The other day we had a pretty amazing opportunity. We were invited to the manufacturing headquarters of WhiteRoom Custom Skis in Hyde Park to observe, help out, and learn more about all of the work that goes into building a pair of skis, from scratch, with your bare hands.
WhiteRoom Skis is the result of the hard work and determination of owner/builder Vin Faraci. Vin headed down the custom ski path after buying a new pair of skis only to find that he didn’t like them. Initially he spoke with some friends in the ski industry to see if there was anything he could do to change the underperforming ski’s characteristics, but found it would require way more work than it was worth. At this time, not wanting to spend more of his hard earned $$$ gambling on another pair of skis, Vin started doing research so he could build his own.
Many, many hours of research later Vin finally felt like he knew enough to be able to give ski building a shot. However, there were still a few things that needed to be sorted. Most importantly, he needed space to work. That first season, after constructing his workshop, and designing and building his ski press, Vin only had time to produce a single pair of skis before the snow came. And what a pair of skis those were!
Now, that first pair was far from perfect, and it might have been put in the ski press backwards, and… When you talk to Vin he is happy to point out every little thing that’s not right with that first pair. And before seeing them you might think that they’re nothing more than sanded down 2×4’s with p-tex and edges glued on the bottom. But honestly, when you do see them… You’d be super hard pressed to notice many of the imperfections that Vin is so willing to point out. Since that first pair, Vin has been spending his summers building skis and has learned a lot and continues to learn. Vin says that he learns something every time he builds a pair of skis, and it’s this continual refinement of skill and process that has made Whiteroom Skis such a sought after brand.
One of the things I learned from spending a day in Vin’s workshop is that he’s quite the prefectionist. Whether he’s shaping the plastic material that will become the base, preparing cores, or bending edges so that they fit perfectly with no gaps… It’s obvious that Vin cares just as much about what his skis look like on the inside as what they look like the outside. And, the outside of his skis are beautiful!
With that, we are excited to announce that this fall we will be working with Vin and WhiteRoom Skis along with the Rochester Area Sports Trails Alliance (RASTA) and the Vermont Backcountry Alliance (VTBC) and raffling off a pair of custom WhiteRoom Skis at the Fall Vermont Backcountry Forum! Now, we won’t actually have a pair of skis to present to the winner. These are custom skis after all. The eventual winner will get the opportunity to work with Vin to design exactly what they want and will be able to ski on them this coming season! Our raffle will kick off in September and all of the proceeds will go to support RASTA and VTBC projects. Anyway, stay tuned for more info about the raffle as fall approaches. In the meantime let us pull back the curtain a bit and show you Vin’s workshop and his process!
Think Snow!
tries to reuse as much as possible. Here, the material that was cut out of the tip cap gets saved for use later as epoxy spreaders.
