerous as I care to live. I'm one of the 99% of skiers that will never even come close to the world records that were set in the old days on the old equipment, so the risk isn't worth it to me.
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