Sneva’s skis create immediate believer
T.J. Sneva is a true do-it-yourselfer. Tired of waiting for a ski company to market a twin tip, he started to make his own in 1994. Sneva hasn’t ridden anything but his own creations since then.
Sneva, 33, works with a partner at a shop in Spokane Valley, specializing in hand-made skis and snowboards. On his Web site, snevamfg.com, he claims that his company built the original twin tip ski.
“Somebody was going to make them if I didn’t, but I believe we were the first to produce them,” he said. “My grandpa and me built my first press and we messed up a lot of stuff learning how to build them.”
The first big ski company to successfully market a twin tip was Salomon, with their 1080 in 1997. Many companies do so today. But Sneva said he is still the only one making a true twin tip.
“My ski, from the center end to end, is exactly the same,” he said. “A lot of skis have tips on both ends, but aren’t twin tip skis, where the side cut is the same from the center out.”
I joined Sneva last week at 49 Degrees North to try some of his shapes. He said I might feel odd at first, standing directly in the center of the ski. I started on a pair matching the specs of a custom order he made for 49 Degrees North owner John Eminger.
The 180-centimeter “Eminger” measures 132 millimeters at the tip, 87 millimeters at the waist and 116 millimeters at the tail. They looked shorter from my point of view.
In sloppy snow, I tried not to think about where I was standing on the skis. Rolling them over started round, lazy arcs. Transitions were seamless. It was an easy ride. The ski handled just as well in snappy fall line turns.
Just as I was settling in on the Eminger, a heavy rain started. We ran for cover in the lodge, soaked.
Sneva Manufacturing sells about 50 pairs of custom-made skis a year. Snowboards are its bread and butter, with about 400 orders a year.
Sneva starts with a plastic called UHMW for the base material, cut to the profile of the shape. Edge metal is designed in a way that it snaps tightly around the base. A layer of triaxial fiberglass comes next, followed by the core.
Sneva makes his cores from strips of maple and poplar set lengthwise. Maple is hard, poplar soft. A softer ski has more poplar in its core than maple, and vice versa.
Another sheet of fiberglass is laid over the core. The top sheet features the customer’s choice of material and graphics. A process called sublimation affords Sneva unlimited artistic horizons. My Emingers featured bikini eye candy.
After a 2-hour lunch, the rain stopped. Patchy sunlight-lit snow set up like concrete right out of the mixer. My next ride was a hot-off-the-press pair of 171-centimeter “Supermod” skis measuring 120-62-120. Sneva built them with a pretty oak top sheet and clear sidewalls showing the wood core.
The Supermod looked too delicate for the conditions, but I felt obligated to try them. Standing dead center over leaf spring camber, the skis were quick and energetic. I powered through sticky slop.
We rode out the afternoon. But I went back to the Eminger – a ski that makes friends wherever it goes.