Powspatuplus: IT CAN BE DONE!

[Jiehkevarri]

I can see a trend here.

Remember people sawing noses on the snowboards and drilling trough the base to widen the stance? Somehow this reminds me of those times.

Wait a couple of years and every hot powder/big mountain ski from big companies has this "new very cool rocker/reverse-camber" design...

(OK, a few already do...but I can see this becoming a norm on powder skis. At least for some tip/tail rocker and minimal/zero camber)

And yes, nice PP's Dromond!

[laseranimal]

Me too. I'm actually pretty surprised to read that! After skiing at Mt. Snow today I was happy to have my old race skis on and would think that the Pow+ would be sluggish and scary bent or unbent!

I could not tell you how floored I was by how well they skiied, the best part was being able to turn them sideways on chute and "railslide" the icy patches. I would almost say they were playful given the conditions cause you knew they were burly enough to handle anything you threw at them, and the ability to slarve made them way more fun on hardpack then I thought. I had brought my PE's as a backup in case, and by the end of the day I decided to grab em just to compare and they were WAY less fun then the PP. Too grabby and light to deal with the end of the day blowoff and chop.


edit

Nice paintjob! I attempted the contact paper woodgrain and all it did was peel and come up so I'm looking for other options. I'm thinking of ordering a bunch of stickers from stickerjunkie. Maybe "Got Change"

[birdman829]

this site rules. that is all.

[Dromond]

...I would almost say they were playful given the conditions cause you knew they were burly enough to handle anything you threw at them, and the ability to slarve made them way more fun on hardpack then I thought....

That just blows me away. It almost doesn't seem possible. We'll see what happens! I for one was not intending to use them in anything other than new/very soft/deep snow.

[Dromond]

I got my first day on the Pow+ yesterday on a foot+ of new snow at Eldora. The float was un-effing-beleivable. Tons of fun! They were not as smearable as I imagine laseranimal's are, but then again I didn't bend them very much. However I still loved flying into the woods and being able to throw them sideways if I liked. A very damp, stable (and heavy!) ski with tooonnnnnns of float. Pretty much just what I've been looking for. It was so good to get out on them. Hopeful the storms will line up so I can pull them out a few more times on this trip.

[vano]

I got my first day on the Pow+ yesterday on a foot+ of new snow at Eldora. The float was un-effing-beleivable. Tons of fun! They were not as smearable as I imagine laseranimal's are, but then again I didn't bend them very much. However I still loved flying into the woods and being able to throw them sideways if I liked. A very damp, stable (and heavy!) ski with tooonnnnnns of float. Pretty much just what I've been looking for. It was so good to get out on them. Hopeful the storms will line up so I can pull them out a few more times on this trip.

Sounds awesome! Can you quickly recap exactly what the bends you made were? Mounting location on the bindings?

I have a new pair of 180 Pow+ coming my way and I am thinking about doing some minor bending to help with skiing EC trees. thx

[laseranimal]

Dromond where are yours mounted? I think the slarvyness of mine is due to the +1.75 mount

[KillerMonkey]

I've heard cases where people who use a single pair of skis for the half pipe long enough that the same thing happens to them.

[Dromond]

Sounds awesome! Can you quickly recap exactly what the bends you made were? Mounting location on the bindings?

I have a new pair of 180 Pow+ coming my way and I am thinking about doing some minor bending to help with skiing EC trees. thx

I mounted them about -0.5cm from the line because of a mounting hole intersection otherwise I would have done it on the line. The line seemed pretty far forward, more so that on my explosives, so I just went with it. I can't tell you exactly how I did it right now but you can look at the pictures that I posted to get an idea.

Dromond where are yours mounted? I think the slarvyness of mine is due to the +1.75 mount

That is very likely. I think it also has to do with the extra bend. the tips on mine already feel a little short so I don't think I would have liked them as much with the forward mount. With the extra reverse cambre it's a whole other animal. I this my tip bend/flare a tail flatting just help this float (a good bit) and the slarvability (a good bit less.) The amount of float is SICK. I love them. Such heavy skis though. Switching back to my Karmas at the end of the day for the crud my feet felt lighter than air!

[mountain_man]

Only a few mm of camber left (hard to see):


Only a tiny flare in the tail, mostly it's just flat:


Moderate rocker on the front:


paintjob:




I painted them black but I thought they were so sexy that I just lost control of my bodily fluids.

Eeeew!

They're not mounted yet, we'll see how they ski.

Edit: Here are the photos

new paint looks noce, hmmm some ninjas on those would be tities But ohhh god the weight, (note to self) shut up and stop being such a girly man.

Cant wait to get my hands on some 190's PP+ i'll definatly be doing the same spatulator bend o' job o'.
Good tho hear that all those who've skied emm have had fun.

[cantunamunch]

The lazy man option could be to take some Machete FBs and ski them into the proper shape.

[laseranimal]

Such heavy skis though. Switching back to my Karmas at the end of the day for the crud my feet felt lighter than air!

yeah definitely a good idea to go as light as possible with the binding makes a HUGE difference

[Professor]

I will give this a little bump, since my 196 Proto Squads have been clamped down for a few days now. I clamped them together about 6 inches from the tip and tail with blocks between the shovel, waist, and tail. Hopefully they will come out with just a touch of rocker near the tip and tail and maintain their camber in the middle. Now before someone starts screaming about doing that to these skis, bear in mind they were drilled 3 times, skied 40 or 50 days and had a small bend in one ski anyway. We will see how it turns out

[Dromond]

Additional thoughts on my modded 180 Pow+, tested on a roadtrip across the west last month:

Me: 5' 11", 180 lb. Age 23. Moderately athletic, but basically a glorified weekend warrior.

Pros: They allowed me to acheive my longstanding goal of making big GS turns in powder. They float like nothing else I've tried. lots of stability, all the
surface areas allows you to turns so easily and scrub speed at will. I got to ski a pair of Spatulas on a pow day at Alta and I actually went back to Pow+ after a few runs because I liked them that much better. They
can actually hold an edge on something steep and firm if you must, but the width takes some getting used to while edging. The straight shape and generous width give huge fore-aft stability in deep snow conditions. Just what I've been looking for. I actually don't really desire any more float than these skis provide.

Cons: Very heavy. Can feel a bit unstable going fast on groomed snow and as a result can be overly tiring in those conditions. Not like the Spatulas are, but not entirely differently, either. Also the weight can be a pain on longer traverses. You can make them carve but it's not really worth the trouble as the results are less than steller.

They'll definitely stay my go-to powder day ski, but I can see why for daily resort skiing someone might prefer something a touch more tradtional, softer, lighter, even a touch (*gasp*) narrower. They are unbeleivably fun in the right conditions, and I can see a stronger skier wanted to use them more/most of the time at the right mountain. When it snows more than 5" or so and the base is soft/grippy I will continue to grab these in a heartbeat. That said I'm actually curious to try out a few more "traditional" fat skis. Obviously I enjoyed the width of these skis in Powder and tracked powder/chop. However I also really enjoyed how easily the width allowed me to turn in more "skier packed" cruddy conditions. I would have used them even more of the time if they were more fun on the extended hard and groomed sections that you tend to find when it hasn't snowed in many days. I'm wondering if there's a fat ski (100mm-110mm or so) out there for me that's not for just powder, and keeps some liveliness on the groomers without getting all hooky and unstable in off piste conditons.

In short, for the price I paid for these they are a sweet quiver ski that I will enjoy for many years to come and have no qualms about thrashing!

[Ville]

I will give this a little bump, since my 196 Proto Squads have been clamped down for a few days now. I clamped them together about 6 inches from the tip and tail with blocks between the shovel, waist, and tail. Hopefully they will come out with just a touch of rocker near the tip and tail and maintain their camber in the middle. Now before someone starts screaming about doing that to these skis, bear in mind they were drilled 3 times, skied 40 or 50 days and had a small bend in one ski anyway. We will see how it turns out

Could this work also with old monster 103? I have pair of 183cm and would like to try it. Although I don't want to destroy the ski. It has a lot of metal in it, so it would probably work?

[LaramieSkiBum]

I will give this a little bump, since my 196 Proto Squads have been clamped down for a few days now. I clamped them together about 6 inches from the tip and tail with blocks between the shovel, waist, and tail. Hopefully they will come out with just a touch of rocker near the tip and tail and maintain their camber in the middle. Now before someone starts screaming about doing that to these skis, bear in mind they were drilled 3 times, skied 40 or 50 days and had a small bend in one ski anyway. We will see how it turns out

proto squads have metal in them ? ( i would assume so since one is bent?) I'm still working on getting my soft super camber bro's down.

[F#*k you cat]

next time take the bindings off and you should get bending throught the length of the ski

[Professor]

Just an FYI. I got the shovels bent the way I wanted. I kept the little bit of camber under foot. And I delamed both tails and made them give up a sickening crack sound. NOT GOOD. I think the problem was I was trying to get too much bend out of too short an area. Flexing them they dont fail like I was afraid they would. So with some epoxy and some t-bolts at least I can ski them and see what results come from this experiment. So just a warning, if you start screwing with your skis, bad things could happen. Oh and somebody asked about 103s. I think you could bend the whole ski and make it reverse camber. But knowing that ski you may just have it explode completely due to all the metal and brittle sidewalls.

[pechelman]

Man, the 103 is so fun as it is, dont screw with it unless theyre on their way out anyway. Its most definitely not a "pow ski" no matter what the 103 waist will tell you. It does ok in powder, but hell, I have more fun on 186 LPs in pow, and thats generally regarded as a non pow ski as well. (i think because of the longer length and bigger shovel)

If you are going to bend that ski, Id probably only try to bend the first few inches behind the shovel for a little more "ramp". The pair I have, already have minimal camber anyway.

[Professor]

If you are going to bend that ski, Id probably only try to bend the first few inches behind the shovel for a little more "ramp". The pair I have, already have minimal camber anyway.

I think trying to do this is what caused the failure in the squads. Skis bend a ton across their entire length. But trying to get an appropriate angle in one spot to make a ramp is much more difficult.

[rungsp]

I got my PowderPlus on ebay for £41.
I took off the Solly 477 bindings, got a length of 4x2 under the tips and parket my car on the skis for a couple of days.
Remounted with some Marker demo bindings (yeah, yeah...I know!) I got from HuckSmuck for a few beers.

Tuesday in Bruscon (Verbier) I tried them out:

First impressions...the graphics are incredible! Honestly...that is THE first impression! I have to get a lumo fart-bag to go with them.

They skied very well, great float in the pow yet very managable on the hard pack access routes. Turned well in tight trees and good high speed on the open stuff. Conditions were boot/knee deep pow.

Now back to ebay for that fart-bag!

[Damian Sanders]

I may have bent another type of atomic powder ski.......

[soul_skier]

you killed big daddies? I personally have bent exploders by accident, but big daddies, jesus, how?

[Dromond]

I've been skiing my bent Pow+ most of the week. So sweet. So heavy. So punishing. My shins hurt

[Damian Sanders]

you killed big daddies? I personally have bent exploders by accident, but big daddies, jesus, how?

Clamps, wood, and a 170 degree sauna.....about 3/8" of "tip lift" on the front 6" of contact on each ski. They were submarining too often with the stock camber.