LONGONI SKIS...WTF are these?

[skier666]

Just picked up a pair for....uh....pretty much free. The dude who gave them to me said that they were once owned by non other than "Marc Giradelli."

Tried a Google but came up with nothing.

Tyrone, HR, and I skied all over the mountian on these bad boys last Friday. And they pretty much lay down an edge on concrete.....rippin'

Stats - 198 GS Race...serial number 000078. The came with a derby and are of "race-stock" 90 degree sidewall goodness.

http://www.vidbusters.com/~casey/Longoni_ski.jpg

[ak_powder_monkey]

Nice

[Buster Highmen]

They make pool cues. Skis too?

[verbier61]

Mr Longoni opened a small sport store in a tiny village called Barzanò, between Milan and Como, in , say, mid-70. He specialized in mountain stuff (but later extended to all sports) and became synonimous of excellent quality and very reasonable prices. By early '90, he begun to open many stores in franchasing in northern italy. I would say that by year 2000 there were approx 20 Longoni stores in Italy. The one in North Milan (Cinisello) was prolly the larger and most famous. The slalom olympic gold medallist Paoletta Magoni was at the helm of the ski section of that store... and Mr Longoni had his own ski line (sorry to say, mostly race skis... no freerides, BC or fats. That's Italy!). I personally had by 2001 a pair of slalom skis paid about 150 euro (just for the days of hard ice and nothing else), and they were mor than OK for that price. Now the sad story begins. Mr Longoni sold his stores to a small italian corporate called Giacomelli (they had a similar franchaising operation called Giacomelli sport... I remember I saw one of them also in downtown Berlin, Germany), these people were very aggressive in opening new locations almost everywere in Italy and they made a huge flop and failed in 2003. Now Longoni shops (once filled with every paraphernalia of high-tech sport stuff) are sad and empty like mid-70 bulgarian shops.... Pretty sad. For what I know, the Lngoni ski line has recently changed its name in X-sport, but I have not folwed in detail this part of the story.
Is it possible Marc Girardelli was the owner of your skis? I would not put a dime on it, but never say never.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Originally posted by verbier61

Is it possible Marc Girardelli was the owner of your skis? I would not put a dime on it, but never say never.

ha! 666 -- isn't that what the guy you got them from said?


good info. Verbier.

[Dexter Rutecki]

If Giradelli ever owned those skis, he never raced (WC, anyway) on them, to the best of my recollection. I don't see how a small company could afford the high six figures it probably took back then to get a guy like him on their skis.
It's still possible he had that pair, for some reason, though.

[lake effect]

Or is it possible that Mark Ghirardelli, chocolate king of San Leando owned the skis?

[Dexter Rutecki]

You've got Jon Voight's car!

[grrrr]

I was in a movie with Jon Voight.

[skier666]

The guy said he did some GS race in Aspen a few years back, and raced with Marc....sounds like a charity type of event. After the race, Marc looked at him and "here, you can have these."

I never thought he "raced" on them...just that he owned them at one time and recreationally actually made turns on them. They do have Derbyflex's on them, so its not entirely unlikely.

verbier61, thanks for the detailed history...I'm still stoked to have these because of their uniqueness and rarity.

[Dexter Rutecki]

I wouldn't disbelieve that story--sounds possible. Interesting skis. Too bad about the company.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Originally posted by Dexter Rutecki
You've got Jon Voight's car!

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I did a Longoni grab off a jump the other day.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Originally posted by Alex P. Keaton
These pretzels are making me thirsty.

Not that there's anything wrong with it.

[Odin]

I pulled my longoni trying to scramble over a bar stool.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Der longoniberry pancake.

[Dantheman]

He had to use the corkscrew pasta....

[optics]

Santori time.

[Game Over]

one in a million doc, one in a million...

[Dexter Rutecki]

Fusilli Jerry!

[SponsoredByDuctTape]

Hey, it's the ASSMAN!!!

[Art Vandelay]

My name is George, I'm unemployed and live with my parents.