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Ode to the DPS Lotus 138 (and Volant Spatula)
REVERSE CAMBER - REVERSE SIDECUT
Let me tell you about a ski that has chaaaaaaaaaaaaaanged my life. (Imagine me as a street preacher waving around a fat ski).
DPS Lotus 138. It is the shit.
It is really the only ski anyone should be on in soft snow. Even at CO low tide. Why? Because no other ski is more forgiving on breakable crust, rock hits, and shallow snow. It lets you be super light on your feet to avoid/minimize rocks... cool for early season. But the real reason I have them is that there is no better tree ski, no better pow ski, that is also a crud ski. They also turn dust on crust to bottomless.
Sure I rock my EHPs when I want my alpine boots and want to charge hard.
Any other day over about 5/6" I'm on my DPS Lotus 138s, inbounds or not. They make tight trees super fun. They make crud feel like almost untracked. They ski breakable crust like pow. They let you ski longer because they take so much less input. That is why mine are mounted for touring, because you don't need an alpine boot to drive these. they require less boot than traditional ski (more boot doesn't hurt though). They open your beer and make sure your car never runs out of gas!!!
You can be a true soul skier and rip the ski that is the disciple of McConkeys Spatula. Lotus 138. All time best ski ever period.
Drink the koolaid yo! If I could only own two skies at all period, I'd own a DPS Lotus 138 and a something else like a Wailer 112 or Wailer 106 or something like that. 138 no question.
I have more days on Lotus 138s than any other ski, as I've been skiing the design for 10+ years.
But where did the Lotus 138 (and all these other skis) come from?
SKI HISTORY - VOLANT SPATULA'S CHILDREN
I still have my Volant Spatula 186s which I got in 2004 and skied a ton until I got my first Lotus 138s in about 2007. I still ski the Spats occasionally. They are heavy at about 15# for the pair... without bindings, (one ski weighs about as much as a pair of 138s). They are full reverse sidecut reverse camber 115-125-115 (as opposed other 138s which have a flat camber section with sidecut underfoot to hold an edge) which made the Spatulas heinous cat tracks.
These are the instructions, or Mental Floss, Shane McConkey wrote and were included with the Spatula in 2002:
https://www.evo.com/what-is-so-speci...i-the-spatulas
McConkey's Spatula was the progenitor of all the fun shaped skis we have now. Every fun-shape skier should read Mental Floss. Keep in mind it was addressed to people skiing traditional side-cut/traditional camber skis 90-108mm underfoot like the Volkl Explosiv, Salomon Pocket Rocket, Volant Chubb, and Atomic Powder Plus as their pow skis. He wanted to change their thinking, but it all applies just as well today.
All of our fun skis today are just evolved (compromised) Spatulas. They took the Spatula and compromised some design elements to make it better on hard snow. OK, losing the stainless steel top sheet was not a compromise (Lotus 138, Praxis Pow)... but every 5-point sidecut ski is the progeny of a a GS ski that had sex with the Spatula. The very first was Eric 'Hoji' Hjorleifson's 4FRNT EHP in fall 2005. Drake's DPS Wailer 112RP was the first widespread 5point design success in spring 2010 following the lesser appreciated fall 2009 release of JP Auclair's Aramada JJ. These were mainstreamed (copied) by the extremely successful Salomon Super 7 in 2011. Now every brand has something like that.
The true natural snow only tool remains a Lotus 138.
@hutash @adimmen @blurred @marshalolson @evile
Let me tell you about a ski that has chaaaaaaaaaaaaaanged my life. (Imagine me as a street preacher waving around a fat ski).
DPS Lotus 138. It is the shit.
It is really the only ski anyone should be on in soft snow. Even at CO low tide. Why? Because no other ski is more forgiving on breakable crust, rock hits, and shallow snow. It lets you be super light on your feet to avoid/minimize rocks... cool for early season. But the real reason I have them is that there is no better tree ski, no better pow ski, that is also a crud ski. They also turn dust on crust to bottomless.
Sure I rock my EHPs when I want my alpine boots and want to charge hard.
Any other day over about 5/6" I'm on my DPS Lotus 138s, inbounds or not. They make tight trees super fun. They make crud feel like almost untracked. They ski breakable crust like pow. They let you ski longer because they take so much less input. That is why mine are mounted for touring, because you don't need an alpine boot to drive these. they require less boot than traditional ski (more boot doesn't hurt though). They open your beer and make sure your car never runs out of gas!!!
You can be a true soul skier and rip the ski that is the disciple of McConkeys Spatula. Lotus 138. All time best ski ever period.
Drink the koolaid yo! If I could only own two skies at all period, I'd own a DPS Lotus 138 and a something else like a Wailer 112 or Wailer 106 or something like that. 138 no question.
I have more days on Lotus 138s than any other ski, as I've been skiing the design for 10+ years.
But where did the Lotus 138 (and all these other skis) come from?
SKI HISTORY - VOLANT SPATULA'S CHILDREN
I still have my Volant Spatula 186s which I got in 2004 and skied a ton until I got my first Lotus 138s in about 2007. I still ski the Spats occasionally. They are heavy at about 15# for the pair... without bindings, (one ski weighs about as much as a pair of 138s). They are full reverse sidecut reverse camber 115-125-115 (as opposed other 138s which have a flat camber section with sidecut underfoot to hold an edge) which made the Spatulas heinous cat tracks.
These are the instructions, or Mental Floss, Shane McConkey wrote and were included with the Spatula in 2002:
https://www.evo.com/what-is-so-speci...i-the-spatulas
McConkey's Spatula was the progenitor of all the fun shaped skis we have now. Every fun-shape skier should read Mental Floss. Keep in mind it was addressed to people skiing traditional side-cut/traditional camber skis 90-108mm underfoot like the Volkl Explosiv, Salomon Pocket Rocket, Volant Chubb, and Atomic Powder Plus as their pow skis. He wanted to change their thinking, but it all applies just as well today.
All of our fun skis today are just evolved (compromised) Spatulas. They took the Spatula and compromised some design elements to make it better on hard snow. OK, losing the stainless steel top sheet was not a compromise (Lotus 138, Praxis Pow)... but every 5-point sidecut ski is the progeny of a a GS ski that had sex with the Spatula. The very first was Eric 'Hoji' Hjorleifson's 4FRNT EHP in fall 2005. Drake's DPS Wailer 112RP was the first widespread 5point design success in spring 2010 following the lesser appreciated fall 2009 release of JP Auclair's Aramada JJ. These were mainstreamed (copied) by the extremely successful Salomon Super 7 in 2011. Now every brand has something like that.
The true natural snow only tool remains a Lotus 138.
@hutash @adimmen @blurred @marshalolson @evile
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