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Like many manufacturers, Atomic has presented the freeride skis for the coming season on a small scale "at home" instead of at the ISPO. We visited the Atomic headquarters in Altenmarkt im Pongau (Austria) and had the skis and the factory explained to us. The product launch was also an opportunity to get to know Atomic a little better as a new PG partner company.
Ski optimisation through rider input
Making good skis, some of which have been tried and tested for many years (Bent Chetler!), even better, is a challenge. Atomic says, that it relies heavily on the input from athletes in the freeride team. When new skis are to be launched on the market, Atomic asks the riders what changes they would like to see in the handling behaviour of existing models. Then there is a first attempt to realise the wishes with prototypes. The riders test the skis and, depending on the results, further improvements are made with additional prototypes, several times, if necessary. The new skis were then also presented at the launch by the Atomic Pros, who were involved in the new development of their favourite ski series.
Bent Family: Don't fix a working system
Nick McNutt was there to represent the Bent type of skier. Only one test run was necessary for the Bent 120 update: the new Bent is slightly stiffer under the binding and therefore skis better in hard snow, which you can't always completely avoid on the way into the powder. According to McNutt, the athletes main request to the developers was not to make the very popular Bent range worse with updates. This seems to have been successful, McNutt certainly seemed very satisfied.
Maverick 115: Stable in speed but still versatile
Craig Murray, Henrik Windstedt and Daron Rahlves were there as Maverick representatives. They also seemed to be thoroughly impressed by the opportunity to actively participate in the design of the skis (the Mavericks had several prototypes until everyone was satisfied) and praised the result in the highest terms. Murray described the Maverick 115 as a "samurai sword" and Rahlves, who is known to be good at skiing fast, stated that he had not yet found the speed limit of the samurai sword. Despite its speed stability, the ski is still playful enough for everything else you might want to do apart from skiing fast. The harder tail compared to the Bent 120 was mentioned several times, which according to Murray and Windstedt makes it easier to land cliff drops.
Backland: the lightest variant
The Backland line was presented by Matthias Haunholder. He was heavily involved in the development of the Backland 102, while the Backland 109 was a vision of Chris Rubens. The 102 is designed for long "missions" and expeditions. But you could probably just go on an average ski tour with it and have fun in different snow conditions. Chris Rubens was not there in person. His Atomic colleagues described his vision as follows: A ski like an enduro mountain bike; similar in character to the Bent, but with enough tail to carry a heavy rucksack at times.
