Revelations
Import/Export
The Two Dominant Families of Ski Design Exploit and Inspire Each Other For most of the last century there was only one archetype of the perfect ski, namely, the Race ski. Every ski made for every level of skier sprang from the same soil. Despite...
Two Numbers to Know
The Savvy Shopper: Buying BootsSki boots are the most commonly replaced piece of equipment because when they stop working, they get your attention by hurting like hell. When your feet are telling you it’s time for an upgrade, there are two numbers...
On Heads and Tails
How Sidecut Still Matters in The Age of Rocker I don’t want to come off as some geezer who gets misty recalling the olden days, but there was a time when a ski was expected to make contact with the snow from tip to tail, give or take a few...
Embellishments & Elaborations
All serious ski testing for next season’s crop of new and returning skis is over by mid-March, as that is when final orders have to be submitted to the various manufacturers. For a ski maker, the sincerest form of flattery isn’t imitation but a...
Adventures Below the Zero Line
Where Did My Skis’ Camber Go? Now that we are firmly planted in the Age of Rocker, a lot of marketing focus has been trained on the ski’s camber line, or, in the absence of camber, its baseline. For the purposes of this essay, let’s consider a...
Ski Trends for 2013
Field Report Conditions could not have been much better for ski testing at the dealer trade fairs held the second week of February at Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain, with both venues providing great cover and snow surface preparation. ...