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Turfskis

post #1 of 14
2/8/12 at 12:00pm
Thread Starter 

Folks, I am looking for a pair of Turfskis.  They used to rent them at Mt. Tom in Massachusetts and Bromley Mt. in Vermont.  Uh, this is quite awhile ago.  They were about 3 feet long with 7 rollers and a stabilizer on the rear. Please respond if you have or know where I can find them.  Thanks.

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post #2 of 14
2/10/12 at 9:50am

sm_2000-6-1_rolling_skis.jpg

 

Wow.   Just wow.

 

http://www.skimuseum.ca/artefactdata.php?id=8028

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post #3 of 14
2/10/12 at 11:02am

I tried them once at Loon. The ones I tried had like a tank tread on the bottom - not as antiquated as the pic that canned tuna just posted. They were fun to ride for the one or two runs I ever took.

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post #4 of 14
2/10/12 at 4:37pm
Thread Starter 

Thank you both for the responses.  That cast pair in the pictures is one of the first as the production ones were a blue plastic with yellow rollers.  I would love to go through some of the old "barns" at Big Bromley as I felt they must have saved some of the skis someplace. The other 'turfskis' the other responder mentioned were called "Rollkas".  I'm not sure of the spelling but they were very fast. So fast that no one could stay up on them given that you had nothing up front or in the back to help stabalize them. 

I kind of believe this post will vanish before someone that may have or know where a pair can be had, gets a chance to read it. 

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post #5 of 14
2/10/12 at 4:50pm

Try ebay, found a pair of Rolka grass skis for sale there in the UK (Sure they can be shipped).  Tried grass skiing in the late 1970's, was fun except grass is not as forgiving as snow when you stack.

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post #6 of 14
2/13/12 at 1:23pm

I looked for some off and on over the past couple of years.  I tried them a long time ago.  The terrain at the place I tried them at was too rough and rocky for it to work well.  It also hurts a helluva lot more to go down on gravel and rocks wearing shorts than it does to go down on snow/ice wearing nylon.

 

grassskiing.jpg

 

Ingrid_Hirschhofer_Grass_Skiing_World_Championships_2009_Grass_skis.jpg

 

Someone somewhere has to make and sell these, just probably not in mass market quantities to be found easily.

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post #7 of 14
2/13/12 at 3:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by crgildart View Post

 

 

 

 

 

Someone somewhere has to make and sell these, just probably not in mass market quantities to be found easily.

 

Speedy Jack 

http://grasski.com/application/products.php
 

 

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post #8 of 14
2/13/12 at 3:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cantunamunch View Post

 

Speedy Jack 

http://grasski.com/application/products.php
 

 



I found that last year.  The cart and checkout seems disabled, maybe just for overseas IPs?? Or, is it a vendor that is no longer active at all?

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post #9 of 14
2/13/12 at 8:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by crgildart View Post



I found that last year.  The cart and checkout seems disabled, maybe just for overseas IPs?? Or, is it a vendor that is no longer active at all?



Dunno.   I saw a pair at Bryce -  they were much faster and quieter than the Rollkas.

 

I think OP was looking at the proper Turfskis; now that 100mm wheels are common as dirt that is something that needs to be modernized. 

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post #10 of 14
2/13/12 at 9:05pm

Coincidence that the OP and majority of responders are from the Southeast?  Have we all come to the conclusion that we're now going to have to have grass skis as part of our winter quiver? 

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post #11 of 14
2/14/12 at 7:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BryaninNC View Post

Coincidence that the OP and majority of responders are from the Southeast?  Have we all come to the conclusion that we're now going to have to have grass skis as part of our winter quiver? 



Not coincidence, no.   That's where the original grass skiing leagues were active- where there was grass, and unrocky blue/green ski slopes.   

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post #12 of 14
8/29/12 at 6:44pm

The Rolka grass skis you talked about were great for what they were designed for. And YES, they could be skied...3000+- paying customers were given lessons and skied at Ski Beech, NC in 1981. I ran the Grass Ski School. We ran races just like in the winter and we even sent two intructors to Europe to compete in the World Championships. Bryce Mountain, VA also had a grass ski program.

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post #13 of 14
8/30/12 at 11:39am

Nice.   

 

Sidebar: did you ever have a problem with some boots fitting the  bindings and some not?

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post #14 of 14
9/1/12 at 9:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsegrnmt View Post

The Rolka grass skis you talked about were great for what they were designed for. And YES, they could be skied...3000+- paying customers were given lessons and skied at Ski Beech, NC in 1981. I ran the Grass Ski School. We ran races just like in the winter and we even sent two intructors to Europe to compete in the World Championships. Bryce Mountain, VA also had a grass ski program.

Grasskiing was big in Europe in the late 70s and 80s. I did one race in Scotland in 1976 iirc when we used rooks. In Edinburgh the grass ski slope was right beside the artificial slope so was able to use the same chairlifts.

In some ways they were a great training tool because you had to make a proper carve on them or you were toast.
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