About Us
OUR STORY
For the past decade I’ve traveled extensively as an alpine racer, coach and recreational skier. Each season my professional and personal skiing takes me to over a dozen destinations at race camps and competitions across the United States: Montana, Colorado, New York, Vermont, Utah, Washington and other states. Most of these trips are multi-day outings. Whether coaching or racing, my performance depends upon the preparation of my gear. Skis need to be tuned (ideally at the end of each day) and waxed so I can be at my best on slopes. (INSERT PHOTO, Jack 3_cropped_low, with this paragraph)
For years, I traveled with a full tuning bench and three vises or mostly went without tuning. The bench is advertised as “portable” but at 40 pounds it isn’t something you want to lug around with ski bags through airports. Even when traveling by car it’s heavy and cumbersome to transport. It takes time and some effort to get it set up – a pain to break down in a motel room or a friend’s spare bedroom on a daily basis. I kept thinking there must be a better system for traveling skiers. In January 2025, I kept the lights on in the garage until nearly midnight prior to leaving to coach at a race camp at Hunter Mountain, NY. The result was a primitive, portable tuning “vise” made from wood. Some tweaks were needed, but it worked surprisingly well. On the encouragement of a fellow coach with experience in product development in the ski industry who dubbed it “the best idea I’ve ever seen for a portable tuning vise,” the original creation morphed into the Go Ski Vise (with lots of modifications and tinkering). (INSERT PHOTOS, Original Vise_1 and _2 with this paragraph)
The Go Ski Vise borrows inspiration from other common, simple and superbly effective devices. The idea for securing the rotating legs with a cam-lock came while adjusting the seat height on my wife’s mountain bike. The spring clips that hold the two sections of the unit together are the same as those found on a multi-section kayak paddle. The “nesting” joiner section was inspired from telescoping aluminum supports for RV awnings. (INSERT PHOTO, 28_Spring Clip, with this paragraph)
Currently, the Go Ski Vise is hand-crafted by a small team in Red Lodge, Montana. It’s made from aluminum, wood (mostly oak) and stainless-steel bolts. I’ve been encouraged by bottom-line advisors to scrap the wooden ski supports and plugs in favor of plastic. Some of the aluminum, they argue, could also be replaced with plastic. Sorry guys, but there’s already too much plastic in the world and aluminum is considered virtually infinitely recyclable, not to mention its strength and durability. I’m very pleased that the only synthetic materials on the vise are found on the plastic housing of the star nuts holding the supports in place and the non-skid material on the legs and the tops of the supports. The Go Ski Vise is a very sturdy product that’s made from sustainable and recyclable materials. (INSERT PHOTO, Upright Close-Up, with this paragraph)
Along those lines we strive to a abide by the slogan, “reduce, reuse, recycle.” A portion of the wood used on the Go Ski Vise is salvaged from a local, specialty wood shop. We recycle packaging from our own product procurement and cardboard poster tubes from a local theater. (If your vise comes in what looks like recycled packaging, it is.) There is no unnecessary padding or wrapping and the directions are printed on a single sheet of paper. The shop is mostly solar-powered and we primarily transport with an electric vehicle, a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV. We endeavor to produce and deliver the Go Ski Vise with as little waste possible in materials and energy.Thanks for your support!Jack Ballard, Owner/Inventor (INSERT PHOTO, Jack 4_vert, with this salutation)Type your paragraph here