Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • water skis were in invented in 1922 by a man name Ralph Samuelson. With his brother pulling

  • him by motor boat he tried first with skis made of barrel staves then with snow skis

  • then with skis he made out of pine boards 2.4 meters long. This type of water skiing

  • is called slalom skiing. Winding through a course on a single water ski. One foot behind

  • the other in boots mounted to the ski. The core of this top of the line slalom skis is

  • high density PVC foam. Exceptionally strong, yet light weight. A computer guided machine

  • cuts the ski shape. Then pockets to receive various components. Workers flip the core

  • upside down and the machine shapes the bottom. Workers then turn the core right side up again.

  • And fill the pockets with glue. They insert an alignment tab in the tale pocket, to help

  • correctly position the core in the mold. They install fiberglass neon blocks. These will

  • anchor for mounting the skis boots and the fin. Now they begin building up the water

  • ski with multiple layers of carbon fiber. An ultra strong fabric. They apply the first

  • layer to the bottom. Wrapping it around to the top. This will prevent the ski from twisting.

  • After stapling down the carbon fiber and trimming off the excess they saturate it with resin

  • and apply carbon fiber to the top of the ski. Depending on the model and the performance

  • specification they wrap the core in up to seven layers of carbon fiber controlling the

  • flex and additional areas along the way with additional patches. Then they top the ski

  • with woven synthetic fabric, to prime the surface for the decorative graphics. On the

  • bottom of the ski they apply a sheet of super light weight polymer. It creates a white background

  • to highlight the sheet of decorative graphics. They coat it with a special resign which cures

  • into a hard hydro dynamic surface, that increases the skis speed. The graphic design that is

  • on the top of the ski is printed on nylon. They mount it to the top part of the ski shape

  • mold. Then lay the wrapped core into the bottom part. A heated press closes the mold. Compressing

  • the contents under high pressure for nine minutes. This bonds the layers which forms

  • contours in the ski and adheres the graphics. The pressure squeezes out excess resin along

  • the perimeter. So once they remove the ski from the mold they cut of the excess with

  • a band saw. Then with a custom made router bit they precision trim to exact specifications.

  • Next, a three faze filling of the skis edge. First with a large file, then a small file,

  • then a razor blade or medium grip sand paper. Then with the help of a template they drill

  • 18 reinforced holes into the ski. They screw a threaded insert into the whole and it locks

  • into the block. There are more inserts than required this gives the skier different positioning

  • options. Now the last edge sanding with fine grit paper. After wiping the ski down with

  • an alcohol cleaner they install the final but most important component, the fin. Its

  • made of aluminum which is chemically treated to be ultra resistant and anti corrosion.

  • The fins position critically effects the skis traction and stability so the use a micrometer

  • to measure to the millimeter. Securing the fin in with in the design engineers specifications.

  • Non the less competitive water skiers adjust the fin to their own preferences. In hopes

  • of leaving competitors in their wake.

water skis were in invented in 1922 by a man name Ralph Samuelson. With his brother pulling

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it