Newbie question rock skis

Sorry if this is covered in a FAQ somewhere.

Couple of quick and easy questions...

What do people mean when they talk about 'rock skis'? Just old junky
skis that you can afford to beat up on rocks, I assume?

On a similar note, is there anything that can be done to fix minor
dings and scratches on a perfectly good pair of new skis?

Thanks!

"Bob" wrote in message
m...
Sorry if this is covered in a FAQ somewhere.

Couple of quick and easy questions...

What do people mean when they talk about 'rock skis'? Just old junky
skis that you can afford to beat up on rocks, I assume?

Yes, in general it's someone's older skis that they are less concerned
about. Not necessarily junky though in my experience, but sometimes so. My
"rock" skis are perfectly good skis, just not my newest/best. I have a
second pair each of striding and skating skis - about 10 years old each -
well skied, but well taken care of. Therefore when conditions are marginal
with the chance of running over some dirt or stones, I would use them - but
I'll also be as careful as possible because the skis aren't really all that
bad and I don't want to ruin them. I'm sure there are a lot of people who
actually have skis that are so old or beat up that it really doesn't matter
at all. Maybe they've gradually been beat up by being rock skis? I have a
semi-serious highschool kid who only has one pair each of skate and striding
skis - pretty nice race quality skis. Early in the year she was doing dry
land instead of skiing because she didn't want to run her good skis over the
dirt patches. I appreciate her responsible attitude (believe me, some of my
friends' kids have NO clue about keeping the bottoms pristine!). I would
have liked to see her skiing (I think she felt a little left out too).
Before next year, I plan to keep my eyes open for some *cheap* second hand
skis so she can have some rock skis.

On a similar note, is there anything that can be done to fix minor
dings and scratches on a perfectly good pair of new skis?

Usually it just involves gradually filling in the scratch with dripping
from a burning "p-tex candle" and leveling it with a flat, sharp scraper.
It's really quite simple and straight forward for a minor scratch. You can
probably do OK by reading a book or website on base repair. Even fairly
deep and large scratches (limited to the base material) are definitely a do
it yourself, but you might try to find someone to show you how the first
time. My guess is that someone you know knows how to do it or a nice person
at your local ski or board shop would be happy to show you. The technique
is the same regardless of alpine, nordic or snowboard.

Hope this helps.

Grissy

"Bob" wrote in message
m...
On a similar note, is there anything that can be done to fix minor
dings and scratches on a perfectly good pair of new skis?

You can patch the ptex but the patch won't hold wax. Unless it's obviously
reducing the glide (like, you can actually feel the drag) I wouldn't bother
patching it. Just make sure there aren't any hairs or points of chewed ptex
sticking out into the snow where they *will* cause drag. If there are, then
*carefully* trim them off with a sharp knife (razor, exacto, etc). Don't
remove any more than you have to!

I ski on 3 different pair of skate skis (including my wife's pristine pair).
My "rock ski's" are the 4 year old Rossi deltas. The bases on those old
rossis are obviously chewed. There's a gouge (pine cone?) in one that runs
diagonally across the width of the ski, 5mm wide and 1mm deep. There's a 3cm
section on the edge of the shovel of the other one where the core is
exposed. The edges have been trimmed to remove the evidence of more than one
long icy descent (aaaaaaaaaa!!!) Despite all this, the rossis are still
the fastest I have in soft, wet conditions. They look ugly so I call them
"rocks" but I still try to take care of them. So far, that consists of
removing the "scar tissue" and waxing them after every day out.

Bob

A related question--I've noticed that even with a very light touch and a
freshly-sharpened plexi scraper, that I end up with some tiny indentations
from the scrape (like 1 mm in depth and maybe 2-3 mm in from the edge,
perpindicular to the length of the ski), esp. in spots that are tricky to
scrape (i.e. transition from glide to kick zone)...Q.1 is are these
unavoidable & 2 is are they likely to make any difference in the
performance of the skis?

thanks
Derick

"Bob" wrote in message
m...
On a similar note, is there anything that can be done to fix minor
dings and scratches on a perfectly good pair of new skis?

You can patch the ptex but the patch won't hold wax. Unless it's
obviously
reducing the glide (like, you can actually feel the drag) I wouldn't
bother
patching it. Just make sure there aren't any hairs or points of chewed
ptex
sticking out into the snow where they *will* cause drag. If there are,
then
*carefully* trim them off with a sharp knife (razor, exacto, etc). Don't
remove any more than you have to!

I ski on 3 different pair of skate skis (including my wife's pristine
pair).
My "rock ski's" are the 4 year old Rossi deltas. The bases on those old
rossis are obviously chewed. There's a gouge (pine cone?) in one that
runs
diagonally across the width of the ski, 5mm wide and 1mm deep. There's a
3cm
section on the edge of the shovel of the other one where the core is
exposed. The edges have been trimmed to remove the evidence of more than
one
long icy descent (aaaaaaaaaa!!!) Despite all this, the rossis are
still
the fastest I have in soft, wet conditions. They look ugly so I call them
"rocks" but I still try to take care of them. So far, that consists of
removing the "scar tissue" and waxing them after every day out.

Bob

"Derick Fay" wrote in message
news
A related question--I've noticed that even with a very light touch and a
freshly-sharpened plexi scraper, that I end up with some tiny indentations
from the scrape (like 1 mm in depth and maybe 2-3 mm in from the edge,
perpindicular to the length of the ski), esp. in spots that are tricky to
scrape (i.e. transition from glide to kick zone)...Q.1 is are these
unavoidable & 2 is are they likely to make any difference in the
performance of the skis?

1: I haven't been entirely able to avoid making these marks.They seem to
happen when I accidently let the scraper stop while still on the ski (like
when my stroke gets jammed up hitting the vice or something else around the
wax area). Since the plexi isn't actually removing any ptex when this
happens, I think repeated hot waxing brings the deformed base material back
to near normal.

2 I doubt it. Maybe someone else can chime in about this, but little nicks
like this seem to fall into the category of "unintended structure" ;-) Do
your best to avoid making the nicks in the first place but don't fret when
they happen. And don't make it worse by trying to "fix" them.
Bob


thanks
Derick

"Bob" wrote in message
m...
On a similar note, is there anything that can be done to fix minor
dings and scratches on a perfectly good pair of new skis?

You can patch the ptex but the patch won't hold wax. Unless it's
obviously
reducing the glide (like, you can actually feel the drag) I wouldn't
bother
patching it. Just make sure there aren't any hairs or points of chewed
ptex
sticking out into the snow where they *will* cause drag. If there are,
then
*carefully* trim them off with a sharp knife (razor, exacto, etc). Don't
remove any more than you have to!

I ski on 3 different pair of skate skis (including my wife's pristine
pair).
My "rock ski's" are the 4 year old Rossi deltas. The bases on those old
rossis are obviously chewed. There's a gouge (pine cone?) in one that
runs
diagonally across the width of the ski, 5mm wide and 1mm deep. There's a
3cm
section on the edge of the shovel of the other one where the core is
exposed. The edges have been trimmed to remove the evidence of more than
one
long icy descent (aaaaaaaaaa!!!) Despite all this, the rossis are
still
the fastest I have in soft, wet conditions. They look ugly so I call
them
"rocks" but I still try to take care of them. So far, that consists of
removing the "scar tissue" and waxing them after every day out.

Bob

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 12:45:01 -0800, "Bob" wrote:


"Derick Fay" wrote in message
news
A related question--I've noticed that even with a very light touch and a
freshly-sharpened plexi scraper, that I end up with some tiny indentations
from the scrape (like 1 mm in depth and maybe 2-3 mm in from the edge,
perpindicular to the length of the ski), esp. in spots that are tricky to
scrape (i.e. transition from glide to kick zone)...Q.1 is are these
unavoidable & 2 is are they likely to make any difference in the
performance of the skis?



2 I doubt it. Maybe someone else can chime in about this, but little nicks
like this seem to fall into the category of "unintended structure" ;-) Do
your best to avoid making the nicks in the first place but don't fret when
they happen. And don't make it worse by trying to "fix" them.
Bob


thanks
Derick

I would agree that they are probably not going to make enough difference to
be noticeable. If they realy bother you a stone grind will usually taike
care of most of them.

g.c.

"Griss" wrote in message ...

Yes, in general it's someone's older skis that they are less concerned
about. Not necessarily junky though in my experience, but sometimes so.

There´s a very real danger that if you use cheapo junky
skis early in the season - which is usually the period
when rhe "rock ski" conditions persist - you can train
yourself away from good, efficient technique, and it
won´t necessarily be so simple to shed the bad habits
when you get on your good skis.

This is especially so in skating, IMHO.


I once encountered a chap who argued that there was no
point in straining to get the wax right in training,
because a poorer glide would only make you work (at a
certain intensity) at a lower speed and a poorer grip
would only teach you to make sharper kicks...)


Anders

I have a pile of garage sale skis starting with ultra rock skis (I get to
ski before everybody else in the season), to regular rock, to pretty good,
to bought new and nice. The rockier ones are considered disposable.
gr
"Bob" wrote in message
m...
Sorry if this is covered in a FAQ somewhere.

Couple of quick and easy questions...

What do people mean when they talk about 'rock skis'? Just old junky
skis that you can afford to beat up on rocks, I assume?

On a similar note, is there anything that can be done to fix minor
dings and scratches on a perfectly good pair of new skis?

Thanks!