Volant Spatula in SLC

[summit]

If you want to bein the Church of McConkey, you must do the right of passage and then spread the good word. Spatulate thyself, then others.

[PlayItLeo]

As others have said, it would be sacrilegious to not ski them. Bust them out on any soft snow day and enjoy church. Amen!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[El Chupacabra]

Rad!

Anyone know how many years they were sold? And/or how many pairs?
Just read Shane's write-up on them and said 300 pairs were made in the first run.
Were there subsequent runs?

I think they were only sold for two years. No idea how many were produced.

I've had 4 or 5 pairs pass through my hands, and am keeping this last pair I have currently. They're mounted with demo Salomon 912s, which aren't great, but allow for easy adjusting so others can try out the magic.

IMHO the DPS 138 improved on the Spatula for a pure powder ski, in un-weird snow and at higher speed - - but the Spatula is better in the junky pow.

[Core Shot]

A Core Shot if you will...?

Heh. Nice retort

If you truly are in the granite state those can be surprisingly fun. Midweek non crowded New England heavy mank will spread like butter.

[huckmadtrix]

Heh. Nice retort

If you truly are in the granite state those can be surprisingly fun. Midweek non crowded New England heavy mank will spread like butter.

Oh yeah we get all the crap snow. Will let em run and post up some pics this winter! Maybe they'll make it into the ski bag to JH.

[east or bust]

Oh yeah we get all the crap snow. Will let em run and post up some pics this winter! Maybe they'll make it into the ski bag to JH.

If they do, give a holler and we can link up.

First day of my season last year:

[SB]

https://blisterreview.com/gear-revie...tula-2002-2003

[Core Shot]

https://blisterreview.com/gear-revie...tula-2002-2003

That was awesome. Read the comments. Peter chimes in with backstory. And also acknowledges the 138 as the successor. Not as heavy and damp. But that little bit of sidecut underfoot does help.

[El Chupacabra]

I'd never seen that Blister review - thanks for posting that.

[ski whore]

My bud had a pair and I told him if he gave me one I’d make him the same shrine. My wife thinks it’s college dorm art but I love my museum


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[ski whore]

My bud had a pair and I told him if he gave me one I’d make him the same shrine. My wife thinks it’s college dorm art but I love my museum


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[ski whore]

Oops trying to edit on my phone
and not going so well


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[summit]

I have a Spatula shot ski adimmen made me with one of his wrecked shot spats

[Core Shot]

I have a Spatula shot ski adimmen made me with one of his wrecked shot spats

I hope you have saucers and climbing ropes for all the shot drinkers to use.

[byates1]

My bud had a pair and I told him if he gave me one I’d make him the same shrine. My wife thinks it’s college dorm art but I love my museum


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

High Level Radness

[huckmadtrix]

I emailed the photographer of this pic if I could buy a hi-res file to make a poster, specifically because he's on Spatulas.
But his price was outside my budget.

[buildakicker]

So cool to see those up here! I was looking at a pair in my garage the other day... One of them is broken so they've been on the wall. The spatula changed my skiing forever. The year those came out was the most fun I had at squaw ever. Thanks for the throwback.

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

[bobz]

I love my (tele mounted) Spatulas, and I still ski them on the right kind of day. I think there were only about 1000 or so pairs made (including however many Shane owned), over one and a half seasons, though that's purely based on vague recall and I could be wrong.

[Alaska-RWC]

In the course of buying my first pair three years ago and subsequent follow-up research (I'm a research nerd), including first-hand accounts that I gleaned from this forum and Peter's and Ivor's comments to that Blister review, I wrote substantial additions to the Wikipedia article about the Spatula I think last January or February. I did another brief update a couple weeks ago. I still need to go back through for the specific pin-cites, but all the references are accurate and at the end of the entry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volant_Spatula
I tried to contact Peter Turner directly through LinkedIn but he never responded to my connection request.

There were definitely four sets of prototypes (8 individual skis) hand-made in Wheat Ridge with the full steel cap. Shane kept three sets, and one ski was used by Volant in advertising (the image is obviously not the production graphic; it looks more like an etched metal or a subtle gray decal featuring a BBQ spatula). Shane's prototypes are peppered in a couple of shots from MSP movies of that era, and there's a reasonably good scene at the end of Immersion where they go into Shane's office and paw through the Machetes in his closet. The production run of the 186 that we know and love is likely exactly 1000, with 300 being the initial order, based on statements from a sales rep who bought the remaining inventory from Atomic at the end of the '02-'03 season. However, there was definitely a small run of 172s made by Atomic as well. I found no references as to when the 172s were pressed or how many were created; only that they were made for the summer '03 trade shows. I've seen evidence of at least two sets that have been for sale, and the guy who sold me my first set said he also owns a set of the 172s that his wife still loves.

Purely speculation, but if I was to put money on it, I'd bet that all 1000 of the 186s were made between October and December of '02. Then either contemporaneously or shortly thereafter, Atomic created molds to kick out a few of the 172s and see how the public reacted to the 186s during the '02-'03 season and if the 172s got any traction during industry trade shows that summer. Since they were effectively a flop, Atomic probably didn't bother to make anymore. They changed the graphic for the Machete Sin, Soul, Jr., added the FB, did a black top for the 69, and pushed the butter graphic for the Spatula that summer for the '03-'04 season, but wrapped up all production on the Machetes at the end of '04 having not made any more Spatulas. Then Atomic kicked Shane and the Machetes to the curb (also confirmed by Shane in an informal post-movie interview somewhere in a ski movie of that era that Atomic fired him, but he was always polite in formal interviews).

[Alaska-RWC]

Not sure I'll ever ski them but they do look really fun to ski.

Ski them. There is nothing like them, and with Atomic still maintaining IP rights to stainless steel skis, there will never be another ski ever made like them again (unless Atomic presses more). There's something about the combination of the shape WITH the dampening of the stainless (and weight?) that just works and makes them special. Not for everything, but in the right conditions they're just magic. The ski is dynamic in a way that I've never experienced; it's like they plane up at speed and get on step like a boat, then sink back down as you slow down. I wouldn't ever consider this "ideal" Spatula conditions because it was simply ideal conditions, but you can see in these two videos how, without leaning back, the ski tips are basically out of the snow and all turning happens directly underfoot, almost more like hockey skates at speed in steeps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7S7IXSf8OE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oY3Ohgwdg0

They REALLY shine in wet-heavy, and in other conditions as it starts to get tracked out. (Once it gets REALLY tracked out, the Spats are less fun and I'll switch to my FBs if I want to keep skiing, but Spatulas don't demand virgin pow.)

[bobz]

Thanks for the info, Alaska! And nice vids.

Woo hoo! Hoping for another Spatula day or three like this in the coming months...

[ski whore]

I skied the spatula and fully hated them, prob didn’t give enough time to figure them out. But I did have one of the first pairs of 1st gen white/red pontoons and that ski was unreal in pow imo


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[summit]

The production run of the 186 that we know and love is likely exactly 1000, with 300 being the initial order, based on statements from a sales rep who bought the remaining inventory from Atomic at the end of the '02-'03 season.

That's how I got mine. Blurred bought 3 pairs from that guy, one for me. In the Summer. Cheap. Like $300ea

[Alaska-RWC]

I skied the spatula and fully hated them, prob didn’t give enough time to figure them out. But I did have one of the first pairs of 1st gen white/red pontoons and that ski was unreal in pow imo


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

I got a set of those too, mounted with some old full-frame Dukes. I've only been on them two days since I bought them primarily for sled-skiing and light back-country, but one of the days was just a couple weekends ago. They're cool, but they don't charge as hard IMHO; it's like that big tip works almost like a plow--it keeps the ski floating, but at the expense of speed, and they get thrown a little more in chop than the Spats. But definitely nicer on the hard-pack and easier to control in general.

[ötzi]

I’ve got a pair of them, you ski them different, butter everything, push the skis away from you and just smear it and they’ll go over anything. They hurt my hip flexors a lot after awhile, my hips have been suspect for a long time, but they are a lot of fun.