About BoardSki

What is it?

Bulldog is the first production ski made by Boardski, it’s also the worlds first pair of skis that you can also snowboard with using all the same equipment. This is achieved by the new patented design bindings which allow the change to take place. The change over itself takes less than 30 seconds and can be performed anywhere, even on the piste.

What makes it different?

The first thing you might notice is that no one else has one. That’s because this is a brand new concept. The core runs almost full length, this is to allow the skis to be used as a snow board, ski boots are worn. We recommend what’s called soft ski boots. I have a pair myself, these allow more movement when snowboarding. That aside, they were first tested in full racing ski boots and work well.

Why build it?

A question I ask myself sometimes, it started when I wanted to try snowboarding because I thought it would be great to be able to do both disciplines. That got me thinking......I thought, what if I want to snowboard and ski on the same day? I would have to go down the mountain and hire more gear, then try to meet up with the guys again somewhere. All this was just too much aggravation for me, so I looked around to see what was available on the market and found nothing, so I set about designing one for myself and the rest is history

Why try it?

Most people that go to the slopes want to have fun and that is just what this product is all about, FUN! Many skiers and snowboarders, it seems, would like to try the other discipline but don't want to have all the bother of changing because it is not that easy to do, well not on piste anyway, but with Boardski you can.
How many times have you looked at the other guys skiing or snowboarding and said to yourself, I wonder what that’s like? How many times have you wanted to try? Now you can! and when you have had enough you just change back to whatever mode you like. The time it takes to change is about 30 seconds same boots/ same skis/ same bindings
What I do, is to ski to where I feel happy about trying to snowboard, then change and off I go, (by the way I don’t snowboard very well yet). No embarrassing incidents at the end of the chair lift, no having to go down real steep parts to get a good run to learn on, and best of all, change when ever you like the best of both worlds.

The Prototype

This you can see on the home page that’s me next to my Piste Pilot Adam Gilbrand. That photo was taken just before I pushed him off on the first ever run on a real ski slope.
It had only been tested at xscape at Mliton Keynes. You can read the report by Martin Bell in the press release page.
As I had never snowboarded at the time of the construction of the prototype I could only test the skis. This was I harrowing moment for me as I recall, it was the first time I would have skied for nearly a year. I can remember standing at the top of the slope thinking "OK, lets go though this one more time. Hand made skis/hand made bindings/never been tried before. What can possibly go wrong?" (bearing in mind I have never ever made a pair of skis or bindings in my life) to my relief they skied just fine!
It was also on that day that I managed to get a snowboard instructor to have a go on the slope for me. That alone was not easy as most of them would not try them at all, but two guys did just one run each that was enough, they went very well. I can remember thinking, this must have been what the Wright brothers must have felt like! it was just fantastic then when they came back and really liked it. I was lost for words.

The testing has been going on now for sometime a few minor changes but not much the concept works and works well!