Hand-made Kiwi skis hit world slopes

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/The Press

PRECISION WORK: Alex Herbert makes to order about 160 pairs of skis a year.

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Kingswood Skis director Alex Herbert knows what makes a good pair of skis.

He used to be paid to hit the slopes, and he cut up his favourite pair of skis to find out what was inside.

Mr Herbert and his wife, Kris, set up Lyttelton boutique ski manufacturing company Kingswood Skis in 2005, and till recently it was one of only two manufacturers in the world to make ski cores from bamboo.

The company was established to bring "fat" skis - wide skis for use on powder snow - to the public because they had been available only to professional skiers.

Kingswood Skis, New Zealand's only ski manufacturer, hand-makes about 160 pairs of skis a year to order, Mr Herbert says.

A pair takes a little more than a day to make. "I like it that way. It's taken me such a long time to get good at it the way I do it."

Customers choose from four different models - from "megafat" through "skinny", and their height, weight and skiing habits and ability are taken into account.

Prices range from $1250 to $1600.

About 50 per cent of the company's skis are exported - to Japan, the United States, Canada, Europe and even Afghanistan. The exports are worth a little over a third of its annual revenue of $160,000.

Mr Herbert says repairing skis at his other business - a ski and snowboard repair shop in Christchurch - reinforces his belief in the importance of quality.

Skis made of cheaper materials may not be an issue on Austrian glaciers with an abundance of snow, "but if you're using cheap materials it matters when you ski in New Zealand because you're hitting rocks. You need durability".

The company imports its bamboo from China.

- © Fairfax NZ News