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When you're bombing down a mogul run atop 10-year-old skis wearing your puffy blue bib, it's easy to dismiss the odd-looking skis and snowboards on the mountain as fad-driven detritus. In reality, there's a raft of new, innovative technology hidden within those weird-looking planks and slabs, and it's changing the sport you love for the better.
First, a reminder: The irritating twenty-somethings in the day-glo jackets who can't seem to pull up their pants are keyed into all the latest developments. Maybe they can't go four words without saying "brah," but those other three words could be your ticket to a better season on the mountain. But hang out with them full time and you could wake up in a snowcat with a nasty Four Loko hangover. So we did the dirty work for you, busting out the Brah-to-English dictionary and quizzing the experts on the latest in snowboard and skiing tech.
The Cinematographer: Ben Bishop
When Ben Bishop switched from skiing to snowboarding at age 9, his ambitions were clear: to grow up, go pro, and ride for a living.
"I started off as a competitive snowboarder, but I didn't quite make it to the pro level," Bishop says. "Once I got older I realized I wanted to stay in the industry and turned to cinematography." He's since made a career out of filming professional skiing and snowboarding, and he splits his time between Lake Tahoe and San Francisco.
He currently rides a Lib Tech TRS with a C2 base. The Lib Tech handles camber differently than other boards. When a camber board is lying flat on the ground without a rider, the edges of the front and rear of the board are in the contact with the ground, while the center of the board is elevated. The TRS C2 has a camber "wave" of sorts. The front, back and center all touch the ground while the bindings are elevated. The theory is that when a rider is standing on the board, the surface area of the edges engage with the snow more.
Bishop says he enjoys the benefits of the new designs, but he's not completely sold on all the newest shapes. "To be completely honest, some of these technologies are just a gimmick," he says. "It's just a way to push more products to the masses." At the same time, he's happy to see companies giving designers the freedom to create new and exciting designs. Plus, the ideas that have the biggest impact will seep into the rest of the market.
One advancement Bishop is excited about are products that are more ecologically sensitive. "A sport like snowboarding is pretty environmentally taxing, and every way that we can cut back on those issues is pretty good," he says. One company he likes is Holden Outer Wear. The clothing is stylish and well-constructed, and the company is driven by a desire to create a more eco-friendly product.
As a cinematographer, Bishop isn't excited about the current helmet-cam craze. But he has seen footage from the new GoPro Hero 3. "It looks amazing," he admits, and he says that's the POV camera to get if you want one. "There's nothing cooler out there." (You can check out Bishop's helmet cam-less footage on Vimeo.)
For someone who gets a new board every season and has seen technology come and go in the sport, the thing Bishop cites as the most exciting innovation on the mountain is a bit of a surprise: the electronic lift pass. Instead of waiting for a lift operator to manually scan a lift ticket, skiers can place a RFID-enabled lift ticket into their jacket. A sensor at the gate recognizes the ticket and opens as riders enter the lift line. Lines move more quickly, and everybody gets more runs in.
Mr. Endless Winter: Eric Foster
To describe Eric Foster as a "skiing fanatic" is like saying that Ferrari makes fast cars. When I contacted Foster, he was at Ski Dubai in the Mall of the Emirates, having just shredded 200 feet of vertical man-made snow in the middle of the desert. Foster admits the snow wasn't that great in the giant tunnel of white. And he should know -- he spent three seasons at Chamonix Mont Blanc in the French alps, and later built a cabin at the foot of Mt. Baker in Washington just to have immediate access to the best conditions.
It's no wonder this worldwide snow-seeker's favorite technologies are made for the backcountry. Particularly bindings, and, specifically, the Salomon Guardian 16. A joint venture between Atomic and Solomon, the Guardian 16s transform from cross-country bindings to low-profile performance downhill bindings with the flick of a switch. They eliminate the need to actually take off your skis to hike up into the backcountry. "Ever since my first Fritschi FreeRide bindings, and then the Dukes, I was waiting for Salomon to solve this problem," Foster says.
Another backcountry problem: avalanches. Foster was skiing at Stevens Pass when an avalanche took the lives of three skiers. "Some people lived through that slide because of an ABS pack, and it might be time to shell out the money and add this to the inventory of snow safety tools," Foster says. He likes the North Face Patrol 24. When deployed by a skier during an avalanche, two air bags inflate in three seconds and keep the skier or snowboarder's face and hands above the wall of snow. At $1,180, it isn't cheap, but if you ever have to use it, it'll be the best piece of snow gear you've ever bought.
As for apparel, if money were no object, he would love Peak Performance Heli-Alpine pants and coat. Peak Performance is a small company out of Sweden known for high-quality outdoor clothing. "This is one of those more boutique companies, and you definitely pay more for it," he says of the $1,700 ensemble. "But you will never have a button fail or Velcro unstitch." His pick for goggles: Oakley's Airbrake. "Swapping lenses is controlled by a physical locking mechanism, so you don't have to get 1,000 fingerprints on your lenses as you muscle them into the frame," he says.
The Snow Sports Director: Bryan Schilling
Bryan Schilling has been skiing for 37 years and has taught professionally for 22 years in United States, Japan, Chile, Argentina and Switzerland. He's on the western PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) demonstration team, and serves on PSIA's board of directors. Currently, he's the snow sports director for Homewood Mountain Resort. So he knows his stuff.
Schilling's excited about rocker technology. Rocker skis have the tips turned up at the front and back. A full rocker design does away with the traditional camber -- by removing the downward angle from the front of the skis, the tips are more likely to float in deep snow. By coupling this with a snowboard-inspired sidecut, a design that gives skis an hourglass shape, with a larger tip and tail and a skinny waist that makes turning easier, manufacturers have made skiing in powder more accessible.
Still, Schilling views these technological innovations with a wise journeyman's gaze. "The more changes you see and the more buzz about changes you see, the more things don't change," he says. "Fundamentally, you have some stiff plastic boots that are on some platforms that have a little spatula tip on them and it's been similar for the past 30 years. You slide on a platform, you turn left, turn right, repeat."
In other words, the equipment can be helpful, but you still need to know how to use it.
The Wired Crew
Using Bryan, Eric, Ben and other die-hard mountain fiends as a guide, we here at Wired assembled some of the latest hardware, and we're taking it into the mountains next week to test it out.
We'll be reviewing some asymmetrical snowboard designs. Asymmetrical boards have sidecuts tuned to the differences between a toe-side and a heel-side turn. Also in the quiver: Burton's Nug Raduction (seriously, that's the name). The intentionally stubby design is 8 to 10 centimeters shorter than your average board, shaving off not only length, but weight. This is supposed to allow the board to stay floaty in powder and remain stable at speed. We'll see what happens when a 190-pound, 6-foot snowboarder rides a board a full 10 centimeters shorter than the norm.
On the ski front, the Head Rev 90 skis are positioned as an all-mountain solution with an "allride" rocker system that's supposed to make everyone a better skier. In contrast, the Dynastar Cham 97s forgo the usual rocker curled-up tail, replacing it with an almost-traditional squarish rear end for snappier turns. The skis are billed as a backcountry ski without actually saying "backcountry," and they should be great for chewing up fresh powder.
We're outfitting one of our skiers with Fischer Vacuum Fit boots. Each boot is custom fit to the owner via a two-hour-long, sometimes painful measurement involving a machine that resembles a bulky treadmill. You end up with a boot that precisely matches the unique contours of your foot, but is it worth it once you hit the snow?
To keep track of our runs, we got Oakley's Airwave googles, which are outfitted with a heads-up display module from Recon Instruments. We'll be tracking our speed, location, jumps and turns while keeping an eye on incoming text messages and phone calls. The Bluetooth-enabled Kjus gloves have a microphone and phone controls built in, so we can finally answer the age-old question, "Why can't I talk into my glove?"
All our riders will be testing out various apparel with level three Gore-Tex technology. Some of the clothing is advertised as waterproof. We'll see how they fare on the mountain and in the hot tub.
We'll be publishing the individual reviews over the next few weeks, so check back soon.
