Retask, recycle, rethink…
Ski and Snowboard Bar by JLS for JLS - 1998. I designed and built this bar for my first college house. That it survived that period, along with my brother’s usage in college, and subsequent usage by other friends while I was living in New York is a testament to how much I overbuilt this item. The body of the bar was built using remnants from other projects. The top is also remnant tongue and groove clear redwood (yes, the kind that people chain themselves to in order to stop them from being cut down), and the “veneer” is as it appears – sections of old alpine skis and snowboards.
Unlike most of my other projects that are end game based (i.e. I need a table, how can I create one), this project started with the materials. At the time, I was working at a now closed ski and snowboard shop (pour some out for The White Wolf – the greatest job I have ever had). The then contemporary binding technology required the tech to drill a number of holes into the ski and then mount the binding. There is a maximum number of times a ski can be drilled before the tech could no longer work on it (I recall this was generally three times). Owners would usually “forget” to pick up their old skis, and they would collect in the shop, usually for years. This was the case at the shop I worked for at the time. An important lesson in sourcing (and life for that matter) follows – if you don’t ask, you don’t get. In the mind-numbing days of the offseason, I had convinced myself that something interesting could be created with the pile of dead skis. A few days later they were mine all mine. The bar idea was born out of…I was in college, need I say more.
I am impressed that college JLS was able to think through some of the most interesting design angles. First, I could have just as easily tacked the ski sections to the outside of the bar face and called it a day. The “channel” design is an important safety feature as the metal edges remain inside the structure, and the cut ends are shielded as well – it is almost kid friendly! Redwood is a relatively soft wood. I could have just as easily used a common poly to seal the top and look to protect it from moisture. Instead, I used something much thicker (it might have been dumb luck as that is all I could find at the time). In any case, the thicker compound also prevents dents in the soft wood.
This is an important piece for me as it is my first “child”. I would like to say that it was planned, but the usage of remnants was born out of necessity – who has money for new stuff in college? After having worked with leftovers and “weird” items (like the skis), I started looking at everything in a different way. Things are what they are, but is that all that they can be (think about that for a while)? That idea is the essence of what I am trying to do with this website (and most of my projects for that matter).
This specific bar is not for sale, but as with a few other items, I would gladly entertain discussions with parties interested in the concept. The skis collected for years, and in asking for them I was gifted all of them. Maybe I am to be the source of the “weird” materials for another person’s project in this case.
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