Caring for your Kingswood skis

Your skis were pressed at 60 degrees celsius. This is basically a cold-pressing in our industry and we think it’s a better way to make skis because there’s less thermal expansion of materials. It does mean that if you manage to heat your skis up beyond 60 degrees, they could warp. So don’t bring them into the sauna. Or store them in the roof cavity of a hot, uninsulated roof. While we’re at it, we’d like to also suggest you do not leave your Kingswoods in the car's roof box overnight - it’s a very moist environment in there and we’ve seen edges rust and marks on the bamboo sidewalls after just one night. These are cosmetic problems but if you want to take the best care of your skis, bring them in someplace dry overnight.

Kingswood Skis are made with a traditional sandwich construction, rather than a capped construction like most other skis. The benefits of this construction are that your Kingswoods are more robust. They can take a hammering. Big impact damage to edges from sharp New Zealand rocks can be easily repaired. The downside? If you bang your skis together a lot, the topsheet will chip. Some people use their skis for years with zero chipping. Others manage more chips than a casino on day one. Here’s what you need to know: Chips to your topsheet might look unsightly but the damage is purely cosmetic. You will not get water or rot in your skis from this kind of damage. The only danger is that some of the chips might be a bit sharp to the touch. To help with this, you can smooth any loose edges with a sharp knife or some rough sandpaper or a file. If you’re really gutted about the chips, here’s how you can fix them at home. What you’ll need: 2 part epoxy Masking tape (In extreme cases, you might need a flat piece of metal and some clamps) How to do it: There are two types of chips. One is where you have lifted up a bit of the topsheet and it’s still there. Two is where a chunk of topsheet is missing and the fibreglass is exposed. The first step for both of these is to put masking tape around the chipped area so that any excess glue doesn’t run onto the topsheet. If a flap of topsheet is still there and lifted up, simply pop some glue in and press it overnight. If there's a chunk missing, dab a little puddle of glue to fill the gap - you might need some masking tape on the bamboo sidewall to help it pool up and keep it from running down the sidewall. If you want to get really techie, you can buy pigments from Mitre10 to match the colour of your topsheet. When it’s dry, use a stanley knife to cut off extra glue or sand it or - ideally - use a course file.

This is a sign that either a) you are skiing classic Canterbury crust or b) your tips and tails are too sharp and need detuning. Detuning can be done by your local workshop.

You might have taken a chunk out of the base of your skis. This can be repaired with a base patch, but there is one thing to look out for. Kingswood bases are thicker than most commercial skis, so repair workshops don’t often have thick enough base material to make a patch that matches. Instead, they have to grind down your base to align with the patch. Ouch. The good news is, we have lots of spare base patches and are happy to send these to you or your repair workshop. Or you can bring your skis into the factory or the Ski & Snowboard Surgery to have this work done. Edge repair faces a similar problem. The edge keys into the base and you know what they say: big base … you guessed it… big edge. See above for solutions! In the unlikely event that you get an edge compression, simply scallop out the bamboo sidewall with a chisel straighten the edge with pliers and then fill the whole area with two-part epoxy resin.

In short, no. But you can if you want. Kingswoods are made with a solid bamboo core which runs all the way out to the sidewall. This means we’re not glueing plastics to wood, which is often an area that fails in other skis. We also love bamboo for its consistency, strength and pop - not to mention sustainability. (Did you know that bamboo can grow 91cm in a single day?) You might find after 100 days on your Kingswoods that the clear coat on the bamboo is starting to wear at the tails. This is only cosmetic - it won’t affect the construction or performance of your skis, but if you want to make them look like new again, you can sand out any blemishes with rough sandpaper and treat them again. You can use lots of different things to do this - oil, wax or a polyurethane varnish. Thanks for loving and looking after your skis! We’re proud to build them to last. If you have any questions or would like to chat about ski maintenance, you can always get in touch with your friendly ski maker for advice. Alex@kingswoodskis.com or 021 403 404.