I.
REBUILDING
THE SKIS
Resurfacing the
Double-Arrow Kastle’s
bought used, damaged,
abandoned but for me, a boy.
Long skis.
Truck-bed long in the dream.
Questioned about
it. A boy, 15.
Worth it? What are
you doing?
Dreaming that one
day on a mountain.
A North Dakota boy
with hockey skates
who learned this
much on frozen creekbeds
with a hockey stick
and puck.
The open-air park,
socks drying
in coal stove. An
old man now,
but on the same
skis grown in the dream.
People laughing me,
those skis
longer than the
fire truck,
longer than 2 bys
in the lumber yard.
In my father’s
garage on the work bench,
a pair of wood
Kastle’s from Austria.
Cracked base,
missing metal edge,
but the name,
Kastle, in a bin in back
Are these for sale?
Would my paper route
pay for them?
Stripping the base
to bare
wood…sanding, filing,
multiple coats of
plastic. dreaming,
needing help
loading them to truck bed.
The wood now
looking like the unfinished
cherry wood given
to me by the poet
in Idaho, nothing
could be further
than binding these
to one’s feet.
Further than animal
ribs carved on caves in Russia,
the early ones
crossing in snow, hunting.
Escaping too. And
hiding.
What were these
mountains about?
Anton Kastle, coach
and workshop,
Hohenems, Austria.
Ash. Full ash
in batch
production. Anton Kastle, woodworker,
The wedeln
technique caught on. Quick, controlled turns.
Could I turn like
that? Turn and go teenager
mountain transplant
dreaming the world
from his father’s
garage.
Slalom courses
became tighter, more challenging.
Billy Kidd skied on
Kastles.
Jimmy what are you
doing out there in that garage?
The last of the
champion wooden skis in 1964.
Caught the fever at
the end of the food chain,
willing to believe
anything
if it would help me
turn like that.
Body-dancing.
Magnets holding
skis together--no one owns up now.
Ash was lighter,
softer than hickory,
what racers wanted.
Brushes, and liquid
plastic, sandpapers.
Raw materials grew
scarce, and the Arlberg ski,
unable to be made
during occupation in the late 30s.
Occupying powers didn’t
permit ski production.
Trude Belser wins
the first gold medal
on Kastle skis at
World Championship
in Aspen in 1950.
Three Gold Medals
in Oslo in 52, and
Toni Sailer wins
in Cortina in 56.
And now, ski base principles—
compound, plastic,
metal, sandwich construction
begins, followed by
the Double Arrow Logo
In my dream the
skis lay on a truck bed a block long.
Moving trucks. Union men.
Moving trucks. Union men.
These refurbished
skis returned to me in a dream
taken from my quiver,
chosen for this rainy day
on wet snow in the
Cascade Mountains.
Traveling skis.
Snow delight.
I will get very,
very wet this day,
skiing in water
over snow, hydroplaning,
over rocks too,
snow disappearing,
planet aflame,
mountain wonder time,
after the
disappearance and end of snow,
but not its memory speed
and descent
in the land of
other where.
Jim
Bodeen
December,
2018
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