OUT THERE: Rockers all over the slopes this year

Ski season is starting to pick up — which means it’s time to put away your rock skis and pick up some rocker skis.

Rocker is the big buzzword in the ski industry this year. The idea is to start the ski’s rise toward the tip well back on the ski, giving the ski an upward ramp to help it float through powder.

“They just look funky,” said Jon Easdon, owner of Blindside snowboard and ski shop. “Almost like a water ski.”

The important thing is that it works, said Rick Uhl, owner of the Ski Shop.

“Rocker is a great tool in the right application,” he said. “If you’re a family guy skiing at Breckenridge with your kids all day, rocker is not the technology for you.”

A more extreme version of rocker is called reverse camber or zero camber. Normal skis arch up beneath the binding. That’s camber, and it makes the skis springy and responsive. A reverse camber ski is just the opposite — a smile instead of a frown. It makes skis float in powder and smear through turns. There’s a tradeoff, however.

“Whenever you take camber out of a ski or a board, you’re going to lose some stability,” Easdon said.
That’s why most rocker skis retain some camber underfoot, said Len Petrocelli, store manager for Christy Sports on North Academy Boulevard and Constitution Avenue.

“It’s more manageable on hardpack,” he said.

Stepping away from camber, do you remember the trend of the last few years to make skis wider and wider and wider? This year? Wider still.

“There’s just these huge skis out there now,” Easdon said.

“If you bought a ski from me last year, this year I’m going to size you fatter,” Uhl said. “Every one of my top-selling models came back this year a little bit wider.”

Skinny skis are getting pretty hard to find, Uhl said.

“If you’re a bump skier, good luck,” he said. “I’ve had that question many times this year: I ski bumps, what do I do?’ I say, keep your (old) skis because there’s nothing for you.”

At Mountain Chalet, which specializes in telemark and backcountry skis, sales manager Mike Miller says they don’t even stock a ski skinner than 88 millimeters underfoot. Not that long ago, 88 underfoot would have been considered a powder ski. Now many skiers opt for skis that are 90 to 100 millimeters wide for all-around skis, Miller said.

“Why not, when they ski as well as they do and turn as well as they do?” Miller said.

Snowboards are seeing the same trends as skis, with rocker and reverse camber becoming common, Easdon said.

Bindings are much the same as last year, although Petrocelli said they’re getting wider to match the big skis. One neat newcomer is the Marker Schizo, a binding that can slide forward on the ski to provide a neutral stance for terrain parks and trick riding, or back to provide more lift for powder.

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Call the writer at 636-0275.