Radical 'Spoon' Ski has Convex Base, Built-in Cleats

No mixed words: DPS Skis of Salt Lake City has touted its to-be-released “Spoon” ski as the “most powerful and revolutionary powder ski ever built.” The company just released a video to demonstrate the Spoon and its purported “revolutionary” properties, which include more float, more speed, and greater control in deep snow.

The company will launch the Spoon in 2012. It is an original creation, no doubt: The Spoon’s extra-fat planks have a convex base and six downward-facing “cleats” that protrude to add grip. Made for knee-deep powder (and deeper) the Spoon is a specialty product designed for heli skiing and Snowcat operations — everyday resort slopes and anything hard-pack or groomed is out.

As is demonstrated in the new video, the Spoon ski handles differently than typical powder boards. Deep powder is the only intended venue for the Spoon, which DPS describes as a ski that offers “very little up-and-down” in a turn and little “short-radius bobbing movement” in powder, a characteristic the company says plagues other super-fat skis made for deep snow.

The skier in the DPS video, company founder Stephan Drake, is shown shredding deep white snow behind Alta, Utah, last March. Zinging through steep and deep turns, Drake seems to float high in the snow, which sprays almost vertically as if he’s water skiing through carves. “Massive flotation, nimble handing, and huge sprays” are touted characteristics the Spoon will embody, the company says.

Beyond a wide body and a weird shape, the ski’s six “downward-facing cleats” are a distinguishing trait. According to the company’s Philip Drake, the cleats (which are essentially bent protrusions off the ski base) serve to create “effective edge grip to compensate for the convexity of the base” on harder snow. Drake says the cleats true purpose is as a safety mechanism — since the Spoon is a deep-snow-only ski its edge grip is almost nonexistent on any hardpack you may encounter, say after you come out of a powder run. The cleats aid the ski to “engage when angulated to give grip” in non-powder situations, Drake said. If there were no cleats, Drake continued, the ski would slide out from beneath you “wildly and dangerously” in anything but deep powder snow.

Release date for the ski is sometime in 2012. The company will not provide a firm price but said the Spoon skis are expected to cost between $1,400 and $1,700 a pair. If you’re a deep-snow junkie convinced DPS might be onto something new, the company has set up a waiting list on its website to sign up and “get in line” to buy these one of a kind powder planks.

—Stephen Regenold