Ski Press World Inc. - Index

Ski Press World Inc. - SIA Day 2 - Index

trend +/smart skis
SMART SKIS THAT ADAPT TO SNOW CONDITIONS, TERRAIN
AND SKIER ABILITY ARE NO GIMMICK. NEW HIGH-TECH MODELS
MAKE FOR A BETTER EXPERIENCE ON THE SLOPE.
Remember the Liquid Terminator? The liquid silver cyborg
that could adapt and change into everything from a pile of
goo to a police offi cer to fi ght Arnold in Terminator 2? That
ability to alter a ski so that it adapts to anything it encounters
on the hill is the idea between smart skis. At retail, all
skiers at any level want is to fi nd gear that improves their
performance. Several manufacturers will be answering that
need, building on a trend that began in earnest last year of
creating skis that are far more versatile than ever before.
“Adaptive skis like the Head Chip, Rossignol Mutix and Volkl
Tigershark do real well for us,” says Dan Bader, sales tech
at Jan’s Mountain Outfi tter in Park City, Utah. “Customers
have a bit of skepticism at fi rst. They are wary of gadgetry.
But we get them out on our test program and after they ski
on them that skepticism fades. Explaining how they work
doesn’t matter all that much. All customers want to know is
that they ski great. And we have seen a pretty broad range
of core customers who seem to enjoy the technology.”
The idea of skis that adapt to the conditions is certainly not
new. The fi rst smart ski, the K2 Four, hit the market in December
1995. It used piezoelectrics — materials within the ski that
created an electric fi eld that stiffened the materials when the
ski encountered stress, like, say, hard snow or a strong fl ex
from a skier. But that technology became outdated as new
core materials, such as K2’s MOD, dampened the chatter on
skis better. Dampening and adapting to conditions for stiffer
edge control, however, are not the same thing.
ADAPTABLE STIFFNESS
So the trick was to develop skis that were more sophisticated
in the way they adapted, providing the versati lity
to go from, say, powder pillows to scraped-off moguls.
Introduced fi ve years ago, Head’s Intelligence Technology
took the same type of dampening fi bers used in helicopter
blades, which were in fact made of piezoelectronics, and
put them in front of the ski binding. The fi bers send data
on the conditions back to a microchip that controls the
softening or stiffening of the skis better than piezos alone,
making for a ski capable of making instantaneous adjustments
on the snow.
Head Intelligence Technology
HEAD’S Chip Monster SW (124-78-110 with a 14.6 turn
radius in a 171) takes advantage of the brand’s Intelligence
Technology while also adding a liquid Terminator innovation
— Liquidmetal Technology. The metal between the
surface of the ski and the core is liquid, meaning it cannot
break or compress. The liquid’s low rate of compression
provides instant rebound and it won’t ski out since the
material is not breaking down.
22 SNOWPRESS DAY 2 skipressworld.com/snowpress
ROSSIGNOL’S take on smart, adaptive skis centers around
its Mutix technology. Skiers choose between two removable
arms — one titanium, one composite — that change
the ski from a strong, powerful frontside ski to a soft, fl exy
board for back bowls. The new Zenith 15 Mutix (128-85-
112 with a 17.3 turn radius in a 170) offers versatility that
the customer can control.
Völkl Power Switch
VOLKL’S Power Switch is also a more mechanical advance
rather than electronic. It consists of dual carbon fi ber rods
encased in full-length longitudinal tuning tubes inside the
ski. Flip the switch to compress or release springs at the
front of each rod, which in turn increase or decrease the
ski’s power. Volkl has integrated the Power Switch and
Marker’s Motion iPT Wide Ride binding system, which is
specifi cally designed to apply power to skis wider than
80 mm at the waist for better edge control, in its beefy
Grizzly iPT Wide Ride 12.0 (131-89-114). The result is a fat
ski that can be ridden on almost any kind of day. �
Head Liquidmetal Technology Technology
Head Chip Monster SW
Rossignol Zenith 15 Mutix
VOLVO — OFFICIAL CAR OF
Völkl Wide Ride
Völkl Grizzly iPT Wide Ride