Any news about VANDEL skis? Hey...their site hops to Fischer!

Hey, Vandel fan! How is Vandel doing this year? I'm still interested in
these unusual skis and would like news about them. I tried the link I
had from last season: kaput.

OK, OK...I just googled "Vandel" and got an URL,
http://skis-vandel.com....which directs me to...FISCHER.com!!!! WHAT'S
UP? OK, I see this "Speed Tip" and "Speed Tail" noted at Fischer. Did
they buy up some Vandel ideas maybe?

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture...
...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies...
...rare books on ski, bike, boat culture, plus a Gulf Coast thriller
about smalltown smuggling ... more radical novels coming up!
...original downloadable music ... and articles galore!
plus national "Off the Beaten Path" travel forums! HOLY SMOKES!

"Jeff Potter" wrote

om...
Hey, Vandel fan! How is Vandel doing this year? I'm still interested in
these unusual skis and would like news about them. I tried the link I
had from last season: kaput.

OK, OK...I just googled "Vandel" and got an URL,
http://skis-vandel.com....which directs me to...FISCHER.com!!!! WHAT'S
UP? OK, I see this "Speed Tip" and "Speed Tail" noted at Fischer. Did
they buy up some Vandel ideas maybe?


Funny, I was cleaning up my old favorites this morning and I had the same
surprise! Clicked on Vandel and ended up at Fischer. I wanted to e-mail
Laurent Duparchy (not sure I remember his last name right) about it (he
often wrote about Vandel) but could not find his address. If somebody does
please ask him. I was planning a business trip to France this winter and
wanted to see the possibilities of trying and, maybe, buying some Vandels
but now I can't even get a phone number to call them.


JMC

Was it the French ski with binding way toward the tail or something?

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 19:20:00 -0500, "JMC" wrote:


"Jeff Potter" wrote

om...
Hey, Vandel fan! How is Vandel doing this year? I'm still interested in
these unusual skis and would like news about them. I tried the link I
had from last season: kaput.

OK, OK...I just googled "Vandel" and got an URL,
http://skis-vandel.com....which directs me to...FISCHER.com!!!! WHAT'S
UP? OK, I see this "Speed Tip" and "Speed Tail" noted at Fischer. Did
they buy up some Vandel ideas maybe?


Funny, I was cleaning up my old favorites this morning and I had the same
surprise! Clicked on Vandel and ended up at Fischer. I wanted to e-mail
Laurent Duparchy (not sure I remember his last name right) about it (he
often wrote about Vandel) but could not find his address. If somebody does
please ask him. I was planning a business trip to France this winter and
wanted to see the possibilities of trying and, maybe, buying some Vandels
but now I can't even get a phone number to call them.


JMC


Here's a link to a post he made last spring:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Va...gle.com&rnum=1

g.c.

Yeah. And other innovations as well according to that Google link GC
gave.

Serge wrote:

Was it the French ski with binding way toward the tail or something?

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture...
...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies...
...rare books on ski, bike, boat culture, plus a Gulf Coast thriller
about smalltown smuggling ... more radical novels coming up!
...original downloadable music ... and articles galore!
plus national "Off the Beaten Path" travel forums! HOLY SMOKES!

Someone's ringing ?

I've just had a call to Vandel. They're aware of their site/provider
problem who's obviously has been hacked.

Vandel is a rather small factory with a rather local market. So legal
issues and protection of their Internet site was not their top
priority, up to now. They promised me to come out with a new site
asap.

Apart from that they're doing well, as far as I know.

Talking about their ideas on grooves and binding position :

Although they continue to groove their skis, to not frighten the
rather conservative majority of customers, my new pair won't have any.
I'll let you now what I think of it. They agreed that I can bring them
back to have them grooved, if I want.

You will find plenty of Wax gurus dealing with Ptex hair and
microstructure or nanostructure, delicate grinding etc.. and no-one
argues about thoses huge "millistructures" (i.e. grooves) in the base
!
If they have any utility, why don't we have skis with 3, 4, 5 small
grooves at the tail, zero at the top, or the reverse ?

This is obviously an area of research that is developping with the new
profil/skatecute construction that provide self-guidability.

Laurent.

BTW :

Skis Vandel (SA)
3016 rue Franche Comté 39220 BOIS D'AMONT
+33 (0)3 84 60 90 42
fax :+33 (0)3 84 60 92 05

"Laurent Duparchy" wrote in message
om...
Talking about their ideas on grooves and binding position :
Although they continue to groove their skis, to not frighten the
rather conservative majority of customers, my new pair won't have any.
I'll let you now what I think of it. They agreed that I can bring them
back to have them grooved, if I want.

You will find plenty of Wax gurus dealing with Ptex hair and
microstructure or nanostructure, delicate grinding etc.. and no-one
argues about thoses huge "millistructures" (i.e. grooves) in the base
!
If they have any utility, why don't we have skis with 3, 4, 5 small
grooves at the tail, zero at the top, or the reverse ?

This is obviously an area of research that is developping with the new
profil/skatecute construction that provide self-guidability.

Laurent.

Thank you for providing the Vandel contact info. Regarding grooves, I do
feel they have a utility in skate skis. To me, a skate ski without groove(s)
would feel a bit like dull blades on ice skates. Grooves supposedly help in
keeping your skis gliding straight. Jumping skis may have up to 7 grooves
for that purpose (it is also said that the grooves helps to keep you
airborne, but that's off-topic); Fischer's Pacers I understand have 3
grooves.

But I am questioning their utility in classic skis. I don't see how grooves
can help to keep my skis going straighter when already skiing in tracks up
to 5cm deep. When you spend what (sometimes) seems like hours going up in
tracks and seconds going down with no tracks, and if these short sections
are the only one which benefit from the grooves, I believe I can do without
them.

Could it simply be that grooves are inherited from the days when deep
groomed tracks did not exist? Like we still find cigarette lighters built-in
vehicles designed for the so-called health conscious crowd?


JMC

Jumping skis may have up to 7 grooves
for that purpose (it is also said that the grooves helps to keep you
airborne, but that's off-topic); Fischer's Pacers I understand have 3
grooves.


Zachary Caldwell pointed out also that characteristic of jumping skis.
I made some investigations. Although I've not been able yet to talk
with world class jumpers, I got a few infos to think about.

The acceleration and jump area are pretty well maintained and
"groomed" and most of the time it's ice, not snow.

Grooves in jumping skis may have an utility at the reception area
only. It's obviously a delicate second where you wouldn't have your
skis to cross each others.

Talking about airborn, the "new" flying style with angled skis would
need other design than straight grooves. Just a guess.

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003, Laurent Duparchy wrote:

If they have any utility, why don't we have skis with 3, 4, 5 small
grooves at the tail, zero at the top, or the reverse ?

This is obviously an area of research that is developping with the new
profil/skatecute construction that provide self-guidability.

Huh? I still have a couple pairs of Peltonen skate skis that are
probably about 15 years old that have 3 grooves in the tails. Used
to have others that were even older with same tails. Not long after
the 3-groove Peltonens came the Karhu skate skis with 2 full-length
grooves. Wife still has a pair of these. These were fun when it
came time to scrape wax...

I remember reading a story several years ago about an Austrian(?)
who won the American Birke on a pair of skis someone had sanded until
the grooves were gone.

-Mitch