Launch PadWedgease Ski Tip Connector - Learn to Ski - Teaches Speed Control, Making a Wedge, Basic Turning - Portable and Durable - Perfect for Beginners

I've been skiing for the past 40 years. Even at this age, I ride twintips into halfpipes and quarterpipes. :-)Believe me, I had my doubts about this wedge before buying it. After finally buying this wedge for $25 and trying it out just yesterday at the ski slopes, I am AMAZED how it helped out my daughter do her first run down the beginners slope with ease.She's 6 and it was her first time being on skis so naturally I had to teach her how to step into the ski bindings with the ski boot and also do the side steps to climb up a short slope. After doing this for 30 minutes she was getting tired and it was obvious that she wasn't enjoying the sport 'ski' as much as she anticipated. So, I decided to take her up to the beginners slope and she started to get excited when we headed up to the ski lift. On top of the slope, I took out the wedge and clamped it to her newly bought skis. The top does not get damaged because of the rubber but the bottom of the ski gets the 'clamp' mark. I guess that's a trade off to get the wedge to hold on to the ski tips. No problem as the bottom of the tip does not affect skiing. Now onto the way I helped her do her ever first ski run.1. I got in front of her with my back to the fall line. (meaning skiing switch, skiing backwards. no problem with my twin tip skis)2. I held out the two poles for her to grab.3. I made her do the pizza/A-shape and went slowly down the slope. Non-stop, she never fell down. The skis held their Pizza form thanks to the help of the wedge. She was able to make wide Pizza's to slow down and tigthed up to speed up. She learned this on the second run. AMAZING!!!Those who have tried to teach their young ones will agree how much of a hassle it is to teach skiing. This ski connector will be the aspirin to your headaches! In addition, try to teach them in the beginning like me stated as above. Never get angry and always encourage them, even pointing out that falling is A-OK. Make it a fun time. My daughter now can ski beginner's slope in just one day! (See customer pic. My kid in yellow jacket/pink pants and me with the grey/green jacket+beanie)Now, the advantage of this wedge compared to others.1. The clamping thing is in durable plastic. In the cold, it's much better than the steel screw type.2. The clamp does not do any damage to the top of the skis.3. Easy to clamp on, easy to clamp off.Thanks launch pad! Your item saved me big bucks. (ski school, frustration of skis not maintaining their ski plough shape, etc)

Very pleased with Wedgease. Just took twin 7 yr olds, a 5 yr old, and a 3 yr old to the slopes. Bought two Hookeases (see the other Launch Pad product of that name) and a few Wedgeases for <$150. Avoided $500+ per day of group lessons cost -- and who knows how many days of instruction would have been required for equivalent progress. Lost a day or two of personal skiing but got to spend additional time with the kids in an instructional setting that was actually mostly enjoyable. The Hookeases were the main effort but the Wedgeases also played a very useful role.7 year olds. My wife and I taught our twins from nothing to self-sufficiency within a handful of runs on the bunny slopes, with neither needing the Hookease after just an hour or so. Our son also dropped the Wedgease almost immediately while our daughter kept the Wedgease on for most of the first day. But by the end of the morning, one adult could easily manage both kids up the lift and down the hill, and they were really enjoying their progress. We stayed on the bunny slopes to build confidence that day, but by day 2 they were on the bigger lifts to the top of the mountain (still taking greens down) and by day 3 they were on those same lifts and tackling the occasional blue run.5 year old. After the first morning focused on the twins, I then moved on to my 5 yr old daughter on the first afternoon, and after two brief afternoon sessions (day 1 and day 2) with the Hookease/Wedgease, she was self-sufficient on the bunny slopes (no Hookease or Wedgease needed) but I would have been hesitant to launch her on bigger hills at that point without either piece of gear; in particular, she really liked having the Wedgease in place so her legs would not as taxed keeping the skis in a proper v-shape. That said, a little more dedicated attention and she would have managed the bigger green hills without difficulty.3 year old. Finally, at the end of day 3, I took out my 3 yr old son (turned 3 a few months ago) for two runs on the bunny slopes. With so many other kids to manage (I haven't mentioned our 11-month old yet!), and with skiing an infrequent family activity, I was not interested in actually getting him up the learning curve at 3.25 yrs of age. But I thought a little exposure would be useful. With Hookease and Wedgease in service, I had no real problem getting him down the slope, and he loved it. My only comment here is that, since he was providing limited assistance with ski positioning on his own, it took a fair amount of effort from my arms and especially wrists to move him around (if I needed to adjust his direction from the natural slope of the hill). Of course, he was oblivious to this modest strain and just loved 'beating' his accommodating older sister in the race down the hill.Other notes.- I saw harnesses and other stuff on the slopes and my combination (Hookease/Wedgease) was clearly the best option. Ski instructors from the mountain routinely asked about the gear and were impressed with it -- same with dozens of other onlookers including exasperated parents holding their kids between their skis.- My wife and I are fairly proficient skiers but certainly not experts. You need to have some basic skiing proficiency and, depending on the kid's size and weight, a little bit of arm strength. But these are truly low hurdles, IMO.- Wedgease (or any sort of equipment like it) were not allowed on the ski lift itself, so I had to transfer one clamp to the ski of the other clamp (ie, both clamps on the same ski) each lift line, and then re-clamp on the other ski upon getting off the lift at the top of the hill. Given the ease of the clamping process, this was not a big deal; it would have been very annoying if the attachment process were not as simple.

These are great to teach beginners how to ski. Some folks are extra intimidated by learning skis and it's a bit more challenging for them to understand how to snow plow stop, then go etc... These devices help them get into the correct position and my experience demonstrates that after about a max of four runs down the bunny hill and the student doesn't need them any longer. I taught 8 seasons at Winter Park and these make my job very easy. This particular device holds "bites" into the ski tips so you don't have to keep re-setting them. These are great and I buy these to help my friends learn to ski. More people should ski or snowboard, then there would be less war in the world...

These worked really well initially. They are not easy to put on. My husband had to open and close them because I just didn’t have the hand strength. The metal teeth scratched the skis a bit, but nothing that serious. After about 6uses the lever that holds the clamp broke off and is now useless. This was a great tool for my 4 year old and definitely helped his first few times on skis. He is a big kid and it was strong enough to keep his skis together. Happy I have a spare so we can use it again next season.

Parfait pour les tout-petits qui débutent en ski à utiliser les premières fois.

Sehr gute Handhabung.Hat toll funktioniert beim Skifahren.Erste Schritte bei einem 5 Jährigen Kind.Die Ski rutchen nicht so auseinander.Bei uns hat es Super funktioniert.Absollut weiter zu empfehlen.

Best ski tip connectors available. These connectors avoid damage to ski's and are very easy to clip on.

This keeps the skis pie shaped and not easty-westy.

Like the product. Have used my own that I made myself that have one advantage but the Wedgease is much faster and convenient to put on and take off. They do not like the cold temps though. One broke at -20C.