Has anyone used wooden ski's before?

[skiNEwhere]

And leather boots? What's it like compared to shaped ski's?

You could have either used them be necessity, or by "choice" if you don't want to admit your age:lol:

 

[rev bubba]

Yup.....

Yes, I had wooden rental skis with bear trap bindings and lace-up leather boots back in 1968 at Blue Knob, Pennsylvania. Damned if I can remember how they skied although I learned to make a snow plow and wedge turns and soon moved on to carved turns with the equipment and was young and dumb enough to ski steeps and ice without knowing I shouldn't. When I first rented skis, I had to hold up my hand and was given a ski that touched my finger tips. At 6'1" it could have been a 210 cm for all I know. Our instructors taught for that equipment.

By the following season I was on a plastic, wood core, Blizzard with Cubco bindings and Humanic Blue and White plastic boots. Now the equipment and I are both shorter but I'm back on Blizzard Bonafide and G Force Pro skis again.

I was looking at a pair of Atomic FIS legal GS skis on Friday and they don't look that much different than the stuff my son's raced on in the 90's.

I'll save you the math. I'm 63 and ski almost every day during the winter so age has it's advantages.

 

[steamboat1]

Leather boots would get wet & your feet would freeze. If you've ever had really cold feet you know than it can be painful when warming them up. Don't miss those days at all. Now if we still had the old cable bindings that you had to bend over to push the lever on the ski forward to lock them in place we'd have a lot less people skiing today. What percentage of today's skiers do you think can touch their toes which is basically what you had to do. Might not be such a bad idea to go back to them.

 

[rev bubba]

My whole first season was at night when it was way too cold to get your boots wet. We showed up, got our equipment, went out and didn't come in until it was time to leave when the boots went back to the rental shop where the snow could melt and get them wet.

 

[JimG.]

Pretty much my early experiences too. I have a pair of my mom's antique wooden skis...from the late 30's. Nail on metal edges were state of the art, and the front locking cable bindings were cutting edge at the time.

I wish I had her leather double lace up boots too.

I remember how long those skis looked when I was 6-7 years old. I seem to remember they skiied like boats but were also very good at plowing through anything.

 

[Big Game]

My father in law gave me an old pair. 50's is my guess. I was thinking of mounting modern binding. That should make powder ridge interesting when it reopens next year

 

[steamboat1]

Still have my Molitor double laced (inside/outside) leather boots (circa 1960's). They're in an old metal boot tree with the wing nut adjustment sitting on the fireplace mantel up in VT. They really could use a shoe shine. My brothers old double laced leather Heinke's are right alongside. Yes they were wet & cold boots. For those who don't know Molitor & Heinke were major ski boot manufactures back then with a couple of other brands. None of which exist anymore but at the same time most of the brands we know now didn't exist back then either.

I think my 1st ski's were wood but they were lamenated on top, butt ugly yellow colored Blizzards, don't have them. Yes they had screwed on edges. I do have a pair of old Head Vectors (Head made the 1st metal ski's), a pair both Kneissl White Stars & Redstars, a set of Fischer Presidents & Fischer Superglass & some old Rossignol ski's that my father picked up in Europe that were never released here (can't remember the model name/number). All of them are either 200cm or 210cm, that's all anyone skied on back then.

 

[steamboat1]

My brother & I both made a pair of wood ski's out of barrel board years ago. We used barrel board because they're curved & weren't just flat boards. These were probably the 1st set of rockered ski's ever made. We put bear trap bindings on both pairs of ski's because those were the cheapest bindings at the time. We were proud of what we did & thought they were beautiful after being stained & varnished top & bottom. We even ran a router on the bottoms to make the straight centered tracking line which most ski's had at the time. We bring them to VT. to give them a whirl at Middlebury Snow Bowl. They only had the poma running up the Allen racing trail back then. We made it up no problem & headed down Allen with our homemade ski's. Allen is a fairly steep trail on top for those not familiar. Didn't take long to realize that we didn't put edges on these ski's, in fact the edges were rounded. We slid down the Allen at top speed going just as fast sideways as we were going straight & not on purpose either. It's a miracle neither one of us got hurt or hit anything because we had no control with these ski's. I laugh about it now but at the time it was a hair raising experience. Luckily we both had our regular ski's with us & were able to have a good day skiing the rest of the day. That was the last of the barrel boards. Not sure what happened to them but they were likely thrown out.

 

[Nick]

I never tried them, but I have some old pics of my family sking here on wood skiis --> http://forums.alpinezone.com/showth...st-skiing-pics&p=715348&viewfull=1#post715348

 

[puckoach]

yup, I'm that old....

Nothing like being a rookie skier with cable bindings on wooden 205's.....

 

[marcski]

My first pair of skis were wooden hand me downs. My brother skied on them before me. You don't really know what you're missing until you're on something new and better. I remember when I was about 11 or 12 I got a pair of Rossi Freestyle J's and wow....Those really brought my skiing to a new level.

 

[mister moose]

In a nutshell, it was a lot harder.

The leather boots I skied in never had a wet problem, but cold sure was an issue. There was no support for ankle flex, it was like a hiking boot. You could bend your knee forward way past today's boots, and have no support to lean into. You could very easily fall straight forward, and often did. You could also roll the ankle side to side, so the ski could be flat on the snow no matter what the rest of the leg was doing. Edging was therefore far more difficult as the ankle did most of the work. Ice was to be feared. Sharp edges had a quarter of the meaning they do today. Edges were 5/16" wide, and were 3" long segments, each screwed into the wood ski.

Balance was harder, think like ice skating. Your feet had to stay under you more.

As others have said, putting on the bindings was harder. Not only did you have to bend over while balanced on a slope to push the lever over, you had to first route the cables through the guides (which came off when you fell), re-center the toe piece, insert the toe of the boot against the toe piece, and while holding the cable in the guide, flip the lever.

There was no Ptex. They skied slower, and wax was more critical.

Only experts could parrallel turn. We all wished we could. Poles were bamboo with leather strung baskets. Wool pants, or if you were a big skier, wool stretch pants. Chairlifts were a luxury, rope tows were common. Okemo was 100% pomalifts, Bromley had J-bars, and Stowe, MRG, and a few others I think had single chairlifts. Magic opened the longest chairlift in the east, a big deal. Lift lines were long, 15 runs was a lot.

I was on lace up boots for 5-6 seasons. There were inner and outer laces (Snow board boots replicate this) and you had a special hockey skate like hook to help pull them really tight. Then came a hand-me-down (always when you're the youngest) leather buckle boots, then a plastic coated hybrid leather boot, then finally my first set of modern looking Raichles when I was 16 or 17. Mated to step in bindings on Olin Mark II VCE's. That's when I started skiing in the modern sense of the word.

 

[steamboat1]

In a nutshell, it was a lot harder.

The leather boots I skied in never had a wet problem, but cold sure was an issue. There was no support for ankle flex, it was like a hiking boot. You could bend your knee forward way past today's boots, and have no support to lean into. You could very easily fall straight forward, and often did. You could also roll the ankle side to side, so the ski could be flat on the snow no matter what the rest of the leg was doing. Edging was therefore far more difficult as the ankle did most of the work. Ice was to be feared. Sharp edges had a quarter of the meaning they do today. Edges were 5/16" wide, and were 3" long segments, each screwed into the wood ski.

Balance was harder, think like ice skating. Your feet had to stay under you more.

As others have said, putting on the bindings was harder. Not only did you have to bend over while balanced on a slope to push the lever over, you had to first route the cables through the guides (which came off when you fell), re-center the toe piece, insert the toe of the boot against the toe piece, and while holding the cable in the guide, flip the lever.

There was no Ptex. They skied slower, and wax was more critical.

Only experts could parrallel turn. We all wished we could. Poles were bamboo with leather strung baskets. Wool pants, or if you were a big skier, wool stretch pants. Chairlifts were a luxury, rope tows were common. Okemo was 100% pomalifts, Bromley had J-bars, and Stowe, MRG, and a few others I think had single chairlifts. Magic opened the longest chairlift in the east, a big deal. Lift lines were long, 15 runs was a lot.

I was on lace up boots for 5-6 seasons. There were inner and outer laces (Snow board boots replicate this) and you had a special hockey skate like hook to help pull them really tight. Then came a hand-me-down (always when you're the youngest) leather buckle boots, then a plastic coated hybrid leather boot, then finally my first set of modern looking Raichles when I was 16 or 17. Mated to step in bindings on Olin Mark II VCE's. That's when I started skiing in the modern sense of the word.

You explained it much better than I could. Yes I remember when Stowe had a single chair alongside a double chair running up Mansfield, Okemo was all poma's except I think the chair that runs up to the left a little above the base area was always there. The green monster poma at Okemo used to launch you airborne like a rocket when loading. Remember the j-bars at Bromley also. We use to ski them like a slalom course on powder days. Some things never change though. Mad River is pretty much the same as it's always been however I do miss the lift line corral & wool poncho's on the single. Magic to is pretty much the same to but to a lesser extent.

 

[tree_skier]

I'm that old also. I also remember breaking my blizzard's and having to go back to the northlands. but was still winning races with the leather lace boots and wood skis against kids on rossi stratos and plastic boots.

 

[Puck it]

wooden skis and lace up leather boots when I was learning at 3yrs. old. at the St lawrence CC slope in the 'burg!

 

[sugarbushskier]

I remember my first pair of skis....Sabres....not sure of model or length, but remember they were white with cable bindings. My mom would lace up my leather boots in the kitchen before my dad would drive me to my Saturday morning ski lesson at Bousquets. The skis had screwed in metal edges which is about all I can remember. I do know that at least two pairs of heavy ski socks were required to keep me warm in my leather boots. I also remember my very first pair of "real skis"; the original red K2's with nothing but the K2 emblem on the tips. These skis rocked and really helped me improve my tecnique. My fiend and I would alternate my K2's during our racing starts so that we could go faster. Ah the good old days, switching out skis with friends, never once thinking about DIN settings or release points...>

 

[SkiFanE]

Of course! Started skiing in 1970 or so..hand me downs. Probably had leather and wood for a few more years, I was slow on the new-fangled fiberglass wave. My folks didn't ski, just sent us, so as long as it was skiable, it was good to them lol. I remember I had to have my older sisters lace my boots up. Wet, cold..yup. I had to use bread bags in my boots back then haha. Handknit yarn mittens. And the strap brakes...nothing like a whirling hunk of wood flying around your body lmao.

And...all I remember is having a freaking blast. Only remember being cold once, don't remember how they skied. It's just the way it was. Probably why now, I can pretty much ski on any equipment, I've very adaptable. If you can learn and ski on those things, you can pretty much ski anything.

 

[jrmagic]

I'm not quite that old but the first skis I owned were hand me down 215 ( I think) Kneissel Red Star skis with cable bindings and HEAVY Lange boots. Those bindings were totally a PITA to use lol

 

[JimG.]

I'm not quite that old but the first skis I owned were hand me down 215 ( I think) Kneissel Red Star skis with cable bindings and HEAVY Lange boots. Those bindings were totally a PITA to use lol

That sounds like my dad's setup in about 1968 or so. He was stylin' with those boards.

 

[marcski]

(This is a good thread!).