Kids deserve fat skis too. Kingswood's new kids' range brings the company's hand-made, bamboo-core skis to little people.

"There are no compromises," says founder and ski maker Alex Herbert. "They're like adult skis for kids."

Kingswood Kids skis are wider than standard kids' skis and that means little rippers can ski more varied snow conditions.

Borrowing Kiwi slang for children, the skis have been named the Grub, the Sprog and the Takka.

Alex Herbert admits that his ski design is motivated first and foremost by his own interests.

"I started making skis because the major manufacturers weren't doing the simple, burly, fat skis that I wanted. My son, Obi, was born in 2008 and when he starts skiing, I want him to have the best so I thought, well, it's time to do a kids' range," Herbert says.

Kingswood is always looking for great designers to partner with for its topsheets. Last year, the company ran a topsheet design competition and let customers choose the winner of the People's Choice Award. This year, the Klaus Kremer limited edition topsheet was a finalist in the BeST Design Awards.

For the Takka graphic, Kingswood asked another expert. Local eight-year-old, Journey Green, used red crayon and paper to create the robot and lightning bolt image which has been scanned and printed by a process of sublimation into the topsheets.

"It's exciting to see a new generation of Kingswood skiers and I've been amazed at how savvy kids are about their skis. They know from a young age that fat skis are the thing to have," Herbert says.