peds

@Hallpass , that's so cool. The last time I took the Jobes skiing, as I was stepping into my snowshoes at the bottom of the path into the woods, waterskis strapped to my backpack, a group of American girls who were on holiday in Chamonix came over to talk. We chatted for a few minutes, and then as they were about to leave one of them asked “Do you know our friend?” as she reached into her pocket, then pressed a Shane McConkey sticker into my hand. It was a great moment.

@Hallpass , that's awesome! Are those really the same ones used by McConkey?! Absolutely incredible. Thanks for sharing that. @Jaypro , I've got several pairs of alpine skis already. These are another toy that I like to play with every now and then. No time wasted whatsoever! "Not even a remotely close feel"... I take it you've tried waterskis mounted alpine, then? ;)

Hey guys, me again! We've had silly amounts of snow so far this year in Chamonix, so I've managed to take the waterskis out a couple of times. Here's a quick video of today's trip... 550m of snowshoeing up through 50cm of fresh snow before skiing down in a blizzard.

@dchristman , yep, and my Jobes go back at least as far as that! I swapped a few emails with the company themselves, they couldn't pin down the year of the exact skis that I have... but they are pretty damn old, that is certain. I love a bit of (snow) monoski action, they are great fun, but it's hard enough going from four edges down to two... I guess with the right snow, a monowaterski would be great fun! Maybe that's nexy year's project...

Accidental double post, sorry. Here's a picture instead.

That's awesome! The design is so similar to my skis... could it be an earlier (or slightly later) design of my Jobes, just with the name scrubbed off or painted over or something? Thanks for sharing it dchristman. Just an update - I broke my shoulder at Christmas and haven't been skiing nearly as much as I'd have liked to this winter, and snow conditions have been pretty bloody terrible in my part of the Alps this year, so big fat powder skis haven't really been the tool of choice anyway. But the winter isn't over yet, hopefully I'll get at least one day on my waterskis before the summer starts again!

@jimbrake, yeah it's Chamonix, you have to play your cards right to get fresh tracks here! It was a funny start to a good powder day, there wasn't much accurate info available on what lifts were going to open and when... we've got five or six different areas here, so you've got to make a decision pretty early on as to where you want to go. The info for Plan d'Aiguille said opening at 11am, so most people would have decided straight away to go elsewhere, at least a bus ride away, but they actually opened at 0915. This attracted hundreds of coach-traveling tourists (here to see the view from 3800m for the bargain price of 50 euros), making a massive queue, and scaring off most skiers... so you just had to dive into the queue, really. I was there for about 40 minutes before getting on the lift. So yeah, you've got to pay attention to the weather, the lifts, and the general mood to get the good snow here. I'm going up on my regular rockers, the Pontoons, tomorrow, as there has been nearly three feet of snow in last 24 hours... tomorrow will be a good day. @Chef23 They as good as regular skis for a different reason... they might not be very lively or have much pop in them, but they feel pretty bloody powerful, and I'm keen to see how far I can take them safely. I think they'd handle some speed very well indeed.

Sorry for bumping the thread again, please feel free to ignore this! I borrowed a camera off a dude I work with and made a short documentary about the skis. It's about six and a half minutes long. edit Oh, and there's just a couple of photographs of them in action last week if you look near the top of this page: http://altitudinalnoodles.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/three-days-of-snow-and-ice-darkness-and-light/

Thank for the comment SkiJay! I agree, sometimes you've got to get cold or wet or a little bit scared to truly enjoy life, but I would say that during the actual descent (the part in good snow, not the icy bits up top or the trees below) I was outrageously, deeply comfortable :D

Thank for the comment SkiJay! I agree, sometimes you've got to get cold or wet or a little bit scared to truly enjoy life, but I would say that during the actual descent (the part in good snow, not the icy bits up top or the trees below) I was outrageously, deeply comfortable :D

Hello everyone! Sorry for dragging up an old thread like this, but I thought I'd just drop in with an update. Bought the skis two years ago, mounted them, tested them for ten seconds and realised I had the bindings waaaay too far forward, put them in a cupboard. The year after, I had them remounted but never found the time to test them again. Yesterday - an incredible powder day here in Chamonix, so I thought I'd take them out for a spin. A full story can be found here: I'd like to say thank you to everyone who offered advice or opinion in this thread. Thanks!

Hello everyone! Sorry for dragging up an old thread like this, but I thought I'd just drop in with an update. Bought the skis two years ago, mounted them, tested them for ten seconds and realised I had the bindings waaaay too far forward, put them in a cupboard. The year after, I had them remounted but never found the time to test them again. Yesterday - an incredible powder day here in Chamonix, so I thought I'd take them out for a spin. A full story can be found here: I'd like to say thank you to everyone who offered advice or opinion in this thread. Thanks!

Brent, I'd love to, but I'm going to need a dump of about 40cm of snow before that happens! Keep yer fingers crossed for me...

Hey dudes, just a picture to end the story with. Thanks for all of your comments! http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b305/prh2k1/100_5395.jpg

Oh, here's a link to a thread on another forum (TGR) all about mounting water skis with alpine bindings, if anyone has some time to kill and the subject interests them. Don't worry if you don't and it doesn't! :D http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/99439-Serious-question-no-snickering-waterskis-mounted-up-alpine

Cheers for the history of R/R skis chaps, but I'm clued-up on the scene - I've been a Pontoon owner for many years now, and I was one of the first few thousand people to ski on a Spatula. Some beautiful technology, and yes, the late great Shane McConkey is why I'm looking into this. They would only be used on a few days a year, even in a good year. The non-metal edges would be a problem on the way to and from the good snow, but what would life be if you didn't have to face a little adversity now and then? Eric, many thanks for the insight into the construction, that's exactly the kind of info I'm after - I had something of a suspicion that what you say would be the case. I really do like the idea of the aluminium plate, I'll probably go down that route if I find the ski I'm looking for. Do you suppose the problem would be reduced somewhat if I were to find a solid, vintage pair of skis, with a lot of wood in them? Scotchipman, I'm in Chamonix, France, where we are having a bumper year for fresh snowfall - one of the heaviest in decades. Sorry about the slow start on that side of the pond, I've heard it's been painful! I thought the snow had started falling now, though? Many thanks for your input guys, I'm very grateful indeed.

Hi there guys, I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a bit of information, I have pretty much zero knowledge with water skis - I am much more well-versed with snow skis. I'm currently looking for a pair of water skis to remove the bindings from and re-drill them for alpine skiing bindings, for use as a ski in deep powder - I'm sure you'll all understand and appreciate the similarity in the physics at play between deep snow and water much more than most regular alpine skiers, who are familiar only with groomed and hard-pack snow. So, I was just hoping someone could give me a little bit of an idea as to the composition of water skis, the various layers of material used in their construction - and whether or not they'll be able to hold alpine bindings, which seem to have much fewer screws than the bindings already on the ski. How much pressure can these planks usually take? The specific ski I'm looking at is a pair of Jobe Beelines, but I simply can't find any info on it, not even on the Jobe website. Is there anyone with any direct experience of this ski on here? Has anyone on these forums faced the question of cross-discipline skis before? I'd love to hear any input you might have. Many thanks, all. Pete