Around 1850, artisans in Telemark, Norway, invented the cambered ski.

This ski arches

up in the middle, under the binding, which distributes the skier's weight more evenly
across the length of the ski. Earlier plank-style skis had to be thick enough not to bow
downward and sink in the snow under the skier’s weight. This new design made it
possible to build a thinner, lighter ski, that flexed more easily to absorb the shock of
bumps, and that maneuvered and ran faster and more easily.[16] The design also included
a sidecut that narrowed the ski underfoot while the tip and tail remained wider. This
enabled the ski to flex and turn more easily.[16]

Skis traditionally were hand-carved out of a single piece of hardwood such as Hickory,
Birch or Ash. These woods were used because of their density and ability to handle
speed and shock-resistance factors associated with ski racing. Because of Europe’s
dwindling forests, the ability to find quality plank hardwood became difficult, which led
to the invention of the laminated ski.[17] Beginning in 1891, skimakers in Norway began
laminating two or more layers of wood together to make lighter cross country running
skis. These evolved into the multi-laminated high-performance skis of the mid-1930s.[18]

A laminated ski is a ski composed of two different types of wood which are glued
together. A top layer of soft wood is glued to a thin layer under a surface of hardwood.
This combination actually created skis which were much lighter and more
maneuverable than the heavy, hardwood skis that preceded them. Although lighter and
stronger, laminated skis did not wear well. The water-soluble glues used at the time
failed; warping and splitting along the glue edges (delaminating) occurred frequently
and rapidly. In 1922, a Norwegian skier, Thorbjorn Nordby,[17] developed strong,
waterproof glue which stopped the problem of splitting, therefore developing a much
tougher laminated ski. Research and design of laminated skis rapidly progressed. In
1933, a new design technology was introduced involving an outer hardwood shell
completely encasing an inner layer of lighter wood, successfully eliminating
spontaneously splitting glue lines. This early design eventually evolved into an
advanced laminating technique which is referred to today as single-shell casing
technology.

In 1950, Howard Head introduced the Head Standard, constructed by sandwiching

aluminum alloy around a plywood core. The design included steel edges (invented in
1928 in Austria,[16]) and the exterior surfaces were made of phenol formaldehyde resin
which could hold wax. This hugely successful ski was unique at the time, having been
designed for the recreational market rather than for racing.[19] 1962: a fibreglass ski,
Kneissl's White Star, was used by Karl Schranz to win two gold medals at the FIS
Alpine World Ski Championships.[19] By the late '60s fibreglass had mostly replaced
aluminum.

In 1974, Magne Myrmo became the last world champion (Falun, 15 km cross-country)
using wooden skis.[20][21]

In 1975, the torsion box ski construction design is patented.[22] The patent is referenced
by Kästle, Salomon, Rottefella, and Madshus. In 1993 Elan introduced the Elan SCX
model, skis with a much wider tip and tail than waist. When tipped onto their edges,
they bend into a curved shape and carve a turn. Cross-country techniques use different
styles of turns; edging is not as important, and skis have little sidecut. For many years,
alpine skis were shaped similarly to cross-country, simply shorter and wider, but the
Elan SCX introduced a radial sidecut design that dramatically improved performance.
Other companies quickly followed suit, one Austrian ski designer admitting, "It turns
out that everything we thought we knew for forty years was wrong."[16] Line Skis, the
first free-ski focused ski company[23] inspired the newschool freeskiing movement with
its twin-tip ski boards in 1995.[24] The first company to successfully market and mass-
produce a twin-tip ski to ski switch (skiing backwards) was the Salomon Group, with its
1080 ski in 1998.[23][25]