World First: Minicarver from the 3D Printer

The first turns for the little ones are now even easier

Ski school head and developer Gerhard Told presents ultra-light skis for toddlers

Gerhard Told from the Scheffau Ski School is a passionate inventor. For many years now, he has been causing a stir with inventions for his ski school, which specialises in children. Be it with child-friendly mini-carvers, adventure figures as slide aids, the learning ski carousel - the aim of his ideas is always to introduce the little ones to skiing in a fun and playful way. This is also the case with his latest development: the mini-carver from the 3D printer. A world first!

Super-light and super-kid-friendly

The low weight - an essential factor for the success of the little ones' first attempts at sliding - is made possible by a honeycomb structure between the base and the top plate of the Mini-Carver ski. A Mini-Carver from the 3D printer weighs just 160 grams.

The binding is the second key to success: the Mini-Carvers are equipped with a binding device that makes it possible to make the first sliding attempts with normal winter boots. "If we had to put a ski boot on the two- to three-year-olds first, we would already have lost," says Gerhard Told, head of the ski school in Scheffau am Wilden Kaiser. So the first steps in the snow are easy and playful - and above all without stress and without heavy sports equipment on their feet. The lightweight Mini Carver and the simple binding for kids are a further development of an earlier invention by Told - but now manufactured using high-tech.

The mission: a recyclable piece of sports equipment

The Mini Carver is made of pure plastic. This paves the way for recyclable sports equipment - produced regionally, with short production and delivery routes. The environment and ecology play a major role at the Scheffau Ski School: waxing is done with pure beeswax - and every children's course also includes a unit on the topic of "sustainability on the mountain", which the little ones are very interested in...

This season, there will be extensive testing and fine-tuning, as well as tinkering with the design, which should make the 3D MiniCarver an absolutely hip piece of sports equipment for the kids. If the prototypes prove themselves in the 2021/2022 winter season, the kids at the Scheffau ski school will have a cool device for their first attempts at sliding.

PICTURE TEXT: Ski school boss Gerhard Told and Thomas Schmid from KinderKaiserland Scheffau present the first prototype of the 3D-manufactured Mini-Carver with Alexander Hechenberger (ADDION). (Photos: Ritsch/free of charge).
G.Told: anorak/shirt; T.Schmid: anorak/grey jumper; A.Hechenberger: cap.