Published October 17, 2011 12:00AM
DPS' Stephan Drake tests the Spoon behind Alta, Utah. from DPS SKIS on Vimeo.
If you've cracked open your Outside magazine Winter Buyer's Guide, available on newsstands everywhere and on your iPad as part of iTune's new Newsstand feature, you've read about the DPS Spoon 150. It's one of the most convex powder skis we've ever seen and, as such, we gave it one of our inaugural Radical Design Awards. In an effort to create more lift and smearability in deep snow, this 150mm-underfoot takes the concept of rocker to the extrreme. There's so much, in fact, that the shape of the ski affords practically no edge grip. (There's a reason they called it the Spoon.) To compensate, DPS designers added what they're calling cleats, “downward vertical undulations on the bottom” to give you at least a little bite in firmer conditions.
Sounds crazy, right? Well it is, at least a little bit. But then we watched the video above. A few weeks ago, DPS released the first footage of the ski in action. The film above captures Stephan Drake putting the Spoon through its paces in deep, north-facing snow behind Alta, Utah in March 2011, throwing up monster rooster tails of powder.
We'll be putting the deep powder DPS Spoon 150 to the test and giving it a full review as soon as it's available, hopefully by next winter's Buyer's Guide. The company won't commit to a release date, but says it's “getting closer.”
Feeling lucky? When Spoon production begins, DPS will randomly select someone who 'Likes' DPS's Facebook page to receive the Factory First Spoon. Give them your approval here. Price TBD; 154/150/152; dpsskis.com
—Berne Broudy
@berneb