Radar poor quality?

[Luckydave]

Hi, my 5 year old vapor alloy delaminated leaving me in the market for a new ski. When I originally purchased it I noticed it was poorly sealed between the top and bottom decks. The local ski shop loant me a new last years model vapor graphite to use during a skiing holiday while radar repaired my old ski.

The attached photos show the new ski that I was loant and it appears to be very poorly put together with gaps starting to show between the top and bottom decks, just like my old ski.

Are all skis like this or are there better built skis available?

I am very reluctant to buy a new Radar to have it fall apart like my old one.

Any comments welcome and appreciated.

 

[Stevie Boy]

@Luckydave I have always found Radar to be a Good Quality Product, I have friends who still ski on Radar Skis that are at least 7 years old and they look as good as new, with no delamination, if you are that unhappy with what you see, perhaps you should move on, the whole thing has clearly got under your skin, for what it,s worth, you should be talking to your dealer, who in turn should talk to Radar, instead of Banging the Drum here, there is plenty of people on this forum that ski Radar and are very happy with them.

[Deanoski]

Radar Skis rock I have 10 radar skis starting with the mpd on a 2020 right now

[oldjeep]

I've got a 2017 vapor graphite and a 2012 Senate. Both of them ride around in my tower ski rack in the sun and I haven't had any issues with them. The one in your picture looks a little crudely finished and the back of the ski looks like it has been banged around a bunch.

[jhughes]

What's pictured seems normal to me, once a ski comes out of the mold the excess is trimmed off and that's just what skis look like. From my experience Radar has high build quality in general.

[BraceMaker]

And that trimming is done with a bandsaw..

[S1Pitts]

I have had one of mine and seen one of my ski partner's top sheets delaminate from the body.

Not slamming Radar by any means here but like all ski makers they have had the odd bad ski....It happens. We did not return to dealer as the skis were several years old and we were both moving onto newer models at the time.

[bikesrus]

We have had at least 10 Radar skis in our family in the past 8 years. One did have an issue but Radar handled it so quickly and professionally we will be Radar for life.

 

[Horton]

@Luckydave you have posted 8 times on BallOfSpray and 7 of those posts have been complaints about Radar. Ok you are unhappy about your 5 year old ski. You have registered your complaint. We get it. You are angry at Radar and do not like their products. If your only purpose here is to complain about Radar please go somewhere else.

 

 

 

 

[mike_mapple]

Ive been in waterskiing my whole life, Ive seen Radar Start, and ive sold skis for the past 12+ years as well, based on the pictures that looks pretty standard for a ski that is handcrafted, and has been used for 5 years.

 

However, my advice would be reach out to the company instead of bashing them online, or if go through the pro shop that you bought the ski to see if they can help you reach out to them.

 

Just my .02

 

 

 

[aupatking]

Like the other guys said, when the ski comes out of the mould, they run it through the band saw to cut off the excess material and resin, then they finely file it smooth. What you’re picturing here is normal. What you shouldn’t see is gaps where no material or resin exists, like a place where an air bubble existed. I can see where an air bubble, or multiple air bubbles on that “seam” area could lead to delaminating, as yours did. It is very unfortunate that your ski fell apart but I do believe that you just happened to get a bad one. They exist from every manufacturer. If you stick with Radar, I’m sure you’ll be happy, but I’m sure we all understand you going a different direction. There are a ton of awesome skis out right now. I’m fairly certain you’ll see some of the same finish details across brands.

[Skoot1123]

I’d listen to @mike_mapple - he knows a thing or two about skis.

 

My personal experience with Radar is that they were gracious enough to allow me to visit them at the legendary Radar Lake AND let me watch the whole process of a Radar Vapor being made. Nothing but high quality in my opinion. As others have stated - the white that you see is not “de-lamination” rather it is the flashing that was trimmed to size. Nothing to worry about.

[DW]

My Head snow skis exhibit the same thing maybe not relevant but does kind of speak to a similar mfg process. We do participate in a niche sport and those of us on this forum at a niche level in a niche sport, with that comes products that tend to be hand crafted thus exhibiting additional variation that mass production reduces. Should we accept low quality for the price paid, no, but understanding the zone where we operate brings an understanding.

 

As for the manufacturers, every one I have dealt with has bent over backwards to accommodate a quality complaint. I know of no other industry where I have been provided as many warranty replacements as the water ski industry. That includes the manufacturer and the dealer network.

[travtitle]

What tense is "loant"?

[rbuss4]

We love out Radar skis, and have seen AWESOME customers service from Brooks here and what funnels through our ski shop. Sorry to hear you got a bad ski

[UCFskier]

once a ski exits warranty give er a shot at fixing it yourself.... 2 part epoxy, clamp and some sanding..... as kids we always fixed our own stuff, delam, stripped holes, rubber edges coming off jumpers!

[Luckydave]

Thanks everyone for there comments. I was just trying to understand what was happening here.

I am happy to delete this thread but don’t know how.

 

[travtitle]

Luckydave, I really want you to know that there is no such word as "loant."

[6balls]

I'm pretty sure in my relatively long slalom ski tournament life (I'm now 48), that I've never had a poor quality ski from any well-respected manufacturer. Further, any issues I ever had were immediately remedied.

 

I'm on my 3rd Radar and they have been great. Big props also to Razor (not sure they are still making 'em, but geez the workmanship), and D3 was always a really nice product. I don't mean to leave others out--these just stood out in particular. There are certain brands that I have had no experience and never "loant" out :)

 

 

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@Luckydave you commented "while radar repaired my old ski." Did Radar repair free of charge or did you pay for the repair? If they did it free on a 5 year old ski, that is definitely going above and beyond for customer service and should alleviate any concerns about buying a Radar product.

 

As others have stated the closeups of the edge look perfectly normal for any modern ski.

[alanc]

thats great service if they lent you a ski and fixed your old one.if it comes back looking good and skiing good just keep using it don t need to buy another one anyway.unless you like the loaner better haaa