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Growing the Sport
With the Skizee, you pretty much can. Maidment “I was looking for a certain experience with stability,
describes the experience as a crossover between skiing and control, and performance factor that would give a user the
snowmobiling. The Skizee, a self-contained, hand-controlled, confidence to go and make their own trail, uphill or down-
powered device that weighs 115 pounds, propels the skier for- hill,” Maidment says. The Skizee in its current form is the
ward while he or she guides the machine using the same move- culmination of that continual fine-tuning and evolution
ments as if alpine skiing. (The throttle is located in one handle of input from users.
of the machine.) The mechanics are similar to the small track
kits often used to adapt motorcycle dirt bikes to snow bikes,
Maidment says. The Skizee is gas-powered, with a 1-gallon “The Skizee is basically skiing,
tank. Taking into consideration the weather conditions and
terrain, the operator can expect to travel about 30 miles on one with a push. I describe it like a
fill-up. With its low center of gravity, the Skizee enables the
skier to glide forward anywhere from 3 to 25 miles per hour. magic carpet ride on skis where
“You’re still doing everything except the major propul- you can squeeze your finger and
sion. It’s basically skiing, with a push. I describe it like a
magic carpet ride on skis where you can squeeze your finger go, go, go.”
and go, go, go,” Maidment says.
When Maidment debuted the prototype in 2011, it —JIM MAIDMENT, SKIZEE INVENTOR
received media attention from Popular Mechanics, was fea-
tured on Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet and in several
motorsports blogs, and generated thousands of inquiries. Maidment has been using the Skizee to power his 3-mile
Since then it has undergone numerous iterations. The device commute to and from town and for adventures to remote
he’s bringing to market this season runs just under $3,800 cabins that he’d otherwise be skinning to. He says he realizes
($5,000 in Canadian dollars). that widespread in-bounds ski area use for motorized skiing
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22 | NSAA JOURNAL | FALL 2018