Core Shot Repair

In the first two days of the season at Kirkwood, I managed to put 3 core shots in my new skis (the first half of the first day) and 2 core shots in my old skis (day number two). For the uninitiated, a "core shot" is a gouge in the base of your ski that goes completely through the base material, so that the core of the ski is showing. Typically, base gouges are filled by melting additional base material ("P-tex") into the gouge. A core shot is harder to repair than a gouge that doesn't penetrate to the core because P-tex binds well to the base material and itself, but not to the ski core or metal edges. So, if you simply fill a core shot with P-tex, it is likely to rip out.

The bases on the Armada JJs are extremely thin, especially further toward the tips and tails.

Bases of old skis (Head Mojo 90s) are already pretty torn up.

Core shots can be fixed by either putting down a primer layer under the P-tex that will stick to the core material (such as epoxy) or by cutting out the affected area, and replacing it with a patch of new base material. My local ski shop (Cal. Ski Company) will do one of these for $15 per core shot, plus the cost of a regular ski tune (around $50) to smooth out, restructure, and wax the entire base after the repair. With my two pairs of skis and six core shots (including one from last season), this would cost close to $200. While Cal. Ski Co. do excellent work, a full ski tune is overkill for the kind of skiing I do. I'm really only concerned with not having giant holes in my skis; I don't really need (or notice) a full ski tune. Skiing in soft snow most of the time, it is not that important to have a fast base or freshly sharpened edges. I figured that it would be worthwhile for me to buy the equipment I need and learn to do the repairs myself. After all, my time isn't worth that much.  Plus, with the equipment in hand, I won't have to look at future encounters with rocks as a $100 day of skiing.

After reading about repair options and watching instructional videos online, I ordered the basic tools I needed to do the minimal repair. This includes a flat-tip soldering iron, base material, base cleaner (with wax remover), a metal scraper, and a panzer file for removing excess material. I decided to try a "primer" material called metal grip. This has a heat-activated adhesive and sticks to the ski core and to the metal edges. All in all, everything was about $100.

The basic steps are (1) Clean hole of rocks, remove wax from base in surrounding area, to aid adhesion. (2) Melt metal grip into the hole, let cool, scrape off to below the surface. (3) Melt base material on top of metal grip, let cool, scrape flat.

Area cleaned, metal grip applied.

After the metal grip cools it becomes rubbery.

Base material on top of metal grip.

After scraping excess base material and filing flush with base.

Older core shot re-repaired.

In places, the bases of the JJs are thinner than my fingernail and this made the repair much more difficult. It is hard to apply the metal grip thinly enough so that it remains below the surface of the base in all places. One can apply excess metal grip and then remove to below the base, but its even more difficult to do this without ripping all the material out. In the end I managed to scrape a very thin layer on with the soldering iron and then remove excess with an exact-o knife without pulling too much away from the base.

A thin layer of metal grip.

Finished product.