stick on "velcro"-like strips to make your skis wax-less, or custom made scales

[Roussel]

so maybe some of you older folks might know this, i saw on a pair of my friend's very old cross country skis these velcro-like strips that only created resistance in one direction. they were on the bases and replaced the need for sticky wax or scales.

i want to build a touring setup with skiboards but where i will be riding wont be a straight climb then downhill the whole way. it will be a lot of varying terrain, so im looking for something i dont have to remove like skins. i also thought of trying to carve scales into the base myself, anyone ever try this?

[Dave Bloom]

This is a very interesting and coincidental thread. I found a triathlon this winter that includes running, biking, and cross-country skiing. I would love to see if I could enter it with some sort of cross country skiboard setup. Keep me posted on your progress.

[SBruce]

Check out this discussion on what I think you are referring to:

http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/vi....php?p=1066326

Someone mentioned that they were good with gliding on downhill too..

[Roussel]

so i found out that all skins have this "mohair" or nylon type stuff that was the velcro thing i was thinking of. but the grips my friend had were NOT hooked on at the tips, they were where only about 2 feet long and were permanently STUCK onto the bases of the skis under the boot, and where not to be removed when you ski downhill.

[SBruce]

It sounds like you are looking to make a custom nordic or backcountry nordic skiboard .. interesting.

Excerpt from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_touring

Traditional Nordic
At the lighter, simpler end of the scale, Nordic skis may be narrow and edgeless cross-country types for groomed trails or ideal snow conditions, used with boots that resemble soft shoes or low boots.
These traditional Nordic skis have a "double-cambered" construction with a "wax pocket" to hold sticky wax under the foot for grip going uphill. Slicker "glide wax" is applied to the base of the ski in front of and behind the foot, for glide. The idea is for the ski's base to stick to the snow when the skier weights the ski going uphill, but glide along smoothly when the skier is on the flat or going downhill.
The most popular versions of these skis have bases with a grip pattern molded into the base under the foot, in a "fish scale" pattern, which can be used without kick wax. These "no-wax" skis are not as fast as waxable skis, but are more convenient to use and can perform better when the snow is at or very near the freezing point (0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit).
Either way, these traditional Nordic skis allow for very natural, seamless travel up and over mildly hilly terrain due to the lack of a need to change modes for ascending and descending.
The telemark turn was invented as a means of turning these lightweight skis with soft shoes that can't efficiently translate leg force to the ski.

Backcountry Nordic
There's also a mid-range solution. The backcountry Nordic ski is somewhat between traditional Nordic and Telemark. The ski's width at the tip can be anywhere from about 70 mm to around 90 mm, with the waist of the ski (the area underfoot) about 60 mm to 65 mm wide. Backcountry Nordic bindings designed for backcountry skiing are wider and more stout of construction, allowing more stability and better energy transfer between boot and ski. Many skiers use the 3-pin, 75 mm Nordic Norm or Telemark Norm boot/binding system for additional turning and speed control, even though it is somewhat slower than the newer NNN-BC (New Nordic Norm-Backcountry) binding "system." Backcountry Nordic boots are usually semi-rigid (usually the side is rigid), and the skis also have more carving "sidecut" similar to telemark/alpine skis, as well as metal edges. These features improve the skier's ability to turn and control their speed as slopes begin to get steeper.