Get a Coffee - Watch This!

In amongst all the trailers and teasers we get pinged with at this time of year, this one stands out.

Take five minutes and enjoy The Weight of Winter from DPS Skis...

A massive snowstorm consumes Hokkaido, crushing everything under wind and snow with unrelenting force. Three wanderers push forward through the blindness of this elemental world, all the weight of winter pressing down upon them.

Find out more - DPS Skis

Awesome

Niseko, got to go back.

DPS are fine on something flat but the lack of tail makes them close to useless even medium steep. Japan maybe; rest of the work best stick to a more conventional ski.

I don't know, I skied my DPS last two seasons and they were fine everywhere - though I haven't yet skied anything steeper than 40 degrees; tails feel longer than tails on Armada JJs that I had previously, and I didn't realise short tails were a disadvantage.

Skis are a personal choice but definitely not for me (you are actually first person I have heard with good things to say). If you look at the basic design you have the following.
Big flappy paddle at front, so very little edge in contact with snow.
No tail at back (still no edge), basically like skiing those trick short 1/2 ski things. You already you are at a disadvantage before you even factor that the steeper the slope the more difficult it is to stay centred on your skis. If you consider 50% of skiing is essentially learning to move your feet forward and backward under your body this makes them incredibly difficult apart from smoothest of slope. Come upto slight bump, skis forward (no tail not nice), absorb bump and bring feet back under stay on top of skis. Plus you miss that feeling of power that a normal tail brings.
On the positive note I did find the rather striking yellow of great assistance in locating them following numerous disagreements.
Maybe I skied them too short and have also heard that people are mounting forward of recommended centre to help but seems too many disadvantages of skiing long skis to make them a viable option.

I don't understand why anyone living in Europe would want to buy skis that are made in the US. Ski manufacture is a European business, all the best ski component and ski manufacturing equipment manufacturers are located in Europe. Shipping the components across the Atlantic and the skis back doesn't really make sense.

From what I've seen the US manufacturers are mostly very small and very badly equipped. They don't seem to be able to afford the minimum order quantity for most of the components, decent tooling and most of the specialist equipment needed to make good quality skis. This is a tour the production facilities of one of the US ski manufactures.



The place is a dump, the working conditions are appalling, they don't have any proper tooling, most of the machinery is only fit for scrap and there's no in-process quality control, they don't seem to measure or test anything.

On their website DPS state that they have a "state of the art factory" judging by these photos it's anything but http://culture.evo.com/2015/02/dps-skis-factory-tour-office-series/ and if you look at this photo on their web site http://www.dpsskis.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/factory.jpg you'll see that it isn't actually a factory.

Remember, bullshit baffles brains and the ski industry runs on bullshit. They will tell you anything to get a sale, they have to do. The market for skis has shrunk dramatically since the 1980s, back then they sold 6.5 million pairs a year today sales are down to about 3.2 million pairs.

At least they are not made in China :)I do like my DPS, I think I've found my prefect powder skis, quite versatile too compared to Armadas, less floppy, more stable, good in chop. Likewise I haven't met many people who didn't enjoy skiing them. And they seem bombproof. So far only a couple of very cosmetic scratches and I am not the most careful owner. I bought them at 50% off, so had a great deal too. At full price I would have probably gone for kastle 118. But at 400 chf DPS were a no-brainer.