Green7!

How about a ski made out of recyclable "green" material?  How about a 12.5kg ski that costs about 30% less than the equivalent in carbon, but with comparable stiffness?  No, it's not April 1!

Red7

Red7 is back...

"... and are now plotting the way forward with innovation being the wedge into the market," said Red7's Wayne Oosthuizen.  "We are starting to rebuild our name in the market. This will take time and hence we are looking at starting off slowly and growing organically as the market develops."

"Corecork"

Red7 has a reputation for innovation - the "Red7 Bullet Scuppers" being an example. 

They're breaking new ground again - this time with the material that they're using for their skis: corecork.  As the name suggests, the core of the composite is entirely natural - cork, harvested from cork oak trees...

The material is:

• Lightweight - fiberglass/cork composite skis will weigh about 12.5kg.
• Rigid (core gives the rigidity and Red7 are using epoxy and bagging the boat)
• Cost effective (This ski should sell at about 30% less than a carbon boat)
• Durable (Cork has structural memory and is not as susceptible to damage as foam or honeycomb core).

Not only that, but for the tree huggers amongst us:

• Cork is a sustainable material (it grows back!)
• The trees remove CO2 from the air and harvested trees remove 3-5 times as much.
• The waste material during manufacturing is entirely recyclable
• The environmental impact of production and end-of-life processing is reduced.

More Innovation

We're all used to footplates in single footwell skis that give a little when you push hard on your heels...  Red7 have finally launched their new footplate - which is anchored in three places.  As well as the conventional adjustment tracks on either wall of the cockpit, a third track runs along the bottom of the footwell.

The theory is that the footplate is much more rigid than any other.

3-point footplate

The "Cool" Factor

So now we've got a green product that's light, rigid and costs less than carbon...

...and can you imagine how cool that ski is going to look with the see-through panels?

Well - Red7 are threatening to send one down to us to play with, so we'll be reporting on exactly how cool is to appear on the beach with one of these under your arm! 

Stay tuned!