Yamaha used to make skis...

[SIKSKIER]

My sister had a bright canary yellow pair in the 70's.I just bought a new Yamaha 165 hp 4-stroke PWC last summer.Sweet!

 

[marcski]

I grew up with a pair of old Yamaha racing skis in my basement. My dad's old ones. They were very big and very stiff. I think 215's or 225's. My brother and I always wanted to mount a pair of bindings and let those big puppies rip but we never did. The bindings were removed by the time I remember them. He also had a pair of head standards, with I think spademan bindings.

 

[dswalston]

I actually own a pair of bright yellow Yamaha skis with really old bindings. These have sat in my garage since the early 80s (bought used sometime in the 70s). I would really like to give them to a collector or someone who would have use for them.

 

[2Planker]

I had a pair. They would wooden, had Tyrolia bindinga and weighted a ton. They were also a straight as an arrow.

Me too Then went to a pair of Hexcel's circa 1975ish

 

[drjeff]

Just read a kind of cool stroy on a FB skiing page today about Yamaha skis. Apparently in 1994, Yamaha was trying to get Alberto Tomba to leave Rossignol and ski out his career on Yamaha skis. They brought him 2 pairs of custom built for him SL race skis to the Lillehammer Olympic Games in 94 and gave them to him at the chalet he was staying. He had no interest in leaving Rossi and left the skis in the chalet. The guy who still owns the chalet, just gifted one of the 2 pairs to a big time ski racing historian, who now has the never mounted, still in the plastic wrap they were shipped in, made for Tomba custom Yamaha race skis!

 

[jimk]

I was in high school and went with my Mom (RIP) to a ski sale/promotion at the former Alpine Ski shop location in Tysons Corner, VA around 1971-72. Eddie Bunch, founder of the store, had a drawing for some ski-related giveaways. My Mom filled out a batch of entries in her name. Spider Sabich (legendary American ski racer who suffered an early death) was there to award several lucky winners their prizes.
Spider drew my Mom's name and she won her choice of any new Yamaha skis on the rack. Being the great mom that she was, she gave me the prize. I picked out a new pair of Yamaha Hi-Flex skis in 195cm length and I enjoyed them as my main ski for a number of years afterward. Sadly, the skis outlived Spider. He was the US Ski Teamer and early pro skier who became one of the tragic legends of American skiing when he was shot and killed by his movie star lover, Claudine Longet in 1976.
Me and the Yamaha skis at Killington, VT in 1976: