If you spend a lot of time around sit skis, especially sit skis with fixed outriggers (also called pontoons, also called quad skis), and especially Mountain Men sit skis, then your ski pants, like mine are probably covered in cuts & nicks
I’m pretty sure it happens when loading the sitski onto the chairlift. You have to have one foot inside the fixed outrigger to get the right leverage to lift the back of the sitski. Then when you (or the liftie) pulls the sitski back onto the chair the fixed outrigger crashes into the front of your leg, and the sharp edges can cut the material.
I’ve written in the past about wearing shin pads under my ski pants to protect my shins, but is there anything we can do to protect the ski pants, and avoid replacing them frequently? I considered buying tradesman work pants, but the reinforced panels tend to be on the knees, which is the wrong place.
So I decided to experiment with making my own reinforced patches with sticky leather. You can buy this stuff from Amazon for repairing leather sofas and the like. It’s leather on the outside, real leather according to the marketing. And the back is covered in glue, covered in a removable wax paper. You can cut pieces of any size you want:
And stick it to the sofa, or in my case the ski pants. I’ve chosen to add patches to both pant legs from the bottom cuff to the knee, and across the front half of the pants. Maybe they could be much smaller. Maybe this season’s wear and tear will show me where the reinforcement is truly needed.
I haven’t tried them out yet. I’ll probably start tethering around Christmas. Maybe they will add good protection, maybe they will fall off as soon at they get wet. I plan to update this blog with the outcome in a few months time. Watch this Space!
End of Season Update
Here is how they look after one season of tethering quad skis twice a week:
They have certainly taken a lot of punishment, and protected the ski pants. Can you guess which side I usually stand when loading the sit ski onto the chair? They peeled a little at the top corners, I guess that’s where the knees bend. I cut diagonal corners to fix this. Maybe it would be worth cutting each corner diagonally before gluing them on. Or maybe, looking at where they are and aren’t marked, I could cut them 20% shorter. They do show the wear, and I’ve decided to live with that and display it with pride. But even if I replaced these panels once a year the sticky back leather is cheap and well worth it to protect the pants and lengthen their life.
Overall I consider this idea a success, and I will be proactively adding leather patches to my ski pants from now on. Whether I will choose a leather colour that matches the pants, or contrasts with the pants, is a fashion choice.
The Sit Ski Blog 
