Would you pay for a workshop where you build your own custom carbon ski?

[MCskiFreak]

"don't think you can compare splashing a ski to splashing something like a boat hull. In a boat hull, the shape is pretty much all of the design and intellectual property. u also have the layup which leads to torsional and longitudinal flex, and the rocker"

 

@ShaneH‌

 

Actually in boat design the laminate schedule is also considered to be intellectual property, and is usually one of the most guarded details that a boat company has.

 

At no point in the original post did Horton talk about teaching the participants how to modify the skis design...in which case you would want to do so before you make a mold and a ski out of it to ensure you like your changes. Doing this would also make it a non-issue when it comes to intellectual property.

[Chef23]

I took the whole point of this as how to build and modify a ski for your preferences not just how do you build a copy of another ski.

[Horton]

@skiray‌ every time I have ever asked for something special in terms of flex / rocker I have regretted it.

[Chef23]

I would have no idea what to ask for if I wanted a modified rocker or flex.

[SkiRV]

I agree @Chef23, I would go through a bunch of mistake skis jut figuring out what I wanted! Would be interesting if for Adam or someone else with a lot of industry ski experience could start a thread about how flex, rocker, profile, and other factors effect things separately and together.

[RazorRoss3]

I'm not sure that would be a thread so much as a novel.

[bishop8950]

There is probably a fairly small number of people interested in playing with ski design in comparrision to the number of people willing to buy a ski, but I am one of them! Fortunately I get to do that with a manufacturer and their resources. I have a mixed sucsess rate on how ideas have panned out. I am getting better at predicting flex/rocker impact but have a ton to learn.

[eleeski]

For most, ski design is just a small part of performance. Work on your skills. The experienced designers do a very good job.

 

Still, some of us enjoy playing with our skis. Ideas on what tweaks could suit our specific styles run around our minds. Once you get past fin settings the more basic design considerations come into play. Things that can only be done in the mold. Or with a grinder after molding in enough material to play with. You guys are taking @Horton‌ too literally, it's a great idea to get involved in your ski design.

 

Of course, just learning how a ski is built by building one is a magical experience.

 

Eric

 

[AdamCord]

@SkiRV that would definitely be a novel! And I'm not sure I or anyone else who has spent countless hours learning the intricacies of ski design would want to divulge all that information to the world... :D

 

I agree with @eleeski there is definitely something magical about building your own ski and then taking it to the lake and riding it. I still remember pulling the first ski I ever built from the mold, I was soooo nervous! With proper oversight anyone could build a good ski given that the right equipment is available.

[jipster43]

It would be awesome to go ski with a pro, demo skis, and at the end of the day/weekend have a ski design with a professionally recommended tuning that you could build yourself. I would do it just for the learnin', the fun of it, and to say that I did it, but I already have a hard time spreading my financial love to all of the ski manufacturers that I have a loyalty to, so for me it would be a one-off project.

[thager]

Actually, I would rather go to a skiing workshop where a pro would show me what to look for and the results of correct and incorrect movements for fin tuning on my present ski.

[ALPJr]

I think it's a really cool idea. For me though the $ would be better used for lessons and gear. @AdamCord‌ ski building at home thread is a great one. I'll enjoy following that.

[bkreis]

I have had a few favorites, of which most broke, prototypes, and have settled a few times due to models where the fit wasn't quite right with limited options available at the time.

[Ilivetoski]

After seeing what @MCskifreak posted that got me thinking... I just got done with my business law class and this is straight from my power point "any intellectual property created after 1978 has protection of the life of the creator plus 70 years"...

Basically, its not a good idea to start splashing skis.

[kstateskier]

@Horton‌ I thought you already offered bad coaching for free?

[TylerR]

@kstateskier‌ you have it all wrong. @Horton‌ has a magical fin trick that almost always gains you balls in the course.

[mwetskier]

@livetoski -your ' life plus 70 years ' information pertains only copyright protection, which covers only the physical expression of an idea. to clarify that if you have a copyright on a certain combination of words and colors on a ski no one can create a ski that looks just like it. but they *can* splash a mold off it and build one that functions the same. no one can copyright the functional aspects of any physical thing. as for patents -design patents and utility patents are limited to 20 years from the time of earliest filing.

[mack]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe one can copy anything, for their own use. It can't be copied and then sold in a commercial, for profit, venture. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think so. If i now took a product and changed it in some way that caused it to something different or to change its function, have I not used my own intellect to cause that change? That change makes it something that it was not. The change caused it to do something that it originally could not do.

My opinion is this, one can copy anything for his own personal use. If he makes changes to that part[thing] he has added his own intellect to it and created something new. That new part [thing ] is his intellectual property. every time a ski company changes their design do they have to pay royalties to the inventor of the original ski?

As far as teaching someone to learn how to do something, is a different issue. weather it is for a fee or for free. I can't see any problem with someone setting up shop and saying this is what i will teach you to do and this is my fee to show you.

 

Again, I could be totally off base in my opinions i don't know, i'm not a lawyer or manufacture of anything.

 

 

[Spesh]

I work with carbon fibre for a living (albeit the motorsport industry). I have knocked out a few freebies for my ski on some occasions. I have thought about taking moulds from some old skis, but its seems largely pointless laying them up in carbon as the flex patterns will go out the window. It would be good to find a project to get my teeth into though. There's probably more scope in the binding market tbh. I can't help but feel that ski design has peaked. They can all be setup to turn pretty much the same. The only real gain seems to be possible through the loading phase. As has been mentioned, technique makes a far larger difference.

 

The top guys seem to be able to get through their harder passes on skis marketed at the freeride market. Surely that says something about ski design....