It was the second day of opening at Mt. High and was probably the earliest I've ever seen snow. Jer and I headed first thing in the morning to test out the Whites, the first pair of skis I've ever made.
The skis are 170cm in length with the following dimensions: 140-115-130. They have a full length maple core with wooden sidewalls coated with several layers of varnish and gray paint. The core was 11mm thick at the center and tapered to 2mm at the tips and tails. Layers of 22oz. triaxial fiberglass were laminated above and below the wooden core.
With a dusting of snow reaching some parts of the valley down to 1000 ft. I was hoping there would be some fluff for the fat boys to ride on. For Mt. High that means 2-4 inches. The first runs on these huge skis sent me face planting...hard. But once I got used to the width they felt pretty good. Skiing with a wider stance they performed much better than I expected and were actually turnable. Even with the little amount of fresh snow (3-4 inches) I still couldn't feel bottom because of the float of these skis.
After a full morning of riding, the wooden sidewalls ending up being chipped quite a bit. I probably won't use wooden sidewalls in the future unless I figure out a way to protect them. Also, one of tails delaminated pretty quickly because of the cheap-o glue I used to attach the tipspacers to the core. You can see the rivets I used to secure the tips/tails. Finally, the skis were a little too stiff for my liking but a true test in powder is needed.
Aside from these issues, I was really happy with my first pair of skis and couldn't get over the fact of riding my own stuff.