Sentimental skis or other gear you remember or may still have??

My best friend since I was five years old gave me a pair of trainer skis the other day that we both learned to ski on when we were kids. These aren't exactly what you would call top of the line. But I thought it would be cool to have the girls learn on them like I did.
Going to sand them down and refinish the wood as well as the fittings and make them as good as new.

Not fancy but I learned just fine on them and its not like they would keep using them once they learned.

You guys have anything like this??


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I have a ski-board my Dad made. My brother bought a ski thing where the two skis are connected at the front- has like a half moon shaped piece of wood but look like skis at the back. Neat idea but it always sprayed little kids in the face. My Dad glassed in the center of it and painted the whole thing white. All of my kids started out behind the boat on the "white board". It's kind of fun cuz when they get good and you run up to about 20 mph they can ride one corner of it and get it whipping across the water.

wish I would have grown up with a family that appreciated the water. we had a family lake house in Mccall that had an old trihull with a 65hp evinrude on the back. my dad spent more weekends working on that boat than we actually saw it ran. other members of the family would not take care of it knowing my old man would spend time on it. that left a very tained taste in his mouth for boating in general, so when the house was sold(think I was around 12 or so), we never saw the water again..

good thing they have mid-life crisis.. gave me an excuse to buy a boat..

Funny story, my father-in-law is exactly like that and is a hoarder, especially when it comes to gear from the boating days of my wife and their family. He's got trainer skis with the old ass style rubber foot mounts that are all rusty on the hardware, and he is always ribbing me about teaching my infant when she gets older to do the chair-and-saucer ( which literally is a circle piece of plywood and an old wooden folding chair.). The newer style chairs don't work as well unfolding he always tells me. So they used this gadget to get pulled behind on their boat. You'd lay down on the saucer with one hand on the rope, the other holding the chair. Say HIT IT! And you'd get up on your knees, plane off and get the chair unfolded and they'd stand on it. Crazy sh!t!!

He's got all of the life jackets and skis and old knee boards as well.

My dad wasn't much in to boating either so my brother and I acquired old wooden plank skis and an 80lb kneeboard. I was worried enough myself to wear these old paint flaked, rusty binding and shredded rubber bindings on the skis when I was 12-13 yrs old. Can't imagine strapping my kids into them! Surprised we didn't end up with more slivers, scars and tetanus shots from them. Our old gear basically got destroyed the older we got and more stunts we attempted.

Taperflex, Obrien world comp, cypress garden dick popes, new ones were wood grain, the old ones i painted blue, Bull frog knee board, and ski belts... remember those...LOL

Cypress Garden Dick Popes!! Had those at my Great Uncle Bill's on Lake Norman in NC.

Kane: That "contraption" sounds fun. Get some pics up if you can.

You know it's weird bc my immediate family were not really water enthusiasts. I mean they liked it, but we never owned a boat, or lake home. My visits growing up were with close friends and their families and my Grandmothers brother on Lake Norman in NC. LOVED when we used to go up there. But since I can remember, I have always said I would own a boat and live on the lake. Accomplished one of the two, and every paycheck is getting me closer to the second. :)

http://img4.claspics.com/b18bspd/h09...-190.JPG_m.jpg

my ucle still has a mount my dad did for him. It is of a broken oar. I don't remember how he broke it, but my dad had it mounted on a board (like a fish). Lol. He still has it, and this was like 30 years ago!

I still have all my equipment from when my dad owned a ski shop, in my early teens. Don't see myself parting with my Obrien ski. Might someday part with the flourescent ski-warms, but they'll have to be pretty wore out! Lol.

I have this ski of my dads when he was tourney skiing here in Canada. It's a Connely short line hook. Never use it. But it brings memories of my dad at tourneys I was very young. 5 or 6. He was a pretty awesome skier for sure :)

Pretty sure I remember hearing that those old Connelly hook skis were worth some money. Well at least in comparison to what you had paid for them back in the day.

Those skis were good lookin too. My uncle had one that had I remember. Used to keep it in a blue and yellow case. Love to see if he still has it.

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Originally Posted by WaterBullDawg1980

Cypress Garden Dick Popes!! Had those at my Great Uncle Bill's on Lake Norman in NC.

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Those are awesome. I still have a set :). I have another set that were my dad's when he was a kid, so they're about 50 years old or so. The bindings are rotten, but I'm a little funny about getting rid of gear.

By far my favorite things are an old set of wooden cypress gardens, and a mid to late 80's composite cypress gardens slalom. I learned how to slalom on the wood ski, and got the slalom the next year. I remember thinking it was awesome because it was the first concave ski I had ever seen... and the fin had holes in it! It threw up a monster spray... felt like I was in a mountain dew commercial. Anyway, I still get it out about once a year and get a pull.

Old Board is on the far left.

These EP jump skis are late 70s or early 80s vintage. I use them strictly for fun, no jumping. I held onto them all these years and recently updated the bindings because they are so stable, easy to control, and great for someone learning to ski. They are the only sentimental stuff still in my possession. Gone are wooden combo skis my Dad bought about forty years ago from Sears and my first slalom ski. Wish I had been smart and kept that stuff.

Wow all this stuff looks awesome. If you Google vintage skis a bunch pictures came up of people making deck chairs, small tables and other neat stuff out of them. I'm seriously thinking about decorating part of my basement with some stuff like this. I think it would be a fun hobby. In my case I still have some of this old stuff so I figure I may put it to use. Shame to throw it away imo.

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Way back in the mid 80s, I was just a teenager, struggling. Struggling with school. Bad grades, frustrated and angry. I had just three things that I loved and they were girls, snowboarding and waterskiing. I was smart, resourceful and hard working but I hated being in class all day. Flunked out of German, first period because I was waterskiing at 0-dark thirty in the morning. My dad was furious. Finally, he asked me what my favorite ski was. This was weird, but I played along. "Dad, my favorite ski is an HO Mach I, 67", double high wrap boots. Dad said, "OK, I will make you a deal. You bring your grades up to a C+ or better and I will give you that ski. If you don't, you will work for me all summer with no pay and you will not go out on the boat once." Needless to say, I took that deal and hustled my butt off. Teachers, took notice and gave me time to make up extra credit. I did it. I brought me grades up to a B average and had one of the best summers of my life. My friends, beautiful girls and great times. Today, I just finished summerizing my Moomba and was turning off the lights in the shop when I saw that ski hanging up on the wall. A little faded, but it is still there. It remains as a reminder that hard work pays off. It doesn't hurt to have a dad that was pretty cool too. Years after he gave me the ski, he confessed that he would be in trouble if I did not get those grades. He had already bought the ski before he made the deal. I guess he had faith in me.

Inspirational. I think skiing can change lifes like that. In my case it is my motiviation for keeping my weight under control.

I do have an old Ski Warm wet suit that is close to 30 years old. Black and flourescent pink, but the pink is not so flourescent anymore. Was not able to wear it for many years - a little too tight. But now it fits so still using it. I have purchased 6 slalom skis over the last 30 years. The first was an Obrien Freestyle - which I could not get rid of fast enough. The second was an old Obrien World Team (used) which I eventually gave back to the original owners (might still be available). The rest I still have and are in use today by various family members.

Still have my mid to late 1970's Obrien Competitor. Got it from a marina that was going out of business. I remember the sticker was around $350 and I got it for $100. $350 was a lot back in the late 70's and I was barely a teenager. Anyway, skiied on that thing every summer for years. The day before we were to stare two-a-days in football my Jr. year went out with a few friends and was the first to hit the water. My big thing was to see how low to the water I could get when cutting. This time I went a little to low and the ski came out from under me and the front end came back and slaped me in the mouth. Lost front two teeth. Made for a fun football practice the next day. Anyway, I keep that ski around just for the memories of the good and not so good times on the lake. It needs new boots now, but it's still ready for action.

I still have my first competition ski and that is a wooden Cypress Gardens El Diablo grooved ski from the late 1960s. I was 13 years old then and it blew the competition away. It still has the original finish as I would maintain it with varnish on the nicks and waxing it with carnauba floor wax. It is in the attic collecting dust and perhaps someday I might make a display.

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Originally Posted by Replicant

Way back in the mid 80s, I was just a teenager, struggling. Struggling with school. Bad grades, frustrated and angry. I had just three things that I loved and they were girls, snowboarding and waterskiing. I was smart, resourceful and hard working but I hated being in class all day. Flunked out of German, first period because I was waterskiing at 0-dark thirty in the morning. My dad was furious. Finally, he asked me what my favorite ski was. This was weird, but I played along. "Dad, my favorite ski is an HO Mach I, 67", double high wrap boots. Dad said, "OK, I will make you a deal. You bring your grades up to a C+ or better and I will give you that ski. If you don't, you will work for me all summer with no pay and you will not go out on the boat once." Needless to say, I took that deal and hustled my butt off. Teachers, took notice and gave me time to make up extra credit. I did it. I brought me grades up to a B average and had one of the best summers of my life. My friends, beautiful girls and great times. Today, I just finished summerizing my Moomba and was turning off the lights in the shop when I saw that ski hanging up on the wall. A little faded, but it is still there. It remains as a reminder that hard work pays off. It doesn't hurt to have a dad that was pretty cool too. Years after he gave me the ski, he confessed that he would be in trouble if I did not get those grades. He had already bought the ski before he made the deal. I guess he had faith in me.

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Awesome story! Thanks for sharing.

Agree. Forwarded it to my brothers and cousins who, along with me, had a few summers like that-- but not with that reward. Thanks for sharing!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Replicant

Way back in the mid 80s, I was just a teenager, struggling. Struggling with school. Bad grades, frustrated and angry. I had just three things that I loved and they were girls, snowboarding and waterskiing. I was smart, resourceful and hard working but I hated being in class all day. Flunked out of German, first period because I was waterskiing at 0-dark thirty in the morning. My dad was furious. Finally, he asked me what my favorite ski was. This was weird, but I played along. "Dad, my favorite ski is an HO Mach I, 67", double high wrap boots. Dad said, "OK, I will make you a deal. You bring your grades up to a C+ or better and I will give you that ski. If you don't, you will work for me all summer with no pay and you will not go out on the boat once." Needless to say, I took that deal and hustled my butt off. Teachers, took notice and gave me time to make up extra credit. I did it. I brought me grades up to a B average and had one of the best summers of my life. My friends, beautiful girls and great times. Today, I just finished summerizing my Moomba and was turning off the lights in the shop when I saw that ski hanging up on the wall. A little faded, but it is still there. It remains as a reminder that hard work pays off. It doesn't hurt to have a dad that was pretty cool too. Years after he gave me the ski, he confessed that he would be in trouble if I did not get those grades. He had already bought the ski before he made the deal. I guess he had faith in me.

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A lot of great stories in this thread but man this is a GREAT one. Obviously some solid lessons in there. Don't think it could have been more perfectly matched for this thread.

Thanks so much for sharing.