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Sky Ski
Our MissionOur mission is the same as it was when we started up in 1998; to make the best hydrofoils money can buy. And now we offer several different models, so there is no doubt we have one that will fit your needs as well as your budget. How We Got HereSky Ski, started in 1998 by Mike Murphy. Mike had previously been one of the founding members of Air Chair, the first sit-down Hydrofoil company. Being experienced riders ourselves, our main goal was to build & offer the best hydrofoils money could buy, right out of the box. 10 years later, our main goal really hasn’t changed, though almost everything else has. In 2004 Mike decided he really wasn’t the 9 to 5 guy (we pretty much knew that!). Sky Ski being Mike’s baby, he isn’t about to pass the torch to just anyone, so the search was on for someone who could take what he started and really make it fly. In steps Don Erb, & Comptech Machine who had already been making most of our high end, “Limited Edition” components for some time, to take over the reins. Comptech, in business since 1978 was already well known for their cutting edge design and machining capabilities in the professional auto racing industry. With Sky Ski, Comptech was ready to make the move to the marine industry and specifically, get into hydrofoils. Our Hydrofoils
Sky Ski Hydrofoils are 100% handmade in the great US of A by a small handful of dedicated, good ol’ boys out of Redding California!! We are proud to say that we are the last waterski company that still manufactures 100% of our Hydrofoils right here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. How do we do it? Well, we start out with the best designs created in Solidworks and Mastercam. This allows us to “stress-test” the parts while still in the design phase, showing us where the weak link is, where it needs to be the strongest, where it needs to flex, and where material can be eliminated to make the part lighter. Once the part is designed then we order in the best raw materials available. For our seat towers and foil assemblies this would be raw, domestic, aircraft quality 6061 T6 plate aluminum. Billet aluminum & cast aluminum are two completely different materials, and anybody that might try to tell ya differently might just have some ocean front property in Arizona to sell ya as well. Now that we have designs that are ready to roll, and material in the house its time to put our all-American made Haas CNC Mills & Lathes to work. With aluminum chips a’flyin, coolant a’sprayin, tools spinnin and tables a’ slidin, in goes raw aluminum, out come actual parts, ready to be assembled, sanded, polished, grained, tumbled or whatever the next step may be. Our boards are a whole ‘nother story, although the process is quite similar as with our aluminum components. We start out with raw materials at every level. First we mix our foam and shoot our own foam cores. While they are curing (it takes a day or 2) we get to cutting fiberglass and carbon fiber for the lay-up schedules. We create artwork, print that artwork and then sublimate (sublimation is kinda like a big glorified “iron-on”) the artwork to the media that will wind up in the board itself. Once we have all the materials prepared and ready to go things get a little messy. We lay these boards up as a big wet sandwich with core in the middle, fiberglass &/or carbon fiber on either side, and resin on every single layer. Put the graphics on either side and into the mold the whole big wet mess goes. With the heat & pressure that compression molding applies we get the best mix of resin to glass ratio possible, giving us the strongest, lightest boards on the market. When the boards come out of the press they get flashed, routed, filed, drilled for seat tower & bindings, and finally inspected. If everything checks out, they get paired with the appropriate seat tower and foil assembly and get shipped out to……YOU! The cool thing about this whole process is that it all happens under one roof. Our roof, the Sky Ski roof. Not bad for a handful of good ol’ boys, eh?
Our Goal
Our manufacturing headquarters are located in beautiful Redding California, just minutes away from where we love to ride as much as we can, Lake Shasta. If you are in the area we invite you to stop in and see us! |