DPS Spoon 150

[SiSt]

That was way different than I thought it would be. -> Mind: Boggled.

[Huck_Schmuck]

stephan & co are the leading mad scientists of the skiing world (keith praxis is up there too) - love to try these in the right conditions

Haha. I think your bank manager was just paging you.

Maybe my first pair of DPS?

[Arno]

Haha. I think your bank manager was just paging you.

Maybe my first pair of DPS?

maybe a little specific for teh euro crustly mank but who knows what the next few years will bring...

[jerr]

Are cleats meant for hard pack run outs? Or for stability during high speed-straight run outs in pow?

Abridged question - Marshal; are these meant to work on hard pack snow?

[IvanLipko]

To me they look stoopid! But so did the 138s a couple of seasons ago. Now, loving them every minute. So, who knows! -))

[skimaxpower]

Those look really hard to tune. (Also fun to ski. Reminds me of Battalion Snowboards...)

[rabbit]

i literally have more than 200 unopened emails in my inbox, so this needs to be quick

You need to get a better spam filter...

192cm. his particular ski was built in eden utah in the engineers garage. it is not ready for retail production, but the tech will see trickle down in the future, is the goal. once the amount of base convexity and positioning and amount of cleats and height of cleats etc is finalized.

So, no new product for next year? (except the paraphernalia) and no more pre-orders? e.g. no more DPS skis for me unless I win the lottery.

Apart from that I'm sporting a hard-on the size of Alaska...

[rabbit]

Those look really hard to tune. (Also fun to ski. Reminds me of Battalion Snowboards...)

maybe the Morrow Spoon from '93?

[buttahflake]

can you explain the finishing process. how do you get structure on that base?

[TeleThor]

can you explain the finishing process. how do you get structure on that base?

Steel brush. Sandpaper even works.

[buttahflake]

^yeah, were talking about a very pricy piece here. not some old XC skis. i doubt very much they structured them with a steel brush

[marshalolson]

structure = steel wool.

if you do not know how to hand tune skis, you should learn. its a pretty gratifying deal to be honest. these were the first hand finished pair i have done in at least 10 years, and it was really really fun, and much quicker/easier than i "remembered"... in the modern age of robots, and hand finish really connects the tuner to the boards, and gives you a level of craftsmanship and pride in skills that is long gone. sort of the a snowboard shaper.

at this point there are exactly 3 singles of this ski in the world, so not at the onsnow demos since they will head to ISPO. they are in the prototype stages, and not fully ready for sale or widescale demo. numerous people wanted to demo it at WP onsnow as well... and man, i dunno about all of that. the amount of convexity will change as well as the positioning and amount of cleating will be slightly modified. the skis are also made in a traditional manner and weight a ton, so they will not be widely demo'd until we can offer them in a PURE construction. the goal is to have them ready in a year or two, but not release them until they are actually ready and dialed.

jer- the idea is not to cleanly and roundly carve a turn. its about being able to control your speed and direction in some capacity (ie without cleats, you would literally not be able to hockey-stop). more cleats = more ability to carve, but less spoon effect. this design was to explore the maximum amount of convexity and the minimum amount of cleats and dept of cleats.

[Bird Blaster]

.
So these are prototypy trade show skis, and won't be available for retail distribution in 11/12?

It doesn't sound like they will be, but it is still early in the year.

[Southeast Maggot]

Spoon is a great name.

Perhaps a stupid question: why even bother with edges at all besides in the cleats (and perhaps could go with a novel edge design on those to help in runouts)? Is is purely for ease-of-manufacturing?

[Buggyguru]

It's about time someone came up with a convex ski. I was thinking spooned tip and tail and conventional under foot, but it looks like DPS has put a lot more progressive thought into the idea. I'm psyched, but I'm glad it's a couple years away; I'm still saving for my 112RPs.

And what Marshall says about hand tuning has me psyched too. I've tuned my skis for years on budget, but I always left the pattern to the shop. It's time to do some research.

[summit]

After fondling this ski yesterday, the analogy I had for it was a kayaking one:

Playboats are best in the play park. The flat hull and sharp edges make sense on the groomers where the slope is also 2 dimensional, flat, and unyielding. That is a normal ski.

A 112RP is a river running play boat. It has rocker and edge.

A 138 is a river runner with lots of rocker and the softened edges, but it still has a planing hull.

Powder is like the water of a free flowing creek and the Scoop 150 is a displacement hulled creek boat made to rock it out!

The cleats are like drop chines so you can still carve into an eddy.

(yes i know the physics of the analogy don't quite match)

[glademaster]

Certainly a fascinating design, it will be interesting to see the final version.

Not to piss in anyone's Cheerios, but it seems like this ski would be woefully impractical for anything other than cat/heli/snowmobile skiing. There are very few resorts where you're going to be skiing enough powder, even on the deepest days to want a ski like this.

I'm sure that the final version will be unreal in deep, untracked snow, but I'd take a pair of 138's over these any day.

[jerr]

I'd love to see this design concept work out. Good luck.

[grooveninja]

Personally I found 138's to be an amazing bc ski. Their center flat surface area worked well for skinning yet they were still light enough to be a good all day touring ski. Since I don't have a sled, snowcat, or heli, this is how I get my non-resort powder days. I'm not sure you could skin very easily on the spoon 150's though.

[DudeLebowSKI]

After fondling this ski yesterday, the analogy I had for it was a kayaking one:

Playboats are best in the play park. The flat hull and sharp edges make sense on the groomers where the slope is also 2 dimensional, flat, and unyielding. That is a normal ski.

A 112RP is a river running play boat. It has rocker and edge.

A 138 is a river runner with lots of rocker and the softened edges, but it still has a planing hull.

Powder is like the water of a free flowing creek and the Scoop 150 is a displacement hulled creek boat made to rock it out!

The cleats are like drop chines so you can still carve into an eddy.

(yes i know the physics of the analogy don't quite match)

I think Marshal makes a very good point that without those cleats, this ski could be certain death. It will be very interesting to see what kind of future designs evolve due to this 'concept' model.

Cool stuff DPS.

[Arty50]

Certainly a fascinating design, it will be interesting to see the final version.

Not to piss in anyone's Cheerios, but it seems like this ski would be woefully impractical for anything other than cat/heli/snowmobile skiing. There are very few resorts where you're going to be skiing enough powder, even on the deepest days to want a ski like this.

I'm sure that the final version will be unreal in deep, untracked snow, but I'd take a pair of 138's over these any day.

My thoughts exactly. I hated traversing/sidestepping on my spatulas, and these would probably be an order of magnitude worse.

[hop]

ha ha. 5x7 info cards. exactly.

and spindrift, the praxis ski is totally different. also outside the box, but i am not sure what exactly the goal of his design is, but totally dig that keith is striving to improve on the design. all about that. i think its sick really that he is pushing the product forward.

the dps patent applies specifically to a convex base and with supporting cleats. the praxis ski have mini-camber shapes that pair to the magnetraction undulations.

both outside the box, but way different and designed certainly to do way different things (in my opinion... again, unclear on the praxis ski - guessing more edge grip and pop while carving on edge?)

Does Garywayne have a patent on convex bases? If not, they should have applied for one long ago. Been around longer than the spoon, anyways.

http://www.garywayneskis.com/garyway....com/Home.html

A bit of history on GaryWayne skis
http://www.mikecranephotography.com/blog/?p=206

[iscariot]

With the spoon/hull and the cleats/tines sticking down DPS should call it the Spork.

[nickwm21]

I am surprised they didnt first come out with a convex base on the 138. Not fully convex, just in the rockered tips and tails....

[wren]

Can't believe I saw this photo on NS first