Gear of the Week | Practice 3D Powderboards

In my personal career as a skier, I was able to experience several technological revolutions that managed to take skiing fun in powder snow to a whole new level, so to speak. Firstly, the switch from 164cm slalom carvers to the completely new "fat skis" with an incredibly fat 96mm center width at the time. Even back then, I had a lot of worries buzzing through my head before making the purchase. A kind of primal fear that so many like-minded people can't get out of their heads and that continues to be a decisive factor for many when buying powder skis: "Sure it's great in powder, but how will it work on the piste?"

In essence, the first generation of "fat skis" were nothing more than slightly wider and longer piste carvers. And lo and behold - the skis also worked on the piste! Well, I can't ski an icy slalom slope with short, cut turns on them, but my worries were actually completely unjustified. But then came Shane McConkey, who is generally celebrated as the inventor of rocker technology. Maybe it's an Austrian disease, but in the land of ski instructors and racers, even in 2016 you still regularly get asked about the barrel staves on your feet in front of the chairlift if your skis aren't pre-tensioned from tip to tail. How can you be out on the slopes with a ski that is compressed? In any case, you can no longer ski on the piste!

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Practice 3D Powderboards — Practice 3D powder boards

David Keusch (fiskur.at)

St. Anton am Arlberg

In any case, switching to skis with rocker was at least as much fun in powder snow as switching from slalom skis to "fat skis". And lo and behold, even a rockered ski with 120mm under the binding can still be skied on the piste. Okay, I no longer manage the best time of the day on the WISBI course (for all non-Austrians: WISBI stands for Wie Schnell Bin Ich) with automatic timekeeping, but compared to the ski instructor candidates, I still cut a great figure on the piste. It took me several years to realize that piste performance should be the very last criterion when choosing my powder skis. Piste and powder are two such different media that the demands on the material could hardly be more different. Only by dispensing with sidecut did I manage to take my powder skiing fun to a whole new level, just like when I switched to fat skis and rocker.

Reverse sidecut is the name of the shape devised by Shane McConkey, in which the widest point is in the middle of the ski and the ski becomes slightly narrower towards the tip and tail. Combined with reverse camber (rocker), this results in a so-called full reverse shape. The biggest advantages in powder snow compared to conventional designs are a significantly increased turning ability and a significant reduction in double ejections during powder landings without having to increase the Z-value of the binding into the joint-damaging range. Why? The narrower tips and tails prevent the ski from catching in the snow and allow you to choose the turn radius freely. Thanks to the lower swing weight, the turn can be drifted more or less effortlessly. A unique feeling that can't be achieved with any other shape! The wide platform under the binding also ensures that the skis sink in evenly when landing in powder. With a conventional sidecut, on the other hand, the narrowest part of the ski has to support the entire body weight and the wider tips and tails remain closer to the snow surface. As a result, the skis often flex so much that the binding feels forced to free the boot and skier and release them into a more or less comfortable tomahawk.

In order to enjoy these and other advantages, you have to fully engage with the ski and also be willing to adapt your skiing style a little to the material. What until recently was clichédly and homophobically referred to as "gay turns" in many of the country's inner-Alpine ski schools is now a key component of the revolution of the Austrian ski curriculum, as a member of "Die Welt" recently found out on a trip "supported" by the Pitztal Tourist Board. Drifting has to be learned, it is not for nothing that Shane McConkey wrote a instruction manual for the very first full reverse ski, the legendary Volant Spatula! The short version for all Shane McConkey fans who still plow through the powder with sidecut:

"1. Sidecut is NOT good in powder.
2. Camber is NOT good in powder.
3. Carving is NOT necessary in the powder."

Tom Winter

St. Anton am Arlberg

Sebastian Fischer

The Praxis Skis team has taken Shane's manifesto to heart and added a new dimension to the full reverse concept. In addition to reverse sidecut and reverse camber, all powder boards from this season have a convex base. The rounding of the base towards the edges has already been tried by many companies (Atomic "Horizon", Elan "Triple Base Technology", DPS "Spoon"), but in my opinion does not work in combination with sidecut. With powder boards, on the other hand, it is simply the logical next step to make the ski even more agile in powder snow.

The first turns in mid-January on the Arlberg (in above-average snow conditions compared to the rest of winter 2015/16 in the Eastern Alps) bring certainty: drifting and powder skiing is now even more fun, especially because the 3D powder boards are convex along the entire running surface. The ski can be turned across with unspeakable ease without immediately losing all momentum, ideal for all those who like to treat themselves to a face shot in between to cool down. The perfection of the full reverse ski - now even more perfect!

Those who spent their youth diligently chasing hundredths of a second between red and blue flags and still grind their edges before a powder day will still have no joy with the powder boards. For all those who have now realized that powder snow is a three-dimensional medium that offers completely different ways of getting around, it is high time to question your personal selection criteria when buying new powder skis. And yes, you can also ride powder boards on the piste if necessary. Drifted