I have a number of pairs of skis.

I ski a lot.

The other day, I was talking about one of my pairs, and when I mentioned it had close to a hundred days, the guy I was talking to said they were dead. Well, if they are, then the pair that has many more days, should be deader... but they still seem good, to me. Maybe if I knew how to ski, they would have been condemmed years ago.

The only skis I have decided were dead were ones that, when I brought them in for a tuning, the tech pointed out that there was nothing left to tune, as you could see where the edges were being held on the ski.

So what is dead, for a ski?

I have:

Bandit XX: 174 days.
Bandit XX: 122 days.
Vokl Vertigo G4: 66 days
Dynastar Intuitive 71: 65 days.

Now, some of those days were as little as 1 run (More than it was worth! ) but most were pretty full days.

So, when should I have considered them dead, or when should I? And how do you (I) know?

Lostone wrote:

I have a number of pairs of skis. I ski a lot. The other day, I was talking about one of my pairs, and when I mentioned it had close to a hundred days, the guy I was talking to said they were dead. Well, if they are, then the pair that has many more days, should be deader... but they still seem good, to me. Maybe if I knew how to ski, they would have been condemmed years ago. The only skis I have decided were dead were ones that, when I brought them in for a tuning, the tech pointed out that there was nothing left to tune, as you could see where the edges were being held on the ski. So what is dead, for a ski? I have: Bandit XX: 174 days. Bandit XX: 122 days. Vokl Vertigo G4: 66 days Dynastar Intuitive 71: 65 days. Now, some of those days were as little as 1 run (More than it was worth! ) but most were pretty full days. So, when should I have considered them dead, or when should I? And how do you (I) know?

Didn't we just have this conversation about cars?

Only skis I've known were dead were either:1. broken in" half " , usually near the binding. 2. tuned to death like the ones you mentioned. 3. core shot or edge shot so bad you have to decide if the ski is worth the repair. 4. loss of camber. this is a tough call for most of us but a good tech could tell pretty quickly. I've actually seen some that curl. 5. Boring and you want a new pair. ; }

Well, mabey a pair of rock skis missing BOTH edges, on BOTH SKIS!

skiladi wrote:

Only skis I've known were dead were either:1. broken in" half " , usually near the binding. 2. tuned to death like the ones you mentioned. 3. core shot or edge shot so bad you have to decide if the ski is worth the repair. 4. loss of camber. this is a tough call for most of us but a good tech could tell pretty quickly. I've actually seen some that curl. 5. Boring and you want a new pair. ; }

That pretty much covers it - without visible damage, camber is the determinator (Arnold-ism)...put the ski on a flat surface - if you can't see light underneath it, it's dead.