While at our factory in January, Oscar and I were discussing “How light could we make a ski if we pulled out all the stops?” We decided the best way was to try it and see!

 

We used super-lightweight unidirectional carbon pre-preg combined with Nomex honeycomb. We cured the boats in our ovens at 120 deg C (250 F). Then we took extra care on the outfitting to not add any more weight than necessary. Rather than use a gel coat or colored paint, we opted for a very thin clear coat – just enough coating to prevent the low resin content carbon fibers from splintering off the outside.

 

The result was an 8 kg (18 lb) V10! We made two of these and one V10L which came out even a few grams lighter. Because of the uni-directional carbon, they came out extremely stiff. We call this our new Elite construction.

 

Then we took them out on the water. What a dream. The extreme light weight makes these boats accelerate very quickly!

 

Of course everything comes at a price. The surface finish is not as smooth or perfect as our other skis – we went as light as possible without adding weight to give a perfect cosmetic finish. The high tech materials we used on these boast were very expensive. If somebody wanted to buy one, then price would be US $6,500. Do we expect to sell many (or any)? Probably not. This was an exercise to see “how low we could go”.

 

However, now that the boats are made, they’ll be raced in the upcoming Molokai Championship. Oscar will be in one. I was supposed to be paddling the other one. However my training has taken an extensive hit due to 70+ hour work weeks and extended stays at our factory with 80+ hour work weeks.  I’ll write an update soon on my blog with hints for staying in shape with limited time to train!

 

Those skis are in Hawaii now under the care of our Epic Expert Mark Sandvold.

 

In the meantime check out a few of the attached photos. You might recognize the bearded Oscar Chalupsky.