Ski Surgery After Handle Pop

[AdamCord]

I whacked my ski with the handle HARD yesterday trying to hang onto a turn that was way too much for this time of year, hard enough to crack the edge of the ski and cause the sidewall to pull away from the core a bit. I took a few pics of how I repair this kind of thing and thought I'd post it since this is pretty common.

 

I forgot to take a picture of the initial damage, my apologies.

 

First use a heat gun (or hair dryer) to heat up the damaged area, causing any water that's trapped in the crack to evaporate. I also use digital temperature sensor to make sure the ski never gets above about 190 degrees. The core will melt somewhere around 210 and the epoxy will soften, so it's best to avoid that. It's better to keep the temp low and take your time. Once you're sure it's dry, mask off the surrounding area, leaving the crack exposed:

Small screwdrivers are inserted to pull the sidewall away from the foam. The goal is to create just enough of a gap to allow you to drip some epoxy into the crack. Use epoxy that has a pot life of 15 minutes or more, don't use 5 minute epoxy. Mix the epoxy and then heat it up with your heat gun so that it thins out. You need it to be thin so it will pour into the crack. Make sure you don't get it so hot that it starts to cure. Fill the crevice with the warm epoxy, poking with a toothpick to get any air to come up and out.

 

Once it's full, wrap the ski in saran wrap (cling film) to contain the mess. Use a piece of wood and tape it to the side of the ski, putting pressure on the wood. I used an extra bit of trim and some black duct tape:

 

Let it cure overnight and then take everything off. Use a sanding block with some 400 grit sandpaper to clean up any residual epoxy, and it'll be like it never happened:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jjackkrash]

Solid work!

[Bulldog]

@AdamCord that is a beautiful repair!!! Nicely done.

[mwetskier]

search ebay for ' disposable irrigation syringe ' which is a dental syringe with a thin curved plastic tip and no needle involved. way way easier to inject thinned epoxy than to pour it into a crack. i would post a link but ebay links are real long and i don't know how to make it shorter.

[OldboyII]

NIcely done! If you are RFF be careful during waterstart - not to hit repaired area with the rope.

[303Skier]

Nice! I've used veterinary syringe and needle to inject epoxy into cracks before. Works great to get the epoxy into a small crack.

[ShererSkier]

@AdamCord just had this happen to me 20 min ago and remembered seeing this thread. Any specific kind of epoxy you prefer? Also I was wondering if a squeeze clamp would work to hold the wood against the ski? The edge pulled away and the crack is slightly overlapped. I wasn't sure if tape would suck it back in place good enough. I would put a piece of wood on the other side to even out the pressure. Thanks.

[AdamCord]

Any slower epoxy you find at a hobby or marine store will work. 30 minutes or more.

 

The clamp should work, just make sure your wood is flat on the sidewall, which isn't vertical.