Ski Builders Forum

http://dpsskis.com/blogs/2011/january/p ... technology

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpsskis/


Introducing the DPS Spoon and the patent pending DPS Cleat Technology.

The Spoon is a revolutionary new design that moves deep snow skiing into the future. In 2007, DPS' Stephan Drake started looking for ways to increase ski angle to encourage lift for more dynamic, stylistic carves and slides in deep snow. Deeply convex bases became the focus. However, the inherent problem with base convexity is that a ski becomes dangerous in harder snow and sketchy entrances due to the obvious lack of edge grip. Enter DPS' patent pending Cleat Technology: a 3-D downward vertical undulation in the edge combined with a convex base. Cleat Tech endows a spoon shaped ski with useable edge at low ski angles for hard snow. At the same time Cleat Tech doesn't compromise the ski's flex pattern, or the convex bases' dramatic performance gains in deep snow.

The Spoon moves ski design into a complex world of four dimensions where shape rocker, base convexity, and cleats all must work together in a synergistic design. Welcome to the future.





I don't rust any of these guys just because of their shoes, and trust me I never look a shoes but this is way fuct. I hate the 80's



So I guess these are never tuned basically.

Saw these in person today. No machine tuning is possible. Marshal told me he tuned them by hand and from what from I can see, any production version is going to have to be done the same way.

Pretty crazy looking for sure.

so is it just a crazy bent 138 or what?
Standard sandwich in a 3d mold?
Does the core conform that way or is it allot of plastic?
Carbon or glass or hybrid?
Want more info...johnny 5 need more input...-since we are going all 80's n stuff.

I don't know much about deep snow skiing, but this looks weird in my eyes...

And...

MontuckyMadman wrote: I don't rust any of these guys just because of their shoes, and trust me I never look a shoes but this is way fuct. I hate the 80's

That is a bizarre design. In the pic below looks like the skis may have a left and right ski...?? Or could it just be the angle the photo was taken. Does anyone know if that is true?

I've thought of a left/right ski design where the ski tip would be some what rockered, but instead of being rockered straight back it would rocker at a slight angle. This would give one side of the ski a slightly different turning radius than the other side. That was on my to-do list this winter. Just a thought....

Anyway, that ski is definitely pushing the boundaries of design. Anyone have or read of real world experience with it?

So what happens when you hit a hard spot when you're soaring some back country big mountain hit? You get like 1" of effective edge to get control at 40mhp?

Completely useless at a resort, but even further how would you use this in the backcountry where variable terrain is standard?

I'm not sure if I'd even ski those for free...

the design is remotely similar to Battaleons (sp?) snowboards, IMO great for beginners, probably not for us.

I disagree. In places where it snows 2 feet in 1 riding day these skis will work perfectly.
Here in MT this can happen, I would ride these inbounds, our local hill will not groom if it is snowing heavy for days in some instances.
It's the only time I will ride my Reverse/Reverse skis.
If you ski pow and you have not ridden a R/R ski them you are missing out on a truly life changing experience. Nothing can beat the type of slarve high speed pow turn that a R/R can give. I bet this is better. I just don't know that the cleats are necessary, I guess for the occasional hard sloughed off spot on a big day.
I have not ridden with a snowboarder or a skier that can keep up with me on my R/R on a pow day. My friends call them the rocket ships.
However there is nothing slightly as scary as a R/R on hard snow or on a steep icy chute, truly super butt puckering. The harder you edge the less control you have and the more your legs go in opposite directions. You have to learn to ride it out like a long dedicated straightline, just hold on and pray.
Its very much like a new addition to the sport the same way snowboarding charged everything for everyone.

Here's some insane dps for ya!

EricW wrote:Here's some insane dps for ya!

WTF?

What can I say, I'm a gamer. And I may or may not be drinking.

Brazen wrote:the design is remotely similar to Battaleons (sp?) snowboards, IMO great for beginners, probably not for us.

i'm a sucker for bataleon boards! i love their riot! definitely not a beginner board!
their bases allow you to really bomb the hill and i was able to learn tricks that i couldn't stick on a regular board.

pretty awesome IMO.

Revolutionary. The edge control to get through the icy choke, the shape to super slash slarve the pow field below.

I think they will be amazing.

DPS marketing drivel wrote:The Spoon moves ski design into a complex world of four dimensions where shape rocker, base convexity, and cleats all must work together in a synergistic design. Welcome to the future.

Really? Really?

I've seen the future, and there's one more dimension. (where's the rolleye emoticon on this site)

I've never skied a R/R ski, so I don't really have any analogous experience. However, I'm skeptical that the cleats simultaneously allow for some control on hard surfaces but don't affect the soft snow performance. The analogy I think of is kinda like when Goretex first came out. Waterproof and breathable! Seemed like da bomb for everything. Now, I realize some things have a better balance than others, but it's all a compromise. There's a reason softshells with DWR exist.

Again, probably they're really fun to ski in the right conditions, but the superlatives get to me and i had to vent somewhere.

I realy like new ideas like this, even if they work or not. It has giving me tons of new ideas how to build my pure soft condition ski. Would love to test them out.

Is it going into sale next year?