Tesla Powered Electric Ski
WATCH HOW WE MADE TESLA ELECTRIC SKIS
WATCH THE ORIGINAL VIDEO
Early this season a bunch of you spotted me testing blank prototypes, sorry I couldn't tell you what they were at the time.
Last week I finally got to ride the final version of the world's first Electric Ski. It was freakin' awesome seeing everyone’s reactions at Mad River Glen and pretty impossible to hide, so the secret's out! Haha
This crazy project started a couple years back when I reached out to Tesla with the idea to develop an "E-ski" together. I honestly didn't expect a reply, but figured it never hurts to ask, so I couldn't believe when one of their engineers (not Elon) actually hit me back! They were skeptical of our capabilities being such a small company, but after learning more about my history creating other products in the ski industry, they trusted I had the experience to try crazy shit like this and agreed to give it a go.
After tons of R&D meetings, it was obvious the hardest part for us was going to be creating enough space in the ski core to house the battery without affecting the ski’s flex and durability. We prototyped dozens of different core variations last year. Eventually we dialed in an internal battery compartment under your boot in the center of the, ski so it would have the least effect on swing weight and flex.
We also needed to integrate Tesla's pressure sensors in front of the binding area between the top sheet and the core during our molding process. Wires run in both directions from the battery; forward to the pressure sensors, and backwards to the motors on the tails. This took us a solid year of trial and error to get working consistently. By last summer we landed on a final construction that was ready to send to Tesla.
While we were working on the ski's construction, Tesla was developing small motors to mount to the tail of the ski. The hardest part was getting the motors to respond to forward pressure without launching off like a rocket, but also to turn off and and start regenerating power after the ski reached downhill speeds. Finding the perfect blend of torque and power while still being safe and easy to control was the biggest challenge they had to overcome in designing the motor.
The ski in the pic above is the world's first fully functional E-ski and honestly works WAY better than my original expectations! There are still a few more tweaks to be made with Telsa before we start accepting pre-orders this summer, with delivery of the first pairs to customers in time for next ski season.