History of EVERSLIDE
The EVERSLIDE Plastic Matting System for summer ski jumping was launched in 1984. It was originally developed and manufactured by a Finnish company called Kirkkala Oy, which specialised in producing polypropylene fibres for brushes used by street-cleaning vehicles. In 1991, C.E. Lindgren bought the Kirkkala business, and six years later we decided to focus the entire fibre production operation on EVERSLIDE. Since then, C.E. Lindgren has become the market leader in this business, and more than half of the matted ski jumps worldwide are covered with EVERSLIDE Plastic Matting.
Besides the EVERSLIDE Plastic Matting solutions, our product range has for well over a decade now also included in-run tracks and snow-blocking nets. Our first in-run track, the EVERSLIDE Fibre Track, consisted of overlapping fibre elements and was developed to correspond to snow-prepared in-run tracks. As track machines for winter operation advanced, requirements for summer tracks changed as well. As a result, we developed our EVERSLIDE Super Track. It was made of patterned plastic plates with side lists that aligned the skis correctly to help ski-jumpers better concentrate on the take-off. The first version of the EVERSLIDE Super Track product was tested on the Jyväskylä K100 ski jump in 1993. Since then, the product has been developed further, and today the track is made of stainless steel with a firm aluminium sub-base and integrated sprinkler system.
The development work for the plastic materials inspired us to expand our production to cover other forms of winter sports products for summer use as well. In 1994, our EVERSLIDE Plastic Matting concept was introduced for sledding use. Since then, thousands of families have had the opportunity to enjoy the excitement of sledding. Our EVERSLIDE sledding slopes are used at family entertainment centres as well as in water and amusement parks around the world. In the beginning, the sledding slopes were so-called open space slopes, but since 2001 we have recommended that our customers build EVERSLIDE Sledding Slopes with Lane Guides. These have increased the safety of the riders, and also the capacity of the slope.
Our success in manufacturing plastic matting for ski jumps and sledding slopes encouraged us to make further developments. At the end of 1997, we brought the market the EVERSLIDE Alpine matting system for downhill skiing and snowboarding and also the EVERSLIDE Cross Country Ski Track. Two versions of EVERSLIDE Alpine were available: EVERSLIDE Alpine Standard and Durable. The Durable system was designed for snowboarding. EVERSLIDE Alpine could even be used on ski lift tracks. For anchor lifts, we developed a special element called the EVERSLIDE Lift Track. The surface of the lift track element was made up of the same brushes as those in Alpine, but the system used fewer brushes. The EVERSLIDE Cross Country Ski Track was mainly aimed at ski instruction focusing on a traditional way of skiing. The surface of the track elements also consisted of brushes bent diagonally forwards. This way, the ski would slide well but also have good grip.
Our experience and knowledge of plastic materials and the high quality of our products have made C.E. Lindgren an internationally successful company.