The present invention relates generally to the transport of snow skiing equipment such as skis and poles. More specifically, the disclosed invention concerns a securement device adapted for engagement to and securement of skis and poles which provides the user an ability to transport the skis and poles as a unit with greater ease.
During trips to and from the ski slopes, snow skiers must carry their skis and poles across parking lots and sidewalks, and other areas, on their way to the slopes, and at the end of a long day back to their vehicle and evening accommodations. By their nature, elongated snow skis and the ski poles used with them, are ungainly and hard to hold in the hands of the user. This task is made harder by the need to wear gloves in cold climates as well as the damp and cold nature of the skis and poles, especially after use on the slopes.
During transport to and from ski slope areas, it is common that skiers must walk from parking lots for long distances to either the slopes or a bus providing transport to the slopes. Maintaining the skis and poles, which by their elongated nature, are continually moving independently from each other, becomes an arduous task. This task becomes harder as the duration of transport of the equipment due to the weight and long length of a typical pair of disconnected skis. This carrying task increases in difficulty where a skier is tasked with carrying their own skis and poles as well as those of a child or ski buddy.
Conventionally, skiers will carry a pair of skis by grasping a first end of the disconnected pair of skis in one hand to try and maintain them adjacent. The mid portion of the skis will then be supported on the shoulder. While compressing the two skis against each other with the first hand, the skier must hold the two ski poles in the other hand which may also be grasping the ski boots to be worn while skiing.
As can be discerned, carrying heavy skies, poles, and boots and selected hands while attempting to maintain the skis adjacent and balanced on the shoulder, is a tiring task. This is especially true when required over long distances walking and riding on buses. Still further, once in the ski lodge, skiers must navigate ice laden steps and pathways in crowded or confined areas carefully to avoid contact with other skiers and their equipment. With both hands required to hold the skiing equipment in this conventional fashion, frequently skiers are left with little or no ability to employ a hand to steady themselves using hand rails adjacent stairs and icy pathways.
Attempts to lessen the issues of carrying ungainly ski equipment over such distances and hazardous terrain have been tried in the past. For example, bags are used frequently in which the loose poles and skis are confined, and the bag is then carried using an exterior strap. However, once at the slopes, the skier must find a secure place to store the bag while the equipment is being used on the slopes.
The device herein disclosed, is adapted for easy yet secure removable engagement to snow skis and poles used throughout the world in alpine and cross country skiing. It is adapted to compressibly engage both skies to each other as well as to secure the two ski poles adjacent to the two skis in a fashion forming a handle from the two poles allowing for easy carrying of the engaged equipment either in horizontal or vertical disposition. This easy carrying is accomplished with one hand, leaving the other hand free for hand rails or for carrying a second set of equipment such as that of a child. Upon arrival at the ski slopes, the device is easily disengaged and stored in a pocket alleviating the need to rent a locker.
The forgoing examples of related art concerning snow skiing equipment and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various other limitations of the related art are well known or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of this specification and the accompanying drawings.
The shortcomings of prior art are overcome by the disclosed securement device herein. The device in all modes includes a strap extending from an engagement at a first end to a curved member or substantially C-shaped member, to an engagement of a second end of the strap to a clip. By substantially C-shaped member is meant any curved member extending along a length of a first section and around a curved area to a second section which extends a second length to a distal end. This curved shape or substantially C-shaped member extending along the first section and around the curved area and along the second section to a distal end, defines an opening accessible through a passage adapted for positioning of portions of ski poles therein.
Additionally, the term clip is used for convenience herein, in the depictions showing a curved or hook-like fastener engaged to the second end of the strap. However, a clip may be any first fastener which is adapted for a removable connection to a mating fastener, located on the C-shaped member or the strap immediately adjacent the C-shaped member. Thus, while shown as a hook-like clip, such should thus not be considered limited in any fashion as other removably engageable mating fasteners may be employed such as snaps, buttons, hooks, hook and loop material, or other fasteners as would occur to those skilled in the art. Currently, the hook-like clip is a preferred mode due to the ease of connection to the clip connector positioned on or adjacent the C-shaped member.
The device in all modes herein includes at least a portion of the strap being formed of elastic material to provide a biasing force when the strap of the device is positioned to a stretched engagement encircling ski equipment. The biasing force from the elongated elastic material forms a compressed contact against the exposed surfaces of adjacently positioned skis thereby enhancing the frictional contact of the strap in contact with the skis.
In a preferred mode of the device, a second portion of the strap may be formed of non-elastic material such as nylon or polyester or other woven or non woven belt or strap material such that it maintains substantially a fixed length. It should be noted that the strap may be formed entirely of elastic material where the first portion runs the entire length of the strap or could be formed entirely of non-elastic material, as with the included ramp described herein, will still provide significant enhancement to a strapped engagement with skis and poles. However, it was found in experimentation that forming the strap with a first portion which is elastic and second portion which is substantially fixed in length provided a more durable device and enhanced the frictional engagement of both the elastic and non elastic material with the exterior surfaces of skis.
Particularly preferred in all modes of the device is the inclusion of a formed ramp, on the exterior surface of the C-shaped member which is opposite the interior surface surrounding the opening. This ramp is formed by a recess in the exterior surface and may include shoulders on opposing sides. So configured, this forms a pathway or area for secure positioning of the strap within the recess and prevents it from sliding off once the device is encircled around skis and poles in an engaged position.
In a method of use, the device is posited with portions of both ski poles located within the opening and with a member section of the C-shaped member in contact with side surfaces of two skis which are placed with their smooth snow-contacting surfaces in contact with each other. Next, the user pulls the strap around to encircle the exposed surfaces of the skis and the clip is engaged to the clip connector to hold the device in the engaged position. Where elastic forms a portion of the strap, the stretching of the elastic imparts a biasing force to the strap which causes it to contact against the exterior of the skis in a biased contact.
The pulling of the strap to encircle and contact against the skis also positions a portion of the strap across the passage allowing the poles to enter and exit the opening, thereby holding the poles engaged within the opening. Further, where the C-shaped member is formed of pliable material allowing for a slight deflection of the first member section extending from the distal end of the C-shaped member, this deflection lessens the diameter of the opening and may provide for a compressive contact of the first and second member sections against the surfaces of the poles which prevent sliding.
Once the device is placed in this engaged position, the user may employ the poles engaged through the opening as a handle to carry the skis. As is well known but not shown herein, ski poles have loops thereon employed to hold the poles engaged to the wrists of the user while skiing. These loops may be placed to encircle the two skis prior to placing the device in the engaged position to thereby provide a secure mount of the handle ends of the poles to the skis once the device is placed in the engaged position.
The device is easily removed by disengaging the clip from the clip connector and removing the poles from the opening by sliding them through the passage in the substantially C-shaped member.
With respect to the above description of the ski equipment securement device, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the herein disclosed invention in detail, it is to be understood that snow ski equipment invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components or steps noted in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention herein described is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways which will be obvious to those skilled in the art. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed removably engageable ski equipment securement device. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
As used in the claims to describe the various inventive aspects and embodiments, “comprising” means including, but not limited to, whatever follows the word “comprising”. Thus, use of the term “comprising” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present. By “consisting of” is meant including, and limited to, whatever follows the phrase “consisting of”. Thus, the phrase “consisting of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, and that no other elements may be present. By “consisting essentially of” is meant including any elements listed after the phrase, and limited to other elements that do not interfere with or contribute to the activity or action specified in the disclosure for the listed elements. Thus, the phrase “consisting essentially of” indicates that the listed elements are required or mandatory, but that other elements are optional and may or may not be present depending upon whether or not they affect the activity or action of the listed elements.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved carrying device for transporting elongated ski equipment in a hands-free manner, where the elongated ski equipment comprises a snowboard as well as a ski or a pair of skis.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device to removably engage snow skis and poles in adjacent stable positions, to allow for easy carrying and transport of the ski equipment.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide such a removably engageable ski and pole securement device which, once removed, may be stored in a clothing pocket easily.
A still further object of this invention is the provision of such a ski and pole securement device, which securely positions the skies adjacent the ski poles and thereby forms a handle from the ski poles allowing for carrying the engaged equipment in either of a vertical or horizontal disposition.
Other objects features, and advantages of the present invention, as well as the advantages thereof over existing prior art, which will become apparent from the description to follow, are accomplished by the improvements described in this specification and hereinafter described in the following detailed description which fully discloses the invention, but should not be considered as placing limitations thereon.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate some, but not the only or exclusive, examples of embodiments and/or features of the ski equipment securement device herein. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than limiting. In the drawings:
Other aspects of the present invention shall be more readily understood when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the following detailed description, neither of which should be considered limiting.
In this description, the directional prepositions of up, upwardly, down, downwardly, front, back, top, upper, bottom, lower, left, right and other such terms refer to the device as it is oriented and appears in the drawings and are used for convenience only. Such prepositions are not intended to be limiting or to imply that the device has to be used or positioned in any particular orientation.
Now referring to drawings in
As shown in all figures herein, at least a first portion 17 of the strap 12 is formed of elastic material. Elastic strap material is preferred for at least a portion of the strap 12 to provide a biasing force when the strap 12 of the device 10 is in a stretched engagement encircling ski equipment such as skis 20 and poles 22 (
While the strap 12 may be formed entirely of elastic material where the first portion 17 of the strap 12 runs the entire length of the strap 12 such as in
While it was originally thought that the strap 12 entirely of elastic material would work better to hold the device 10 and skis 20 stationary, unexpectedly in experimentation it was found that the non-elastic second portion 18 when used, maintained the position of the device 10 better when circumferentially contacting the surfaces of adjacent skis 20 when engaged as in
Shown in
As shown in
Additionally shown in
To achieve the removable engagement with ski equipment to which the device 10 is adapted, when the device 10 is circumferentially engaged around two contacting adjacently positioned skis 20, as in
As shown in
As noted,
With the device 10 in the engaged position of
As shown, with the diameter of the opening 42 being substantially equal to that of the poles 22 to which the opening 42 is adapted to encircle, or at least smaller than a diameter of the handle and/or the basket on the poles 22, the poles 22 cannot slide out of opening 42 along the axis of the poles 22. Further, with the strap 12 blocking the passage 44, the poles 22 cannot move out of the opening 42 through the passage 44. Additionally, as noted, one or both of the ski handle loops may first be engaged to encircle both skis to provide an engagement of the handle ends of the poles to the skis to hold the poles 22 substantially parallel to the skis 20 when the device 10 is in the engaged position of
As such, with the device 10, in the engaged position of
Further, while the C-shaped member 14 may be formed of metal or polymeric or other material having the strength and durability to handle the ongoing engagement with ski equipment, in another preferred mode, the material forming the C-shaped member is sufficiently flexible to allow a deflection and move one or both of a first member section 46 on one side of the passage 44 and a second member section 48 on the opposing side of the passage 44 closer to each other. This deflection will narrow the gap forming the passage 44 and will also narrow a diameter D (
The narrowing of the diameter D of the opening 42, causes the first member section 46 and/or second member section 48, to deflect, and thereby form a compressive engagement with sides of the poles 22 located within the opening 42 with an interior surface 43 forming the opening 42. This forms a more secure engagement with the poles 22 to which the device 10 is adapted to removably engage along with the skis 20.
While all of the fundamental characteristics and features of the removably engageable ski equipment securement device have been shown and described herein, with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure and it will be apparent that in some instances, some features of the invention may be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth. It should also be understood that various substitutions, modifications, and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Consequently, all such modifications and variations and substitutions are included within the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/642,246 filed on Mar. 13, 2018 which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference thereto.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2019/022091 | 3/13/2019 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2019/178258 | 9/19/2019 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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3976234 | Moudry | Aug 1976 | A |
D288032 | Gainey | Feb 1987 | S |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20210370159 A1 | Dec 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62642246 | Mar 2018 | US |