Partner Feature: Salt Ski Company
We have the pleasure of introducing our partner, Salt Ski, a handcraft ski producer based here in Bergen. This past week Snorri Valdimarsson, owner and producer of Salt Skis sat down with Sknow to share more about his company and partnership with Sknow. Snorri is a designer by trade and a passionate craftsman who loves working with his hands and putting his own personal touch into designs. He’s also someone who loves to take things apart and understand how the pieces fit together.
Salt Skis are handcrafted backcountry skis that are light-weight, and typically over 100 mm wide. Characterized by their simple design, Salt Skis have natural-wood finishing and a branded logo. Each pair of skis are customized to the user. Through consultation with his customers, Snorri finds out how they ski and how he can craft something to best fit their needs. He even skis with many of his customers and sometimes meets future customers out on the slope while riding his own pair of iconic, natural-wood finished skis.
Salt Skis originally started as a surfboard project. During a trip to California, Snorri became familiar with many small-scale, local surf shops where craftsmen would custom-make surfboards. “Each craftsman is an artist who can make a surfboard with a unique touch. Some craftsmen become real legends in the local area,” Snorri shares. Snorri returned to Norway inspired to craft his own surfboard, already familiar with woodcraft techniques from previous projects, like handmaking his guitar. Snorri shares, “Skis are like surfboards, they can be really different depending on what brand you try. So, I thought, why not try skis next?”
Snorri became inspired by the work that EVI Skis, another Sknow partner, had been up to. He moved into Marineholmen Makerspace, a shared workshop in Bergen, and Salt Skis was born. Soon after he connected with Sknow at a lunch put on by Vis innovation, where Sknow also had offices. “Monica (Sknow CEO) heard that I was making skis and thought that a partnership would be a good fit. These kinds of connections are the benefit of working in a collaborative space. Putting Sknow technology into the Salt Skis natural design seemed almost ironic, but I found Sknow’s technology so interesting that I wanted to be a part of it.”
Snorri states that the ski industry has seen a shift where producers are wanting to try out new shapes and techniques. This shift has resulted in a greater understanding of what skis are supposed to do. Snorri sees many skis on the market that are crafted to be too versatile, meaning they are not very good at any one thing. He reminds us that even mass-produced skis are not just stamped out in a production-line factory and that even a single design can vary in performance. A demo day is a great way to figure out what kind of ski works for you.
Salt Skis can be produced Sknow-ready with an antenna already embedded in the ski and are sold to customers worldwide. Sknow is proud to partner with Norwegian ski producers like Salt Skis and looks forward to seeing Sknow mounted on more Salt Skis out on the slopes!
To read more about Sknow check out the rest of our stories here on our blog. To stay updated on our development join our community for updates and announcements: https://sknow.ski/join-the-community
To read more about Salt Skis and check out the skis: https://www.saltskis.com/
