Ski construction

I mentioned Black Diamond as a provider of touring skis in another topic, they have a great range of skis (that I covet), Thomas Laakso of Black Diamond was interviewed by Telemark Tips and they have a video of that:

http://www.telemarktips.com/Interview14bird07.html

It's a great chat about ski construction and not just relevant to AT or tele' gear. BD are pretty interesting and probably a company on way places for skis. There's a good range of skis which I think will start to appear in a wider market.

They also do great mountain gear, I've poles, ice axes, ice screws and their great ATC XP (probably not worth asking )) along with some other stuff. They emerged from the rubble of Chouinard who were a highly regarded climbing company who went bankrupt in disgraceful circumstances pursued by litigation for failing to warn people that climbing might be dangerous :roll:

Interesting. Begs the question as to who else Atomic makes skis for.

Very interesting interview, thanks :D Did I detect him having a little dig at K2?

ellistine wrote:Interesting. Begs the question as to who else Atomic makes skis for.

It's an incestuous business, various marques share production. From this you might take the supposed difference between a lot of skis is more marketing than anything else.

BD seemed to have needed to move production as they are using some fairly unique construction concepts. They CNC the wood core and use glass fibre with vacuum gluing to reduce weight. Even the big fat skis like the Zealots are pretty light for what they are.

How well this will play in a wider market is questionable though. Particularly in their home NA market. The trend has been for heavier and heavier skis which add masses of stability for skiers carrying more weight than ability :D I'd be the first to admit even my XL's go aerial a few times when I'd prefer them not to :D The danger is people will find them great on groomed slopes and powder but a handful on anything in between.

Add to that the fact this process produces a very stiff ski and again it might be a problem for a weaker skier to flex the ski properly at lower speeds.

They're going to release tele' bindings soon and a range of tele' and AT boots which will be interesting.

Great gear :D I like the revelation sack and the havoc's and kilowatts skis, very tempting and there's a local dealer :D

ise wrote:
Great gear :D I like the revelation sack and the havoc's and kilowatts skis, very tempting and there's a local dealer :D

You know you want some. What are you waiting for :D

bandit wrote:

ise wrote:
Great gear :D I like the revelation sack and the havoc's and kilowatts skis, very tempting and there's a local dealer :D

You know you want some. What are you waiting for :D

I'm waiting for them to hand me a pair to go try when we get some snow :D

ise wrote:
I'm waiting for them to hand me a pair to go try when we get some snow :D

Zermatt, though closed today, will usually be open.
Though there may be a slight shortage of deep powder off-piste :D