The world’s most unusual powder skis?

WHISTLER, British Columbia - Dec. 2, 2013 - PRLog -- Born out of Whistler B.C., in a spot I know very well, Powder Mountain Catskiing is a place known for innovation and lots of snow. With over 4,300 acres and five peaks, this operation boasts getting 2-3x more snow then Whistler. I have had two different filming trips there and yep it gets tons of snow and I can see that it’s the perfect place to test powder equipment. One day Gorden Calder, the GM from Powder Mountain Cat/Heliskiing introduced me to Sheldon knowing full well that this was going to have me curious to learn more about these powder skiing contraptions.

First I did some homework after seeing some amazing images of these oddly shaped skis. “Garywayne skis feature omnidirectional technology: full rocker, full reverse side cut, and a revolutionary convex base. The combination of these factors allows for smoother transitions between turns and a greater ability to drift while still being able to set an edge.”-Garywayne website

Gear testing Photo: Stewart Medford

From my perspective, they look like part water ski and part design from NASA or Apple. Its sleek shape has you feeling like they want to float on snow. Being a surfer and snowboarder, I was definitely curious as Garywayne seemed to have injected both influences in the design.

Being a snowboarder who has not skied in 20 years…what do I know? Either way, it seems like an amazing innovation for the ski industry.

Without trying them, I had to really get the run down from the owner/ designer to get the low down.

So with a head full of questions I reached out to owner Sheldon Steckman of Garywayne skis to ask him a few questions.

First of which was, “Who is Gary Wayne?” (I will get to that later), and second, “Explain these skis to me – how they work and what is this all about?”

The first thing he said was, “They will blow any skier’s mind in deep powder. It’s a totally different sensation. Scott, you gotta seriously try a pair.” After explaining my preference for snowboarding, he excitedly shared how the ski functions that had me wanting to put aside the snowboard and give these things a try. Not ready do drop snowboarding just yet, I asked him about his inspiration for the designs.

“I made the skis because I wanted to explore the possibilities of three dimensional base shapes. I was convinced that a base which was slightly rounded side to side would compliment the new rockered and reverse side-cut skis that were being released at the time. I wanted to make a ski purely designed for powder instead of fattening an existing all mountain or race ski” – Sheldon Steckman

http://vimeo.com/18977591



When I asked him to describe how they might feel in powder…

“The skis are noticeably different right away. The curve of the base permits drifting or skiing “off angle” at higher speeds. It allows the leading edge of teh ski to be out of the snow and free from catching without having to scrape the trailing edge in to slow you down. This curve also means that you can weight the ski without edging, and when you choose to edge you can really feather the angle.” – Shledon Stekman

That’s my 2 cents.

For more on Garywayne Skis go to: http://www.garywayneskis.com/

For more on Powder Mountain Catskiing/Heliskiing go to: http://www.powdermountaincatskiing.com/