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Junkboarding: DIY Skiing on the Cheap

Save money, extend the ski season, and reuse old equipment at the same time: build a junkboard.

Derek Markham

By Derek Markham
Silver City, NM, USA | Mon Oct 26, 2009 01:55 PM ET

photo of backcountry skier


Credit: AP Photo/Michael Virtanen

For die hard winter sports fanatics, the ski season doesn't start early enough, and the high price of new ski gear will keep you from skiing the local grass slopes with only an inch or less of snow on the ground. But with a junkboard, you can go green, ski early, and save some cash while you're at it.

If you can scavenge an old snowboard and get access to a table saw or band saw, you're on your way to junkboarding. Rip the board in half lengthways, attach some old three-pin bindings or cable bindings with T-nuts, strap them on, and you'll be the envy of the 'hood.

Junkboarding is the brainchild of Justin Woods, a Vermont teacher and avid powderhound who uses his junkboard to ski grass slopes and hills covered with only 1/4 inch of snow. It lets him get early ski runs in for both fun and practice, and it takes another old piece of equipment out of the waste stream.

"Nothing floats on a dusting to three inches of snow like a Junkboard. They're light, flexible and easy for touring, though most of the time, Junkboarders are booting up the toll-roads of our favorite hills. Junkboards eat grass. They hover. They make one inch feel like ten. And when you break one in half trying to skip across the backside of the inevitably open waterbar, you look for your next pair to mount." - Where Will You Ski Today?

Planet Green Video: Green My Slopes


More Do It Yourself Articles:
How to Get Into the DIY Mindset: Even Nerds Can Practice Self-Reliance
Do It Yourself Instructions Motherlode: Appropedia Wiki
Green DIY Projects

 
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