Sean dropped off his & hers skis for fettling with a view to heading off to Austria later in the week. His skis are big Atomics, just looking for big piles of soft snow to whizz across, while hers were ZAGs, a brand I have to say had previously passed me by. In the hunt for guidance on how they are set up in the factory (the edges had been assaulted previously by one of those hand-held grinder dudes) I discovered that ZAG are based in Chamonix and source 95% of their materials in the EU – edges from Germany, wood for cores from Poland etc. All very laudable but the retail prices on their website are a reminder of why everyone else gets their gear made in China or Vietnam.
Anyway Sean’s skis didn’t look too bad until I ran a finger over this weird-looking light spot and it turned out to be a big depression:
Unfortunately someone had already tried to fill the hole with repair P-tex which hadn’t quite cut the mustard but it makes future work that bit harder. Anyway, Sean was on a deadline and I hadn’t quoted for a serious repair involving cutting out the old P-tex and replacing it with new. So, time to hit & hope. Simply heating up the area to soften it up for additional P-tex is enough to melt the previous repair so you end up looking like you’re stirring a pot of soup as you try to make the new P-tex hot without melting the old.
Eventually with this sort of caper you give up because it becomes obvious that no-one could do a perfect job. This is as good as I could get it – better than before but not gorgeous:
Both sets of skis came up quite nicely in the end and here’s hoping there’s lots of lovely snow in Austria.