equipment

ISPO News 2014 | Part 1: Ski

Light and stable, naturally with rocker and partially consistent designs

by Tobias Huber • 01/26/2014

Scott Freeride, largely unchanged designs

At ISPO, all manufacturers present their innovations - or not. Read about the new products in the ski sector.

At ISPO in Munich, the manufacturers present their new products for the 2014/2015 season. The trade fair takes place a little earlier than usual due to the Olympic Games and this year also before the North American sister event SIA. The PowderGuide crew was at the trade fair for you and took a look at the material for the coming season. In several articles, we'll show you what's new, especially in the areas of safety, skis, boots and bindings, but also take a look at the booming splitboards. In the first part, we present the new products in the ski sector as well as lots of pictures of the 2014/15 product ranges.

Skis with rocker have become established since last year at the latest, even among the most conservative ski manufacturers. Although manufacturers are pursuing different concepts in this area (full rocker, hybrid rocker-camber, more unusual designs such as triple camber or additional elements such as nose-shaped forms in the nose area), one trend can be easily deduced: Stable yet lightweight freeride/touring skis. Various new materials and constructions are being tried out from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the main focus is on using carbon.

Lightweight construction without compromise

While this composite material made of resin and carbon fiber was reserved for skis for race-oriented touring in the past, most major manufacturers now also have wide freeriders with a lightweight construction in their range. The lines known in marketing jargon as "Free Touring", which are intended to close the gap between the downhill-oriented freeride skis and the more uphill-oriented touring skis, which are now almost all rockered, are a logical development and are increasingly coming to the fore.

equipment

presented by

In general, it can be said that very few innovations were presented at this year's ISPO when it came to ski construction. A recognizable trend among some manufacturers was to stick to last year's models, including the design, which is of course a good thing and can be seen as a kind of innovation. However, there were a few new ideas, in the following we will briefly discuss the ski brands that caught our eye in this respect and in the following galleries there are some pictures of the ski manufacturers' current product ranges to click through. Further information can be found in the captions.

We nevertheless noticed the following skis and brands:

Völkl
The traditional German ski manufacturer introduced the V-Werks premium line last year. Expensive high-end skis are offered under the V-Werks label. In addition to the already well-known V-Werks Katana, from 14/15 there will be the BMT series to be classified under it with a total of three models with different middle widths, which combine innovative lightweight construction, full rocker and a relatively central mounting point. In general, Völkl relies solely on the full rocker concept and consequently only offers this in its freeride skis.

The Mantra all-mountain model has been made slightly wider and now also has full rocker and a little taper in the shovel area, while the old Karma has been dropped. In addition, the Three expands the range of playful freeriders and backcountry freestylers, which, with its 135mm waist width, has returned to the super-wide ski segment that has become somewhat unpopular in recent years. K2, owner of Völkl, is bringing back a similarly wide model after dropping the Hellbent last season. From next season, there will also be a pink women's model of the Two.

Elan
Rockers don't necessarily have to be two-dimensional - Elan already proved this last year. The TBT technology, in which the ski edges are raised in relation to the center of the base, was used in the Boomerang in the freeride segment and in the Puzzle & Sling Shot in the freestyle segment. This technology is intended to reduce edge catching on the tip & tail, increase turnability and at the same time provide a little more stability in soft snow. In the all-mountain sector, Elan already opted for the Amphibio construction last year. Here, the asymmetrical skis have a slight rocker on the outside, while normal
camber predominates on the inside. This concept can also be found in the big mountain/freeride line from 14/15 onwards.

Elan Amphibio-Rocker Design — Elan Amphibio-Rocker design

Atomic

The "big" innovation from Atomic is a new tip design on the revised Bentchetler. Pictures of this have been circulating on the internet for some time. The sidewalls in the nose area have been beveled to provide more contact surface. A design based on the DPS Spoon or Elan's TBT technology, which could probably appeal to many freeriders as the only real innovation. As this can now be found at a major manufacturer such as Atomic, it will be interesting to see if all other brands try to follow suit in the coming year.

Other news

As the rest of the news mainly relates to model updates, individual new (intermediate) models and consistent designs, the following galleries contain the most important and most striking innovations from most manufacturers, which are of course not 100% complete. Have fun clicking through!

Atomic Bentchetler tip design top — Atomic Bentchetler tip design at the top

Photo gallery

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

Show original (German)

ISPO News 2014 | Part 5 Safety and emergency equipment

Johannes Wolf • 01/30/2014

One focus of ISPO reporting this year is, of course, the development of the market for safety and emergency equipment. The most important part of our multi-part ISPO special comes at the end: Here you'll find what's new in safety equipment.
ISPO News 2014 | Part 4: Splitboards/Interfaces/Boots

Patrick Wehowsky • 01/29/2014

The PowderGuide crew was out and about for you at ISPO 2014 and took a look at the material for the coming season. Part 4 of our ISPO special is dedicated to developments in what is probably the only growth area in the snowboard world: splitboards and the associated binding systems.
ISPO News 2014 | Part 3: Clothing

Johannes Wolf • 01/28/2014

The PG team has also explored the fashion facets of the world's biggest sporting goods fair for you. It goes without saying that the style factor naturally carries much more weight here than in other areas. Nevertheless, we also focused on function when it came to clothing. To cut a long story short: here you'll find the latest clothing innovations that won't let you down off the slopes and in the park and, ideally, will also make you look good.