What are skis made out of?

Answer 1

wood!

not any more..... carbon fibre and plastic

Early skis were manufactured from wood, with bronze, cast iron, wrought iron, stamped steel, leather, or woven rope for bindings. Later advancements on early wooden skis were strips of sharpened steel along the sides for improved control, steel bars running lengthwise along the top for stability and rigidity, and use of steam and pressure heating for shaping the tips upward. Modern skis are most commonly fiber-based resin and molded plastic, with steel, hardened plastic, or carbon fiber center sections, along with steel or carbon fiber edgings. Some high performance skis include steel or carbon fiber "tension rods" along the top for bracing and rigidity.

All race skis still use a wood core, usually wrapped with glass fiber with layers of titanal. The more metal (titanal) the stiffer the ski. Bode Miller may have 4 layers in his slalom skis while other races may only use 2 layers. Recreational skis either use wood or foam (less expensive than wood) cores. Some companies use cores from other material ranging from carbon to granite. Bases are made from polyethelene. Some bases have graphite mixed in. Tops range from metal "cap" construction (like the Volants) to synthetic materials (almost all). Edges are made of hard metal. There has not been a lot of change in the materials used in recent years. Racing skis still have straight sidewalls and recreational skis have either straight sidewalls or capped construction. The shape of the skis has changed dramatically over the past ten years.