Stone-grinding is an important part of the process of preparing the ski running surface (SRS). The ski base is stone-ground in order to achieve a level surface and to give the SRS a specific pattern texture, depending on the snow conditions, in order to reduce the capillary drag, which is a part of total ski friction. In this study, skis were ground using three different machines (Mantec, Tazzari and Wintersteiger), each with distinctive pattern. The stone-grinding was performed in the same way and by the same operator on each of the machines. The roughness and the hydrophobic characteristics of the SRS produced by the machines were measured. The results of the experiment show that stone-grinding is able to change the magnitude of the capillary drag dramatically, up to 74% in the case studied.