This Summer I have been building skis and snowboards in beautiful Silverdale, WA.  The company I work for, Project Skis LLC, is new.  Very new.  Actually, I was sitting on the couch with the founders (Jakson Clark and Tim Soderlund) back in June when they hit 'send' on their application for the rights to the LLC.  Very exciting.

As a snowboarder my enthusiasm with Project Skis has been somewhat muted due to the fact that I have no interest in using the skis we make.  Building skis as a snowboarder is kinda like working at Chic Fil A as a vegetarian - you know people enjoy the stuff you make, but it's just not for you.  This muted enthusiasm came to a crashing halt this last weekend when the Team finally got around to pressing the snowboards I designed.

Modeled after the Nitro Blacklight, this board is 156 cm, twin tip and tail, poplar core, all mountain board with some sweet graphics!  The really cool thing about this board is that it has been designed to carve sharper toe-side than heel-side.  This is done in the layup process by adding optimally oriented unidirectional carbon fiber for maximal carving effects.  The layup process is time constrained and tedious, making for a stressful time.  It takes approximately five hours per snowboard or pair of skis to prep and press.  With Tim gone during the week at his Boeing internshipm weekends are our only time to get serious about pressing skis.

Last weekend, in a mad push, we pressed two pairs of skis and three snowboards all in 24 hours!  We started at 8am Saturday and didn't stop until we put the last snowboard in the press at 7:50am Sunday.

By the time 3am rolled around we were completely exhausted...

In the end it all paid off.  My board (the black one) turned out beautifully!

Welcome to the unveiling of my new ski-building side project, BIKE PANNIERS!

If you are interested in buying one please let me know.  They run for $60 each, a steal in comparison to THESE Ortliebs.  They each hold 20 Liters and are completely waterproof with Ortlieb style hooks, should strap, and inside pocket (see photo below).  

Imagine all the quinoa you could take home from the co-op with one of these babies!  Insane...

Proxima Parada is the name of my band.  The band consists of 4 core members and 2 regular guests.  The four core are Nick Larson on guitar, piano, djembe, banjo, and vocals, Clayton Cole on standup bass and backup vocals, Bryson Bailey on guitar, drums, and vocals, and me on trumpet and backup vocals.  The two backup musicians are Elliot Rippley on piano and guitar, and Kevin ___ on mandolin and banjo.  Basically, everyone dabbles in a few instruments so we jump around a lot in a set.

Roughly half of our set is covers, and half is original.  We love playing at coffee shops and recently played a show in my living room which was super fun.  Our goal is to play once a week around town, but we have fallen a little behind this quarter because I have been so busy with Poly Escapes trip leader business.

Here's us playing our 'theme song' at our Linnaea's show last night.




Próxima Parada from Michelle C. Torres-Grant on Vimeo.

Carbon Fiber Snowshoes

Carbon Fiber Snowshoe Project

Myles Wittman (myleswittman@gmail.com)

Robert Schairer

Ryan Vytlacil

CalPoly State University

San Luis Obsipo, CA

Project started September, 2011
Prototype completed June 2012

Figure 1  Above we have the general shape and layout of our snowshoe design.  The outside shape, colored  black, is known as the platform and will be made completely of carbon fiber. It should also be noted that this picture is old, and that the component in the middle of the hole in the platform will ultimately contain a beer bottle opener.  See below.

Figure 2  This part will serve as a brew opener on the trails!  What crazy snowshoer doesn't bring beer when they hit the trails?  This part will be laser cut from a piece of stainless sheet steel.  It will be corrosion resistant while is supports and stabilizes the foot with the downward pointing claws.

Figure 3  This is what our spikes will look like before they are attached to the snowshoe.  This part will also be machined from stainless sheet steel and will rivet directly to the carbon fiber deck.

Figure 4 Binding design is the last part of the snowshoe design we have yet to completely refine. Since the bindings on a snowshoe are one of the first components a person sees when observing a pair of snowshoes, we need them to be functional and aesthetically appealing.  We won't have binding design finalized until we an get our hands on some materials and see what works and what does not.  Finalization of binding design has been set approximately for February 15, 2012.  See below for a basic idea of what we expect our binding to look like.

Figure 5 Our team expects the binding on our snowshoe to turn out something like these.  Photo courtesy of Crescent Moon Snowshoes.

Figure 6 Above is a photo of our machined mold which will be used to make the basic shape of the snowshoes.  Production of the carbon fiber deck is the trickiest part of our project.  We have the knowledge of how to conduct the processes,  and some of the basic materials required to conduct Resin transfer Molding (the process used to make carbon fiber parts like ours), but not enough money to cover iterations to our mold and more carbon fiber weave.

UPDATE:  In the end, the project prototype was ´completed´(open to further interations and largescale production) on May 19, 2012.  The snowshoes were tested on snow, the carbon fiber tensile and flex tested following specific standards using the Instron tensile test machine, and a report drafted shortly thereafter.  

For more information, or for a look at the team's Final Report, do not hesitate to contact me (Myles) at the email address at the top of this post.  Still interested in continuing the project with the right team and support.