More Retro memories????

Nordica Grand Prix

Year introduced?

One of my "best" ski day memories was skiing in the rain on Christmas Day using a borrowed pair of Yahoo 2's.
205's and 207's were the rage for anyone who knew anything, but these Yahoos were 190.
Boy could you turn them, especially in that wet granular!
I think that that was in 1977.

The original Grand Prix was introduced in 1976 (?) and was blue.
A great boot!
Those in the pic were a reintroduction of the GP about 1991-2.

Fire On The Mountain

Nice Greatful Dead collection.

Thanks!
Here is a photo that I forgot to post with the rest..........

+1
Those aren't reallyrock skis are they?
They are skis that ROCK!

Here's my vintage race quiver from the 'Old Days'.

Nice stuff

Thanks. Sizes on that wall ranged from 205 cm slaloms to 213 cm Super G's. Hard to believe, today.

Which ones have enough magic left that you just have to bring them out for a run????

What's in the old boot quiver?



How "short" a ski have you transitioned to?

On the short side, I'm now down to 166 cm Fischer RC4 World Cup Slaloms and 181 cm race stock Atomics for GS. Big change from the old days when I used to go 210 for GS (sometimes 207).

As far as the boots go, usually I give them away or sell them rather than let them collect dust. I think I have a pair of 1990, or so, Tecnica TNT race boots (on permanent loan to my bro). People love getting my hand-me-down boots because I use custom liners, so they get an unused liner when I hand over the boots. Now I use Lange World Cup LF plug boots for hi-perf skiing, and pull out an older pair of Langes (softer) for all mountain skiing (I still like the 'classics')

I snapped a few pictures of what may have been my favorite skis of all time, certainly in my top 5. K2 VO SL's, in a 204. I had about 3 pairs of these in the late 80's. For me, they did it all. Beefy wood core, and a base that sucked in wax like no tomorrow {though you wouldn't know it form these pics!}. Great grip on any surface...most of which was hard.

These skis were among the first real race skis that were distributed through retail dealers. These skis were purchased from a shop, though as I recall they had to order them as I wanted a flex of over 23.5. They were also among the first skis to come with a flex rating sheet attached. I was told that they matched flexes, then marked the serial numbers, which may have been a legend.

Most of the guys who were racing on the ski at the time used a Marker MRR set-up, which the skis originally had. I stripped those bindings off these, and mounted them on a pair of 208cm Rossi 7G's {the purple/silverTomba ski}, which I still have. Then mounted these Salomon's for the last of this pair's ski days. My kids were just getting on skis, and when we'd pick them up to play on snow at the end of the day, I found the step in to be a good thing. I also paid no attention to the base on these at the time. Note that the original teflon plate was replaced on one ski with some generic DuPont product. I think I traded a case of beer for these bindings, at the local tuning shop.

These were a great ski. A real race stock SL ski that doubled as a do anything all mountain ski. I skied them in bumps, trees, groomers, powder....the works. I had a bunch of other skis, but skied these at least 24 out of every 25 days. Boots were Lange XLR's.

I guess that today's SL skis are a bit more "single purpose".

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Thanks for posting the pix and thoughts on the VO Slalom's

This ski has been evading my searches for some time.

Ahhh yes... the VO Slalom. I had a pair at one point... designed for full on racing J-turns, and nothing else. It was interesting because I wouldn't dream of using them for free skiing, whereas the race stock skis I would get from the Dynastar rep around the same time always seemed to be more versatile and easier to ski on (for me at least) than their rack product. Back then, it always seemed to be hit or miss when it came to finding a great ski, but nowadays everybody seems to build great gear.

That's a great point, about the overall quality of skis today. There are so many great skis made, and the quality control seems to be very good. When I was in college, I remember visiting the warehouse, and spending literally hours finding skis that were "good" pairs, and a couple of pairs that were of similar flex in the shovel, waist and tails.

For some reason, I could really free ski the VO. I was pretty big, and strong 20 years ago and that may have had something to do with it. I absolutely hated the K2 SL's that preeceeded it, as well as the KVC. My last pair of VO's actually had KVC topsheets on them. Very obvious when you looked at them.

Ah, the memories........when men were men, blah, blah.....

I was offered to buy a pair of the KVC VO's back in 91. I am now kicking myself that I didn't. IIRC, it was the KVC topskins with VO Slalom written under the boot area. Again, IIRC it was the year before the IES.

Home sick today.........What to do?

204's








There are matching Head Skis out there.
Supposedly used by volunteers at the games in '88.
These bindings were commercially available.



Some "Chick" 212's"

WOW!!!! You still got them things? If you do, there's gonna be no worries on your part about the health of your retirement portfolio. Some rich, ski-house dude will snap 'em up for display and you'll be in the high cotton! (These people are very similar to the people who can't play guitars, yet collect them and put 'em on stands like they are on a band-break.)
Great quiver!!!!!

I had those blue boots. Light blue lower and darker blue upper. Leather liners. I LOVED those boots. I ended up ripping the cuff on both sides.. had so many days on them. I ended up using a short strap/rivet combo on each side to patch them up and get another season out of them. If memory serves .... went to the Lange orange Banshee after that.

I think.

LOL, Americana's are nothing without the Americana skis

[quote=Muleski;996305]
These were a great ski. A real race stock SL ski that doubled as a do anything all mountain ski. I skied them in bumps, trees, groomers, powder....the works. I had a bunch of other skis, but skied these at least 24 out of every 25 days. Boots were Lange XLR's.
quote]



Found a pic

XL-1000 then XLR then Tii (I think)

That's right. Forgot the XL-1000 step! All essentially the same boot from about 1978 to 2003 for me {other than the colors!}....then to the Dobie, and then pussed out with the Dobie Pro 130, which works just fine at my advancing age.

Thanks for reminding us of that model sequence.

Found'um

You are missing a binding on the one, if you hadn't noticed. That Freestyle Pro was a sweet ski back in the day.

Still in the shipping box........

I remember that ski- that flat tip was for stability during tip stands. remember the skis with the center groove interupted in the base to allow for easier "swiveling".

just in time Christmas there's a pair of Jet Stix on e-Bay starting at ten dollars.