Now Defunct Ski Companies Of the World

[farangset]

To Sergio Moutatlet:

cit. "(...) Knew one french brand called Sim's (wood skis very well made)"

 

Well done, Chap!

 

I never guessed someone would cite this brand - especially in a U.S. based site.

Yes Sim's did wooden skis at first (like everyone) ; I did my debuts on a combo pair, got quickly trained to release one and then tried the slight 'V-hull' monoski aimed as a transition ski toward the wide tunnel one. All those debut/transition skis were bearing the same half white/half red decor and varnished bottom. They were easy, good quality basic trainers.

 

But did you know Sim's did also very technologically advanced tricks? We had at the same time (which seems a bit strange regarding the conservative techs used in the previously said skis) a pair of NIDALIGHTs.

There were made of a forged sole of hard (aircraft grade) aluminum embossed in one piece with the four sides, 3 stabilisation strakes on each tip. Note those skis were not flat but noticeably curved from front to back and even convex from side to side.

The core was a honeycomb structure of aluminum, certainly milled to adapt to the curved sole. Top was a hard melamine 'flag' decor, proudly divided in the 3 blue-white-red national colors and the black eagle stylised head signing all Sim's products.

 

Of course, those tricks were quite heavy - but totally unbreakable. Wake jumps, steps attempts with relevant knockings let them unharmed for years - untill they got stolen in our boat. Strange ending, since the Reflex comp wraps adapted lately with the former holes all around were not looking as a matching choice - but that was OK for all the family enjoying double-tricks tours sometimes. I will find & post some pix one of these days.

 

Another dead brand no one can know - myself knowing only from a school comrade who belonged somehow to the founders family: the Roque & Lahuppe skis. Dating from the very early days (1925s / 30s) and based on the french Riviera.

 

Remember that if the debate about where water skiing was really born tends in favor of the USA, the early development belongs to France, especially the mediterranean coast. Then US took over, with favorable environment in Florida and California among other states.

 

As a proud Savoie born skier, used to enjoy the Aix lake since childhood, I would like to believe the old story here about alpine skiers using their snow stuff to experience something different behind a boat on Annecy lake as early as in the 192O's, but that does not make a lot of sense regarding lifting surface of vintage winter skis, plus the low performance of available boats of that time.

 

However, there is a funny experience available around here that few other locations can offer: ski in the morning at 3,500m AMSL on a glacier -either in Tignes or Deux-Alpes, not speaking of Mont-Blanc available rides- and water ski the same day afternoon at 231m AMSL on my lake! (aviators check LFLB small Intl airport, at the very South of lake...). That's something to do once in a while

 

Regards,

[madcityskier]

Had and loved ep, western, and most of all the mastercraft skis line.

 

[XR6Hurricane]

OMC sold some Javelin slalom skis...I remember seeing them in the back of the Johnson Outboards brochure back in the '80s but I don't know if I ever saw one in person. Don't know who made them for OMC but it would probably be an unusual find today.

 

My dad and I have a few defunct ones in our collections.

 

mid '60s wooden Challenger slalom

wood Flagg tunnel concave slalom of unknown year

wood Sundash slalom (part of a combo set) from the '80s

J.C. Higgins wood slalom from Sears ('60s?)

Penn Craft Spray King wooden combo set

Western Funnel Tunnel

Western XL7 Glass Competition

EP Superformer

 

[Mapple]

Chippendale, Freyrie (probably spelled this one wrong), Kathro, Mesle, Typhoon (wood jumpers)

 

 

 

 

[thager]

Probably had to wear a speedo with the Chippendale!

[Zman]

Did Casad make any skis? Or, just barefoot booms, handles and other accessories?

[m70win]

I bought these Simon Koury Trick Skis off Craigs list for 50 bucks. The bindings have been updated, but there still pretty cool.

[m70win]

A friend gave me these Dixie Clipper Skis, I never did find out anything much about who, or where they were made.

[gsm_peter]

We still have.

Sandström from 1966. Yellow Combo with slalom setup. Great 1/2" wide wooden fins.

Sandström trick skiis from 1968. Reed.

Reflex sl concave from 1964 but we got this later.

That ski was rode in a Swedish Championship in the 60thies.

 

might get pictures later.

[mwetskier]

anyone remember Excel made in seattle in the 70s?

[JohnCox]

My first fiberglass ski...a Terry Sundancer. It was a little big, I think...and the last ski I used with a RTP.

 

I also am the proud owner of a pair of plaid Kimballs

[Edbrazil]

Laconia, NH, my home town, had another ski company besides AquaSport: Northland. And, they made water plus snow skis. Every Christmas, another pair, and more improvements, like screw-in steel edges.

Northland did much better with waterski slalom skis, and made stuff that actually worked relatively well. Before concave/tunnel bottoms. They had a Warren Witherell model. Although Warren could run the SL course on a squareback if he had to.

[fu_man]

@Edbrazil, I rode one of those models a few summers ago as well as a squareback. Very interesting. The squareback felt like I was skimming across the water even though the fin had to be a good 4-5 inches deep.

[gsm_peter]

Sandströms trick ski from type 1967 and Reflex from 1964

[gsm_peter]

Sandström combo ski on memory lane boat hose wall. Ski from 1966.

We had a Cresent sport boat with a 35 hp Mercury.

Handle also from 1966.

[Chef23]

@Edbrazil I have a Northland Bantam in my basement with the original rubber that I learned to run the course on. My dad stripped it and painted it yellow in the 70s though so you can't see the original colors I think it might have been blue.

[buzzy]

Ok; I don't post often, but I had to chime in here... Is this the longest BOS thread thus fare...? I was completely amazed by all of the post in this thread that brought back so many great memories of my childhood. The one that got me the most, was Wally's post on the ACME ski that Horton designed and built when we were at ULM. Back in the day it was "NLU"... I recall several of us running deep into 35 off on a ski that Horton built while in school. I thought it was amazing that he could do that...! The graphics looked like a bumble bee if I do recall... Oh; and I had the pleasure (if you call it that) of rooming with Horton at ULM... Good Times...!

 

P.S. I still have an EP "Wing Tip" trick that I still turn flips on when not swerving through the course...

 

Great Thread...!!!

[ForrestGump]

@buzzy Off topic, but you have GOT to have some stories or pics from college of Horton. Please tell me that you do!

[The_MS]

Lake Region Waterskis. They made everything from skurf boards, mini skis, trick skis and slalom skis from wood up until about 1978. They had combo skis named Denims that had a blue jean look on top. Very popular skis in the mid west and made in my home town of Victoria,MN.

[buzzy]

ShaneH - Well; since there were no I-phones back then, pics would be hard to dig up... As far as the stories; I'm sure that I have plenty, but if I were to open up that box, I'm certain that Horton would have way more on me than I do on him... LOL...! Not going to chance that one..........

[gsm_peter]

Memory lane

Alfredo Mendoza and Olympic skis.

I have actually tried them as teenager once or so.

 

 

[BruceEmery]

I still have a Northland Warren Witherell Slalom. Thinking out of the box, my brother and I routed a concave in it. Little did we know where the shape of slalom skis was going.

[otisg]

fu_man & jgalitz - I lived just up the West Shore of Lake Placid from Warren - I have seen him run 36 on both of those skis. If memory serves? He ran 36 off @ 36 on the wood Northland custom slalom at a time when few if any others were... 1966 or so.

Bruce that was right around the time you and Frank came over to Placid for the North Americans...

[oldjeep]

Lake Region Products - the guys who actually made cut and jump skis in the 70's. They were based out of Victoria MN about 5 blocks from my place.

Their story is here http://www.victoriagazette.com/july2007/page12.html

 

The old water ski factory is now a Moomba/Supra dealer, after being a garden center and a 1/2 dozen other things over the years. Picture of the building as it stands now.

http://www.midwestwatersports.com/Default.asp

[oldjeep]

And one more that has been mentioned previously, but I've got one hanging on my wall.

 

Vogue - beautiful ski that belonged to my wifes uncle. I'd love to try it out but his feet were a lot smaller than mine and I don't want to re-drill it.

 

[balsamcutter]

lake region

[Nando]

My brother picked up some "Jet-Ski" skis- both a slalom ski and a pair of cross country skis- at a garage sale. They were made in Grand Rapids, MN, apparently in the late '50s or early '60s. Might have been able to sue Kawasaki for copyright infringement if they'd have lasted long enough- would have been more lucrative than making water skis. Here's a link to a web site maintained by the grandson of the guy who founded White Bear Water Skis: www.whitebearwaterskis.com. It has a pretty cool old video.

[bigtex2011]

taperflex apex was awesome

[JetMcCoy]

Oh baby, where to start. AquaSport was the king of progressive skis in the 50's and 60's even though Cypress Gardens was dominant. My boat house is filled with Hedlund, Burdens Custom, Kahuna (Dave Saucier), Saucier, Northland, Dick Phillips, MasterCraft, Mapes Industries, Atomic Atlantic, White Bear, Taperflex, CG, null

[fu_man]

@JetMcCoy Nice collection. Those are in really good shape. I'm assuming those short square ones are old trick skis. I've never seen trick skis that shape before. What about the really short ones...are those shoe skis? I didn't realize that concept was that old.

[bogboy]

1970 bog ski.

[thager]

@bogboy Ahhh, I think that's a Western Wood (highly modified).

[JetMcCoy]

The square tricks are actually Full Banana CG Trixsters from 1958 that were cut down in the late 1960's to resemble the Al Tyll Trick Masters of the day. The other square ones are Northland full arc tricks. They have no flat spot at all. The CG Dogbone shoe skis are late 1960's early 70's vintage.

[JetMcCoy]

A few more freaks since people seem to like this topic. Duvall, Mastercraft, Lapoint, also come to mind!

null

[Horton]

US Gear

[scuppers]

@Horton - I agree! Read the other thread and started to comment several times buy why waste the time. I've been waiting for a piece for 9 over months. Just a 28 off section. I'll make it myself. Too bad.

[Horton]

@scuppers

I hate to throw anyone under the bus but at some point the Ballers need to know that sending money to Randy may be a donation.

 

 

[jimberryhill]

I'm new to this forum, this is my first post. Really dig reading about the legacy/vintage stuff. I'm a hack skier, only been on the course 8 times or so...pretty hilarious to everyone in the boat, not so much to me.

 

In my collection:

 

20 Maha's. Some favorites are Yellow glass LaPoint, wood and glass 360's, Wood LaPoint that don't think anyone besides me every skied. A rare Maha combo set. Love the look, history and riding them...though I don't know enough to say easy or hard to ride.

 

Wood O'Brien, my first ski after learning on combos when about 21 years old. Still ride it some.

 

EP Comp X-2. My first glass ski, about 1975. What I skied until mid-90's when I bought my lakehouse and bought a HO old guy ski. First reaction...holy crap.

 

Taperflex 68 and Taperflex Wide Tunnel. Have the box for the Wide Tunnel, was the first to ever ride it about 7 years ago.

 

Vogue. Have 3 of them. Beautiful skis.

 

Connelly Hook.

Churchill. Would love to know more about this ski. Looks just like the Hook to me.

CG Diamondback.

Western Wood Mach 3. Also some WW trick skis.

 

Had a bunch of CG stuff, I was a jerk and wouldn't let anyone ski my O'B or EP. In my collection:

El Diablo, my barefoot step off ski.

El Bruto.

Little Monster, a heckuva story behind this one.

Big Monster.

Diamondback, what a great looking ski.

Trick Masters.

Ski Skat.

Super Ski Skat.

Dog Bones.

 

Some other stuff I forgot. Thanks for opportunity to share. Here's a small part of my collection:

 

https://www.facebook.com/228867756003/photos/a.10153415943351004.1073741828.228867756003/10153429608476004/?type=1

[Hallpass]

I'm a bit late on this thread. @eleeski, Bob Maher and Maharajah are still making skis. Now in their 60th year. www.mahaskis.com. I called a couple of years ago to buy a set of bindings for my Dad's Maha, which he purchased in 1960. Bob answered the phone.+

 

BKH

[Booze]

Great American - Lucky skied on them for a while, IIRC

Terry Competition - Wood skis. They were quite popular here in the mid-late 70's

Vector? (though it was just an EP spinoff)

[Ronoster]

This thread took me back about 45 years. My first skiing was on jump planks that were stapled together. I learned slalom on a Taperflex. My first good ski was a Torque. The kid (15 or 16) that worked for Torque as a test rider used to come from Seattle and ski with us on his days off. I went to a Western Wood after that, then and EP tricks. Still have one of them. I had my Hydrodyne at the Seattle National Championships in 72 or 73 or close to that. We watched a kid clear 150' jump with a full front flip (by mistake). He landed on his skis by fell and it didn't count.

[Horton]

@Ronoster how did you find this thread?

 

[harddock]

Wasn't there a Terry slalom late 70's early 80's ?

[Booze]

@harddock , beat you to that last year, ;)

 

[Horton]

Hope this is not to racy for some of you..

 

[Booze]

Ahh, Water Skier Magazine, either 78 or 79?

[MISkier]

Composite Structures Corporation, which made EP skis, also had a line of skis called Sunspray. I had their Laser model before I got my EP Super 2.

[Horton]

@Booze I don't remember the year but I remember my mother was pretty upset when it came into our house

[ALPJr]

@Horton I remember that add. Circa late 70's. Right around the same time that Maha and Obrien came out with memorable ones.

[Horton]

@ALPJr everyone remembers the Suzanne Somers Maharaja ad. I don't remember the O'Brien ad.

 

There was a Connelly ad that I was particularly fond of at 12 years old. I had forgotten about it until I walked through the Connelly Factory a few years ago and then there she was the love of my life in a frame up on the wall ( nipples and all)