White Dot Freeride is the long-held dream of two friends and avid skiers, Andrew Phyn and Lloyd Macfarlane. Guys spent hours and hours designing and perfecting their ski ideas on CAD software, and finally in 2008 they were ready to launch Whitedot.

White Dot Freeride company is driven by the personal experience and passion for skiing and mountains. Guys have long experience on skiing, and although building production is a helluva project, they still haven’t left the mountains. By having their operational center in the legendary Chamonix valley White Dot Freedire has a direct contact with some of the best freeriders of the world.

Whitedot skis are the result of long product development, intensive testing and continuous perfecting. The company doesn’t want to sell any “gimmicks”, but high quality skis. Even the simple painting tells people that these skis have nothing new or fancy. They are simply good quality skis for freeriders.

Whitedot skis are manufactured with the finest quality material, and their European manufacturer was selected after a long and detailed search for just the right supplier. They had to be sure that the factory that they entrusted to produce their skis could meet our strict quality standards. The factory came up trumps with their quality control and post production support, and they also came with a highly recommended reference from ISOsport Austria.

Check what White Dot Freeride says about their manufacturing in their website.

“Our bases are sintered ISO7200, to produce the high speeds and durability that we demand. Our tip to tail cores are made from ash and poplar for durability, dampening and the correct stiffness. The wood is grown from sustainable forests and milled in close proximity to the factory to help lower our carbon footprint. And, if that wasn’t enough, all of our composites are sourced from the very best suppliers in Europe.”

Got interested in Whitedot skis? Check if they have a dealer in your country. If you are visiting Chamonix you can get a pair of demo skis from White Dot Team Chalet, and while visiting you can shake hands with Whitedot team riders like Fred Syversen.

Oh, and how about the ski models? There are three different Whitedot ski models, namely The One, The Preacher and The Remeeder. It is better that you check the technical details straight from White dot Freeride website.

You can contact White Dot Freeride with the following contact information. It’s a small but ambitious company with high motivation to serve their customers, so you can expect warm and friendly response. If you’re interested in Whitedot skis, just send your questions by email and you should soon receive an answer.

Email: info@whitedotfreeride.com
Phone: +44 (0) 7971 471306
Skype: whitedotfreeride
Web: Whitedotfreeride.com

Although die hard freeskiers and life-long skibums might find luxury skis as crap, there are people interested in such ski gear. Luxury skis have their place in this world, even though most of us prefer riding skis such as Armada JJ or Atomic Bent Chetler. Some prefer rockered skis, some not, while some people find Birdos skis or Praxis Powder boards their dream come true.

Luxury skis are here to stay

If you happen to have money to burn, I recommend supporting Homeboys (just drop any amount to our PayPal account in info@fiercermedia.fi) or purchasing skis that help you to show off. I guess Chanel is not as good with skis as they are with perfumes, so most probably their skis won’t be your best choice to the backcountry or race tracks.

Pretty interesting ski wear, btw..

I guess Victoria Beckham is satisfied with her Chanel skis, but I personally would not ski Chanel. Not because of performance, but the name

So, what would be mens luxury ski brand? How about Zai for Bentley? Swiss ski maker Zai has joined with Bentley to produce a new limited edition of designer ski, which is constructed out of a combination of carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic, natural rubber, and chrome steel, which are all being used for the first time in a pair of skis.

For me it sounds like James Bond would choose Zai for Bentley.

Igneous Skis in Jackson Hole, Wyoming make custom skis and snowboards that are undeniably gorgeous. What makes these luxury skis different is that they have a real test team riding real slopes. Igneous Skis really puts some efforts on quality, but for some reason this is the first time I even hear about the company. May be it’s difficult to market new skis in such competitive market. Anyhow, Igneous Skis offer several different shapes from carver to straight, and GS and fall line to custom shapes. These guys seem to be a real deal, so gotta say I would definitely like to test ride Igneous skis and snowboards.

Then there is the Dunhill ski – yet another luxury ski model. The Dunhill Skis are available in either teak or carbon fiber finishes with tough titanium bases. Available in two sizes, the $2,100 skis feature Vist bindings, handmade in Italy, which ‘fuse innovation with security. Their sales pitch includes a short section”they look great and seeing as racing specialists, Speciale had a hand in them, they must ride like champs“. Oh yeah, for sure

Now I only need to wait couple of more days for Santa to bring my luxury skis. Then I’ll hit the road with James Bond and Victoria Beckham to show off with a bunch of fashion freaks in Gstaad in Switzerland.

Dan is an unusual thing here: an outsider. Originally he is from Boston and arrived to Andermatt in 2004 while he was hunting powder around Europe. He heard rumours of big untracked powder lines in Andermatt and was soon on his way.

“Arriving here I found just what I was looking for, big untracked lines and a sleepy little Swiss mountain village. Since then I have never left.“, he says. Of course love has something to do in this. He married a local girl Heidi and now hand-builds his cult Birdos freeride skis in the town. He lives with his wife upstairs of his skishop. Not bad.

Interview of Dan Loutrel, the father of Birdos Freeride Skis

[Homeboy] Dan, Birdos Skis are very special. What is your design philosophy?

[Dan Loutrel] Well, I wanted skis without compromises and skis which raw materials you know exactly where they are from. In factory produced skis you will never know what they have been made of and their features vary too much.

[Dan Loutrel] My philosophy is to hand made state-of-the-art skis of best local raw materials and customize every pair to fit best for every client personally. For example the steel edges come from a mill just over the Swiss border that has been producing for the ski industry for 50+ years.

[Homeboy] This sounds so good in these days when everything is made in China. Please name a few adjectives which describeBirdos skis most.

[Dan Loutrel] Unusual shape, unmatched stiffness and camber. You can customize nearly every detail from shape to materials and top sheet graphics. As I am producing only 70 pairs of skis per year I have the time and will to concentrate to fine tune the details. Birdos are exceptional and unique pair of skis, built specially to your desire.

[Homeboy] What is your ski choice for powder day?

[Dan Loutrel] I would say you need 120 mm minimum under foot, at least a bit of rocker tip and tail. For British Columbia style snow, steep trees and pillows, an inverse shape ski is super fine. Quick turning, massive float, the most playful powder ski you can find. For the  Alps you always have to deal with the hard windblown snow, slid out couloirs, etc. For big lines the high alpine I would go with a traditional shape, long radius and moderate rocker in the tips and tails. A ski that floats easily, but can run out the frozen debris at high speed and in fine style with full power. From my models they would be Fat Bird and Puder Luder.

[Homeboy] And what would be your choice for us in Finland, the flat land of icy slopes?

[Dan Loutrel] Heh, I think Joker and Ghetto Chicken 172 cm would work fine in your country. Ghetto Chicken is good for jibbing. However, it should be a ski at least 100 mm under foot to give you decent flotation, but probably not more than 115 mm to make it possible to ski aggressively on hard, icy snow.

[Homeboy] Good that there were something for us too! By the way, how do you see the future of skiing? Which skis will we use in 2015?

[Dan Loutrel] Perhaps the next big revolution will be in the materials. Materials that adapt as you ski, a real integration into the skis that transforms even as you ski. Almost an extension of your feet. But we have to wait a long time for this…

[Dan Loutrel] Ski business would change too, I would say there will be more innovative custom companies with special shapes for special needs. Also all the big companies will have to increase their special model range to stay in the market.

[Homeboy] Thank you for this Dan. Skiing seems to be living its renaissance and, thanks to guys like you, the developing never ends.

Interested in Birdos skis? Please visit www.birdos.com

Photos by Antti Zetterberg. All rights reserved.

Hublot All Black Ski model is based on the idea of monochrome black colour. I must say these guns really look good and stylish, but I’m not sure about the quality. This ski is clearly made for those with money, and quality might come as a second priority. Everybody knows that people skiing Hublot All Black Ski want other skiers to notice their wealth, and I’m cool with that. We all ski the way we want. I just think that quality and performance is not the priority with Hublot All Black Ski.

The ski is made of carbon fiber, fiberglass, steel and rubber. The surface of the ski is coated with a rubber bracelet to resemble the chronograph. It’s a pity that there will be only 111 pairs of Hublot All Black Skis available. You can try to get one pair through Hublot and Zai outlets. Unfortunately we have no idea of the price, but I guess these skis won’t be cheap. It would be interesting to know what pro skiers would think about Hublot All Black Skis.

I guess Homeboys are not going to get one pair for testing purposes

V-ski

For the coming season the Völkl’s whole freeskiing line, called V-ski, is divided into three groups, rather than two as before (freestyle and freeride). For 2008/2009 there is three subcategories: freeride, backcountry freestyle (tricks off natural terrain and on the soft snow) and “pure” freestyle (park skiing, urban rails, half pipe, “jibbing”). The lines include the following skis:

• Freestyle: four adult models, Bridge, Wall, Ledge, Pearl and 2 juniors: Bridge Jr. Mini Pearl
• Backcountry Freestyle: 3 Models, Chop Stick, Gotama, Cosmo (women)
• Freeride: Five adults models,  Kuro, Katana, Mantra, Kiku (women), Aura (women) and 1 for juniors – Mantra Jr

On this post we will concentrate on the Freestyle line: park/pipe skis (freestyle line) and backcountry freestyle line.

Backcountry Freestyle Line

The crown of this line is obvioysly the modern cult classic / benchmark ski Völkl Gotama. Lots can be said about this ski. And even if there have been some minor complaints about the construct/durability of some earlier models, most of the comments and reviews regarding skiing characteristics of the Gotama have been very positive.

The Gotamas has served me very well and I think the new model will be as good or even better. Völkl has made some minor tweaks to the design: the angled sidewalls changed to the square ones, resulting stronger construction and better power transmission to the edges (this all according to Völkl). You can believe it, but I guess those changes won’t change the ski much. The ski is said to be again just a tad stiffer underfoot. This is also good for some, bad for some. At least I think it is a bit misleading to name Gotama a purely “backcountry freestyle ski” – because in the real world its use happens to be mostly solid all-mountain, all conditions ski. I guess jibbers will pick up more the likes of K2 Hellbent and Line EP Pro. You can do freestyle moves on Gotama for sure but it is not a “buttery”, very playful ski but more of an solid allrounder.

The Chop Stik then is a ski that should be very interesting to the skiers that like to go bi-directional in any condition. I guess this ski is going to get some mixed reviews – ski this wide, with symmetrical sidecut and (recommended) centered mount point, is not for everyone. But if you ski like Pollard… but maybe even faster (heh, remember Völkl skis tend to be on the stiff side), this might the ski for you.

Cosmo is basically the same ski as the freestyle line’s Bridge with lenghts and flex customed to the women. Measurements are 130-92-112 mm. And lenghts offered 153cm (14.3m turn radius), 169cm (16,1m turn radius) and 169cm (17,9m turn radius).

Freestyle Line

Bridge is the only model in this line with non-symmetrical shape. This tells about the idea of the ski – it is supposed to be, well, a bridge between freestyle and backcounty freestyle lines. Versatile geometry of 130-92-112 mm should offer enough flotation in the deep without being a total tank in the park or on the groomed slopes. I really dig the shape and idea of this ski…

However, when testing 07/08 Völkl skis, I was told by the local Völkl representative that “meh, that ski is too new school for you…“.  Well, I don’t know, I’d like to think I can still ski some park too but maybe the guy was just suggesting that the flex of the Bridge is quite soft and the recommended mount point way forward. So, if you are a big hard charging person, this ski is not probably for you. But lighter weight, versatile skiers that like to mix it up a bit should love this ski. Lenghts are offered in 161, 169, 177 and 185 cm. I also like to think that with Marker Duke this ski would make a nice (spring) touring set-up.

Wall has a symmetrical shape of 115-87-115mm. In the first look you would think the ski is similar to the older, very versatile,  Karma model. However, I guess the true twin shape of the ski moves the Wall closer to the hard core park/pipe/jib stick while Karma was even at home on the mogul runs. Probably very fun ski on soft kickers, spring slush and all kind of softer snow jibs. Lenghts are 161, 169, 177 and 185 cm.

Ledge. Well, I had some bad experiences with this skis predecessor, the Dogen. Anyway, Dogen was a very fun ski to jump and make tricks etc. – I hope Völkl has fixed the Dogen’s common quality issues with the Ledge – because I guess otherwise this is probably a very good park ski that can also make some decent turns in the slopes. Shape is 111-84-111mm and lenghts are offered in a wide range of 148cm to 176cm.

Pearl is  basically a softer flexing, women’s version of the Ledge. With lenghts of 148, 155, 162 and 169cm.

Whoa. Those skis remain the ones Marko described in his post about ancient skiing in Altai Mountains, Siberia. Talk about old school!

However, lightning skis are not all about those Sondre Norheim replicas. They have a pretty variable line of fully wooden skis with modern shapes (even very innovative ones!), made of straight grain heartwood ash. And using polycarbonate edges and DuraSurf sintered bases. If you want something totally different and unique this is a ski for you!

There is some talk about the skis in the TGR forums (go to “tech talk” and search for “lightning” or “lightning skis”). There is also someone mentioning how he immediately broke a pair. Anyway, that won’t necessarily mean anything general and I guess these are not ment to be for everyday, hard and aggressive skiing in the end? That’s my guess but you won’t see lots of fully wooden skis in World Cup DH or racing in general, whether alpine or freesking, he he…

Still, that being said it seems that the skis do fine in soft snow and in the feet of a skilled skier. The “Ultimate” model has a pretty nice, powder specific shape too. The video makes me drool even more the Armada JP vs. Juliens mentioned earlier – the shapes have quite alot of similarity!

Don’t you hate videos like this in August?

Top three skis

According to the poll, Volkl skis are the best ones. Volkl skis received 13 votes out of 42 votes. Are you surprised? Now, it is important to notice that this blog includes gear reviews, and so far we have reviewed only Volkl skis. We get a number of visitors from search engines because of the Volkl review articles. Because of this many visitors are “Volkl fans” and obviously Volkl gets most votes. Other two skis in the top three were Atomic and Salomon, both with 5 votes out of 42. This is exactly what I expected, Salomon and Atomic skis in the top three.

Fourth position was taken by Rossignol (4/42), fifth was Dynastar (4/42) and sixth was K2 (3/42). It is a bit surprising for me that K2 is not as popular as Dynastar. Okey, we have to remember again that this is a little poll with only 42 votes in total, so it may be misleading of course. Anyhow, this is how our visitors voted. Other positions were taken by Fischer, other not named skis, Volant, Olin, Head and Nordica. Nobody voted for other brands on the list, such as Alpina, Lacroix, Dynamic, Elan and Stockli. Please see the detailed results below. Thank you for taking your time to answer this poll. Please check out the new poll (will appear soon) and give your valuable answer again. Thanks!

Type of skis are related to skier categories

As there are many ways to ski, there are also many different types of skis. A ski designed for certain terrain doesn’t work well on another terrain. A ski designed for a beginner doesn’t work well in races and vice versa. Skiers can be categorized into three groups based on skills

There are five main types of skis in the market designed for different purposes.

Type of skis – Race skis

Race skis are designed for racing on courses or freeskiing on slopes by highly skillful skiers. These skis are very stiff and their radius is typically 22-26 meters for super G and 15-18 meters for slalom. Super G skis are typically 190-200 cm long, while slalom skis are 160-180 cm long.

Type of skis – Race Carving Skis

A new type of skis is the race carving ski, which is designed for those who want to have a ski with high performance, but not as difficult to control as race skis. These skis are much like race skis but they are not as stiff as race skis. Length and radius are about the same as with race skis.

Type of skis – Freeride Skis

It was about ten years ago when freeskiing and backcountry skiing started to become popular. Nowadays all big ski makers provide also freeride skis, which are much broader than those designed for on-piste skiing. The purpose of this is to get higher carrying capacity in order to survive well in powder fields. From this category you can easily find a good multipurpose ski for on-pistes and off-pistes. The length of a freeride ski is usually 5-15 cm longer than your own length.

Type of skis – Amateur Skis

Amateur skis are flexible and designed for lower speed, and they are easier to control. The radius of these skis is usually 14-26 meters and the length of these skis should be your own length + 10 cm.

Type of skis – Special Purpose Skis

This category consists of skis for very many purposes. Examples of skis in this category are blades, extreme carvers with very short radius and twintip skis for new-school tricks. These skis are designed for the special purpose and they do not work well for purposes. As an example, blade skis are not good on courses.

The best skis for beginners are in the group “Amateur skis”.

I for sure have made hundreds of sketches in the margins of school books and papers, meeting memos, advertisement etc. The reality is though that I am no handy-man. Maintaining my mountain bike is as technical it gets to me. Anyhow, I’m really interested about the design and innovations in ski (and snowboard) technologies. Luckily I have friends that can build skis, and there are also lots of small boutiques and independent custom ski makers who can make your dream skis from your specs. So, designing/engineering your own skis might not be as complicated as it sounds first.

Check out SkiBuilders.Com!

Paging through the forums might give you some great ideas for making your own skis. There are also pictures and specs of some pretty wild and innovative skis. An element of passion is tangible in this site. I can only imagine the feeling you get when you are cruising through some dream snow with your own handmade beloved skis..

I have a project with a friend of designing a pair of pretty specialized and innovative pair of skis. The project is still on the sketch level but I think we might be onto something pretty good. Stay tuned for later post on the issue!

The concept was a winner. As much as pocket rockets got bad reputation as “blue noodles”, thousands of users were really satisfied – a easy-skiing fat ski was a hit for the upper-intermediate masses.

Ok, I beat the s*** out of the said noodles and maybe even used them a little for the intended purpose (=bc freestyle), check e.g. this picture.

To be honest they were not good for all out speed, so called “ripping”, and/or hard surfaces. Anyhow, I always wondered how well the 90mm middle and 185cm length floated in soft snow. In tight trees of the Slovakian Jasna ski resort I could easily “schmear” turns and completely throw the skis sideways here and there – kind of skid on top of the pow. This kind of maneuvers were absolute no-no on the skinny sticks of the gone years.

Volant Spatula funshaped skis opened my eyes

Then I found this Spatula manual (warning: it’s long but so worth of reading if you’re interested in innovative ski design and new concepts of powder skiing). Volant Spatula by the mastermind Shane McConkey himself was really something different, finally. First I laughed… then I started to think about the ski.

It finally cleared to me why my old decambered PR’s were such a killer tree powder skis. The shape was almost Spatula like in the end, tips not touching each others when carried together. Bingo, no hook-ups and tip-dives, just effortless surfing.

Big mountain skis reaching the size of a surfboard

Move on to the year 2007. Powder and big mountain skis are getting more like surf boards these days. There are shapes for every imaginable conditions and styles. Powder skis could be compared to the surf “big guns” reserved for those very special days.

I’ve yet to try latest designs (except Volkl Katana) and I am eager to get demo some (not so easy in our part of the world though!). Anyway, I truly believe that new shapes offer something new, fun and different. I’m seriously considering to buy a ski like K2 Hellbent, even knowing the amount of my very limited powder days. But powder is luxury, and IMHO luxury tools could be reserved for it too…no matter of the price or relative lack of use.

TGR forum guys have named these new designs “funshapes”. I collected a short list of what I could find from the web, see below. (Today we’re going to visit our annual ski trade show Ski Expo to check out what’s available here in the flats in this category too… stay tuned).

K2 Hellbent (150mm-122mm-141mm)

K2 Seth (130mm-98mm-118mm) with new “mini-rocker” design, all mountain ski with only the tips “rockered”

Even the K2 tele-ski, Anti-piste (135mm-102mm-121mm) has rockered tips (very cool in my opinion)

Volkl Katana (140mm-111mm-130mm)

Salomon Rocker (147mm-127m-137mm), rockered front, rest of the ski with traditional camber

4FRNT EHP 193 (130mm-112mm-118mm) & 186 (129mm-116mm-123mm)

DP Skis Lotus 138 (140mm-138mm-139mm; but actually the shape is more like ARG, five numbers would decribe it better…see the pic below. BTW. these are just beautiful)

DP Skis Lotus 120 (140mm-120mm-125mm)

Birdos 11 (134mm-138mm-128mm)

Birdos “Puder Luder”, traditional sidecut (152mm-126mm-142mm), rockered tips

Praxis Skis “Powder” 117mm-121mm-111mm, 175cm; 124mm-136mm-131mm, 185&195cm (check out the designs!)

Capital Skis, many interesting options.

[UPDATE December 12th 2008: Please check also our more detailed article in ski sizing].

This is a question for which you can quickly get 5 different answers or even more. The truth is that there is no exact answer, and therefore the answers differ a little bit from one another. Anyhow, let’s list the rules of thumb. These should help you to find the right length for your skis when you go buying new guns. The length of your skis depends on what kind of terrain you ski. For example, the length of your skis should not be the same on slalom tracks and backcountries. In this instructional article I focus on traditional alpine skiing, not backcountry skiing, ski-touring or such.

How to determine the right length for your skis?

1. Giant Slalom (Super G): your own height

2. Slalom: your own height – 10/15 cm.

3. Ordinary skiing on slopes: your own height – 5/10 cm.

As you see, skiing different terrains requires different skis. If you don’t ski trails such as slalom or super G, you’re skis should be the length of your height – 5/10 cm.

Do you agree with me? Disagree? Please leave your comments and say how you would decide the length of your skis. As stated above, there is no exact answer. These are my rules of thumb for finding the right length for your skis.

These tips are for adult skiers. If you are buying skis for your child, stay tuned. We will write also tips for defining the right length for kids skis.