Ok boys...I'm taking those Spitn' Spat's down the first groomed run in the am...
Carving...uh, nope...but swiveling, sliding, wiggling, and surfiing...yep
Still, I want to roll those babies over on edge and see where they turn!
Gary
Hi Gary
Well stated as usual, although tilt and turn (PMTS?) is not the formula in deep snow regardless of ski type.
While this is the most specialized ski I've ever owned, I did do my homework. For example... (from Tyrone Shoelaces
http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?t=43271&highlight=powder+Spatula )
"IMO, I'm not a big fan of skis with a lot of traditional sidecut in powder because of the "hooky" feeling you mention above that can occur in skis with greater ammounts of sidecut.
Everyone's mileage may vary a bit, but when I'm skiing powder, I'm generally not the type to bounce the same, slow, short radius turns all the way to the bottom (think Powder 8's), but I have more fun by getting the ski up on top of the snow and maching larger GS turns (think wide, Snowboard type turns). I also like to take air on powder days, which lends itself to lots of high-speed run outs in powder fields. A ski with lots of traditional sidecut doesn't allow me to this as easily as a straighter fat ski or one with reverse camber.
Reason being that, because I enjoy big arcs & speed in powder and would rather the skis plane on top of it, rather than sink down in it, I want my powder skis to have some of the following characteristics:
-If I'm on a traditionally shaped ski (in my case, 188 Bro Models), I'm going to want something that's relatively straight (think turn radius in the 30M+ range) and I also want the ski to have at least a difference of 10 mm between the tip width and the tail width (in the case of the Bro Model this difference is 11 mm as it has a 125mm tip and 114mm tail). This tip-to-tail "taper" amount helps the tail of the ski sink in soft snow popping the tip of the ski up (pretty much the intended puropose of a swallowtail), allowing you to get a more aggressive stance on the ski w/o worry of the tip diving. On a ski with a lot more sidecut, or with tip-to-tail taper of less than 10 mm, or with a ski with tighter turn radius, the ski wants to make its natural shaped arc in the snow (the hooky feeling) which I'm generally fighting against because of my powder skiing style.
-If I'm on a "new age" powder ski (to use the term in the thread title), I'm going to be surfing on top of the snow, and all the stuff about tip-to-tail taper, turn radius, etc I mentioned above gets thrown out the window. Shane McConkey's explanation above is probably the best description of how these skis works so I'm not even going to try and one-up that, but I can say that these skis are useful in a wider array of conditions than most people think.
I spent sometime on Spatulas before I sold them on got some DP Lotus 138's last season (192 cm, flex 2, 140-138-139 published dimensions). And while these skis are amazing in powder for the reasons McConkey explained detailed above, they're also great in breakable crust, heavy mank, and virtually any off-piste condition. I've literally skied runs that went from powder up high to breakable crust toward the bottom....and while on my Lotus's, I was able to carry the same speed out of the powder into the crust without missing a beat, slowing down, backing down, or changing my skiing style. The reverse camber of the ski, allows the ski to plane on top of the snow surface which greatly levels the playing field in variable conditions.
Also, the Lotus's dimensions could easily be extended to include another sit of dimensions for the tip & tail. Although DP publishes 140-138-139...this really doesn't tell the whole story of the ski....as the tip is way less than 140 and the tail is way less than 139. Like the Armada ARG, 5 sets of numbers are best to describe it....i.e. the Lotus 138 is probably something like 120-140-138-139-125 round abouts (didn't go out and measure them). This narrower, torpedo shaped tip having the widest part of the ski just behind it works in conjunction with the reverse camber to pop that tip of the ski up on top of the snow and keep it there. It really is amazing. I've never skied powder at "groomer speeds" until I got on this ski, and it really lets you do some amazing things with natural terrain features that just wouldn't possible on traditionally shaped skis.
It's a great time to be a skier these days with all these new shapes coming out and all of this experimentation going on."
Also Read
http://www.fuzeqna.com/evogear/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=61 to see a copy of the Shane McConkey "Owners Handbook" for the Spats.
Cheers
Michael