The Road to Enoki Mushrooms——JFDRYSKI’s Self-Report

People often ask me: It snows in Chengdu, how did you start skiing for a living? Let’s start from the beginning --------- I came up with the word “dry skiing”. When I studied in the UK in my early years, I saw dry slopes all over the place. At that time, it was only translated as "dry land skiing" or "dry slope" in China, which sounded awkward and no one took it seriously. I created the word "dry skiing" based on the name "roller skating" and later registered it as a trademark. Now dry skiing is a household name and has become a common name in the industry - the name is used by everyone, I don't care, if the industry can rise, it is better than anything else. The British have been playing dry skiing for half a century. At its peak, there were more than 200 dry skiing games across the country. I had an idea at that time: Their brushes and continental European combs have not changed much after decades of use, and their faults are obvious - they are scratchy, not slippery, and not durable. This thing should be able to do better. Stupid way. In 2007, I formed a team and started making China’s own dry skiing. Without a teacher to follow and no sect to test, it is equivalent to zero-gene reconstruction - there is no ready-made formula to copy, so just try one by one. More than a dozen technicians spent three years in the laboratory, testing and eliminating one by one from more than a thousand types of plastics from around the world. Around 2010, something mature appeared: a round ball at the top, an elongated neck, and from a distance it looked like a piece of enoki mushroom. The ball replaces the bristles and the tips of the comb teeth, so no meat will hang when dropped; the lengthened neck gives space for rebound, and the foot feels close to the real snow; the height is staggered, the high one is for the snowboard to slide on, and the short one protects the snow blanket from being damaged by the steel edge; there are more than 14,000 per square meter, so dense that weeds cannot get through, and a non-absorbent metal plate is placed underneath, which is exposed to the sun and rain, and lasts for eight to ten years. Under normal temperature, the sliding lubricity can be close to 90% of that of real snow. The sound is also like the "rustling" sound of snowboards being pressed up. People who know how to do it will understand it as soon as they hear it. Several Foolish Works I have saved several silly works over the years, none of which were made by buying blueprints and pasting labels on them: Enoki dry ski mat. The housekeeping stuff has been mentioned above, so I won’t go into details. straw landing airbag. The landing protection of dry skiing large platform was called air bag in the early years, which was inspired by the buffer air bag used in fire rescue. The old-fashioned air bag only protects people from falling, but if they fall on it, they cannot stand up and continue to slide. The key to scoring points in the competition is to stand up and slide out. I figured out an air cushion with a straw structure. Local pressure does not affect the overall angle, and the vertical impact is broken down and to both sides, so that athletes can slide out smoothly when they land. The straw in English is called straw, which is how the product got its name. Unattended magic carpet. The jumping platform's carrier has a rough rubber surface that fits the snowboard and returns people to the top of the slope. The traditional design has been completely redesigned structurally, so no one is on duty, and all the energy saved is used for training. modular dry ski machine (new product in 2026). Traditional ski machines have adjustable angles, but the whole body is a flat plate, which makes skiing boring for a long time. The slope surface of my ski machine can build a multi-angle natural slope; the modularization is infinite, and the snow path can be as wide as you want. With Enoki dry ski mat, it is a powerful tool for novice training. Things I won’t do: The president of the United States Ski Association told me one thing: In the past, the club’s dry skiing snow surface had to be replaced every year. With my materials, it would only be replaced every three to five years. According to business rules, this is silly - if something is too durable, there will be fewer repeat customers. Some people advised me to reduce the material and shorten the lifespan, so that the price could be lowered and the market would be filled quickly. I won't do it. This company's temperament is a bit biased: its business philosophy has always been one, focusing on product performance iterations, adhering to material standards, and refusing to sacrifice quality to compete on price. We have repeatedly missed the low-price dividends; we have not participated in the excitement of involution. He doesn't know how to make things opportunistic, he only knows how to work hard - to put it mildly, it's called a craftsman's temperament, but to be honest, it means he can't do anything but make things well. From experimental field to cradle of champions In 2017, I built JFDRYSKI Four Seasons Ski Resort in Xindu, Chengdu. In the beginning, it was a testing ground - I would slide on my own snow blanket first, and I would suffer my own faults first. Ten snow trails and a large diving platform that meets international standards (43 meters high and 112 meters long) are built up little by little. Later, the team came to the door. Starting from July 2020, 8 national teams, 14 provincial teams, and about 200 athletes have completed off-season training here. Su Yiming comes every summer, and Gu Ailing retreats here before the Winter Olympics. Outside orders have also been placed in 17 countries and regions, including the United States, Russia, Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Austria, and more than 20 venues are covered with enoki mushrooms. From British brushes, to European combs, to this Enoki mushroom, dry skiing has been around for more than sixty years. The road ahead is still long, so we will continue to grind slowly.