Skin Hole Repair: Compliments of the Zig Zag Stitch and a Friend

There comes a time when low tide is a relative high tide. While the rain’s pitter-patter is my current soundcape, it’s a reminder of the snow’s absence. I’ve skinned, toured, shuffled, hiked to snow (once), a handful of times this season: all of it blissful. And all of it, or at least most of it, on a 2” base. I swear, when my friend Barry and I sneakered to the top of our local yo-yo spot, we found firm-surface hop turns and not one rock. 

But truth be told, rocks and thin coverage were the overriding theme. We just had to avoid them. (And yes, the pitter-patter of rain, as I type, now sounds like a downpour.) On that acoustic note, I’m coming clean: I skinned right over a slightly snow-covered rock on my third outing. I was on a pair of decade-old skimo planks, a hand-me-down from my older child. You see, at the time, I thought, he’s 10, why not score him a light setup (skimo skis)? Someday they will be mine. And now they are. But skimo skins are somewhat thin, which also makes them light. They are fast, too.