My first manufactured skis

Fifty years ago, I was skiing for the last season on the first pair of skis that my parents bought for me in a ski shop. Before that, I skied on boards handmade by my Dad. The place where we bought the new skis was in Les Gets and the shop was Berthet Sports.

The skis were a pair of 185 cm, blue Duret skis that had the “Contreplaqué” model name stamped on them. The base was hard, brown celuloid, didn't slide that well and had full width edges screwed on.

The skis were too long for me when I first got them at about 12 years of age, but they served me well and helped me learn how to ski down steep runs and get into parallel skiing.

The bindings were a combo made of a Ramy Wiki toe piece and a PS Emile Allais cable. This is by far the ski I used during the greatest number of winter seasons (at least 5) and that was a harbinger of my long relationship with Michel Duret, who would eventually take over the company and produce a wide variety of snow equipment ranging from alpine and touring skis as well as monoskis and snowboards...