In the beginning, there was the blessed Shane McConkey, who, inspired by water skiing, got the ski company Volant to create the Spatula. The first full reverse ski that had negative camber and waist throughout. The incredible way in which you could surf powder with this principle quickly caused a stir and won people over. Not least because the comedian Shane took it to the extreme and skied incredible Alaskan faces with two real jump water skis in the MSP film "Focused".
However, due to its moderate all-round suitability and disastrous performance on hard snow, the Volant Spatula never rose from its niche existence, even though the foundation stone for the rocker revolution had been laid. The K2 Pontoon with its strong rocker and pintail shape was the first to enjoy more success, bringing the rocker into the ranks of more normal skis.
The uncompromising concept of full reverse skis had and still has its fans. Anyone who has ever experienced the feeling of a ski drifting crossways on steep powder slopes at high speeds - also known as "slarving" - will never want to do without it again. Keith O'Meara felt the same way, and after the Spatula experiment was over, he started building his own skis: Praxis Skis was born. A ski company that focuses on craftsmanship and assembles all skis in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. And for a long time offered the only full reverse, even full rocker skis on the market, the Praxis Powder Boards.
And they are totally convincing. At least most of the time, if you stay away from the carefully groomed piste snow or the really hard conditions. There's only one thing to do there: slide across. But at astonishing speeds. But if you succumb to the temptation to edge normally, you will usually just fall over with a mocking, laughing "Timbeeer!" on your lips.
But if you go off-piste, the mocking laughter quickly turns into a big grin. The fluffier the snow, the bigger the grin. Because this is where the powder boards are in their element. They float immediately and mercilessly, whether 10 cm or 1 m of fresh snow has fallen, are easy to turn and, above all, drift at any time and are extremely speed-resistant. The drifting of the turns, the slarving, is what makes this concept so much fun. A surfing feeling that simply no conventional ski can achieve.
In addition, they don't really care about the snow conditions - at least as long as you are still sinking in. Drift snow, wind cover, sunny slush or really serious broken slush - it doesn't matter. You heat into it with confidence and speed and can control, drift and slow down the skis at any time. The easy controllability allows you to ski very long skis and stand very centrally on them, so that diving is impossible. In addition, every landing is almost automatic. A real all-terrain weapon. Without compromise. And therefore deserves Gear of the Week.
