Alpine skis have undergone a lot of revolutionary designs in the past 20 years. From shaped skis, powder, twin tips, rocker, and reverse camber, it seems every year a new design changes the skiing world. Just when you think nothing else can be done to the shape of skis, Ogden-based Salomon comes along and challenges the status quo with the new BBR ski.
The BBR ski is the latest design from Salomon’s ski designer Bertrand Krafft. The guy is the one responsible for Salomon’s Pocket Rocket, which launched twin tip skis into the mainstream. Krafft’s newest design, the BBR, was inspired by water skis which have the ability to do everything the skier wants to do including “carve, cruise, float and play.”
Looking at the BBR ski, it reminds me of the Icelantic Shaman with its pronounced sidecut and giant shovel, only the BBR also has rocker. Here’s how Salomon describes the BBR:
BBR is unlike any ski ever made. The patented “V” shape redefines skiing on all types of snow.
An oversized tip and rocker shape enable it to float in powder and adapt to uneven terrain smoothly and predictably. With a narrow waist and pintail, a short radius and short effective edge on-piste, BBR provides great carving and outstanding edge grip on harder snow. The result is an incredibly playful ski, with great performance in any situation.
Interested in trying out the new BBR ski this season? Salomon will launch the ski with the Shape Your Adventure Tour, a nation-wide road trip to ski areas around the country where skiers can demo the BBR themselves. In fact, they say Salomon athlete Seth Warner will haul a bunch of BBR demo samples to almost every ski resort in the U.S. during the 2010/2011 season to give everyone a look at it, and hopefully a ride. The tour is scheduled to be in Utah from January 10-18 at all the major resorts.
The BBR will have dimensions 147-88-102 and lengths 166/176/186. But Salomon says not to get hung up on the numbers, because the dimensions of this ski are not what’s important. They say the BBR doesn’t fall into any current product category, and to find out what the ski is all about, you just have to try it for yourself.
The BBR is currently available to the public through a special early program with 15 retail outlets that have the BBR in stock, and orders are being taken. A few pairs have even been sold already, so keep your eyes peeled in the lift line.
The BBR officially launches at Winterpark at SIA in January 2011.
To get all the latest about the Salomon BBR, visit their Twitter page. They’ve also launched a Facebook page as well.
Personally, I’m very intrigued by what this ski looks like and skis in person, especially because it has a pintail!
I was lucky to demo these skis in late December. Demo day with just about all the major manufacturers. About 8 to 10 inches of new snow, but it was an exceptionally warm day, and anything off the groomed runs was real mashed potatoes. I was testing different skis and skiing with Mark Zito who is a sales rep at Beaver Creek Sports, a really great skier, and one of the top ski tuners in the Vail Valley. He had just taken a run on the BBR’s, and I asked if I might jump on them for the next run. We skied Latigo which had been groomed, and the lower part of Centennial which hadn’t seen a groomer in a few days. As good as the BBR’s are on the groomers, they really shine in the crud. I was so impressed, I took them up Strawberry Park and down President Ford’s and through the trees. Hardly anyone had skied there because the snow was really difficult. I skied the run twice, trying to determine why I liked the skis so much. The design is really unique with a 147 tip, and the narrowest part of the ski (88cm behind the boot). My conclusion was that the tail design was a major contributor to the skis performance. I have skied various rockered skis for the past 2 years and tested probably 10 different models. One of the problems with most of these skis is the tails hang up in moguls and if you get thrown in the backseat in powder, it is a lot of work to get back in the proper attacking position on the skis. The BBR’s have a lot of sidecut, but the tail shape being relatively narrow makes it much easier to ski powder and crud because the shape is designed to keep the tails from deflecting, especially in the bumps.
I went straight to Beaver Creek Sports and ordered a pair. This year the only length is 186, but next year they’re made in 176 and 166 sizes. I got them in early January — #183 out of 250 (Thats all they made this year) I was out of the country for the last 2 weeks of January, and and still hadn’t skied any serious powder til this week. We’ve had 27 inches in Beaver Creek the past 3 days, and there is powder everywhere, and almost no one skiing. In these conditions, the BBR’s were excellent in all conditions except the steep, tight powder bumps on Grouse Mountain. With most of the skiers on double rocker twin tips in these conditions (maybe waist deep in places) the bumps were just cut a little tight for the 186 length. You can’t ski these skis in the backseat because the tail is relatively narrow, and will sink in the really deep snow. In deep snow ou have to ski these skis neutral or even with a little tip pressure which is somewhat scary in the big bumps. I did ski Larkspur bowl today where it was virtually untracked and fairly steep, and they were fantastic.
If you are skiing powder over groomed, I found that pressuring the tip under the ball of your downhill boot led to effortless turns even when skiing in cut up slightly heavy powder. The shape of the tip and slight rocker make it really easy to initiate this type of turn at relatively high speeds.
I would suggest that if demoing skis and the BBR is available, give it a try. There might even be a pair available to purchase this year. You would have to check with your Salomon retailer. Mine were shipped from a Salomon warehouse here in the U.S.
Thanks for the comprehensive review jappleby! We enjoyed skiing them in Park City as well.