Shark

Construction Styles

We offer the Shark in three construction styles, Birch, Plastic and Carbon. Whichever style you choose will have an effect on the character, weight, aesthetics, and price.

Birch

Features local birch wood core and sides, fiberglass reinforcements

Fairweathers with significantly less plastic waste and fewer toxic chemicals are also the most affordable construction style! The most significant difference between this and other constructions is that the sides are wood instead of plastic. At Fairweather, we’ve been building skis and boards with wood sides for over a decade and are so confident in this construction style that we are going to share with you the good, the bad and the ugly.

The Good:
Wood is an organic porous material that forms a stronger bond to epoxy (the crucial glue that holds all skis together) than plastic. This virtually eliminates the chances for one of the most common methods of failure; de-lamination between plastic sidewalls and the fiber composites. The strength and dampening properties of a wood core are what makes all our sticks feel lively. By essentially extending the wood core the full width of the skis, you end up with approximately 10% more of this material than non-fiberous boring old plastic. The production of skis with plastic sides uses toxic chemicals and exposes our workers and environment to these hazards. Machining plastic into the shape of a ski creates microplastics, which easily become airborne, are collected with an industrial vacuum and mixed with waste wood core material, all of which must be taken to the local waste collection facility and eventually shipped to the other side of the world where who knows what happens to it. Large industrial ski factories generate hugggge amounts of this waste! Were proud to be one of the few companies to offer this type of construction and remove this step from the equation. Our clean waste wood chips are donated to an organic farm, local duck enthusiasts, or used for landscaping around our home and shop.

The Bad:
Wood is an organic porous material that will eventually decompose! We have yet to see this type of failure on any of our skis but it is surely possible if neglected. If you have a propensity to collide with hidden rocks under the snow on a regular basis, or love to smash your skis together for whatever reason, birch sided skis also have lower impact strength than plastic. If you find yourself skiing in a soggy location like, ahem, Southeast Alaska, Birch tech skis should probably not be stored outside in the elements when not in use. The hardest environment we have found for wood skis has been multi week ski trips off the ocean. The salt water environment causes the edges to rust and stain the wood sides an ugly blotchy color. Our busy lifestyle means that skis often get left in the rocket box or out in the snow and rain occasionally during the ski season. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it can get ugly.

The Ugly:
The most common issues we see with wood sided skis are cosmetic. Our standard wood sidewalls are birch, the hardest wood locally available. When your left birch ski meets the hardened steel edge of your right ski at high speed, it can leave a mark. The good news about the ugly is that most of this cosmetic damage is quick to repair, or simply left untreated will wear to an aesthetically pleasing classic patina. For those who are hard on gear but still want to be soft on the environment, we also offer a premium wood option (more details below) at an additional charge, where the sides of the skis are wrapped in whatever our tropical hardwood du jour is. Please follow this link for more information on the care, maintenance, and refinishing of wood sidewalled skis.

Fairweathers built with Birch construction still use two layers of triaxial fiberglass reinforcements on the top and bottom of the wood core as per industry standard and the bottoms are sintered P-tex with hardened steel edges.

Plastic

Features local spruce/birch laminate wood core, plastic sides, fiberglass reinforcements

As a hardcore shredder, you demand a lot out of your equipment! Plastic construction uses many of the same materials and processes the industry has settled on after generations of development for a board that very well could survive the apocalypse.

Protected from the elements with plastic on all sides, flexible, strong and fun, the guts of these boards remains true to their roots. A wood core made of local spruce or birch which has yet to be improved upon by the nerds in the lab. Other major components of our Plastic construction are industry standard Triaxial fiberglass which provides strength down the length of the ski along with torsional ridgitiy. The sides are made of polyurethane plastic, a similar material to a skateboard wheel, the bottoms are sintered P-tex. The tops have a lightweight tough nylon layer that is coated in a water based polyurethane for UV stability.

From an environmental standpoint, the average consumer would probably be shocked to learn the sheer volume of microplastics, waste, and toxic chemicals that are generated by a product such as a pair of skis. We’re continually tweaking our construction process to use fewer and/or less toxic chemicals, both for the environment and our own personal health. At the end of the day, a product with a longer service life is inevitably the environmentally conscience choice for some people.

Carbon

Features local spruce core, metal binding mount, fiberglass and carbon fiber reinforcements

A pound on your feet is like five on your back! Weight savings on gear are crucial if you are shooting for big alpine objectives. Heck, most of the staff at Fairweather are aging millennials who rely on ultralight gear just to keep up with the youngin’s on an afternoon lap. Whatever your reason for going carbon, you have likely realized that type A fun on the skintrack is directly proportional to the amount of weight you are lugging around on your feet. To reach our weight goals, we combine carbon fiber cloth with fiberglass, a locally harvested spruce core, a metal binding reenforcement, and polyurethane sidewalls for a ski thats light on the skintrack but still ample and durable enough to handle the Alaskan mountains. You can expect an extended service life when you add carbon to your Fairweathers (carbon fiber retains its flex properties longer than fiberglass), so when investing in an ultralight setup, you can have confidence that it is BartTech approved!