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WATERSKI MagazineWade Cox was in a funk. The defending two-time pro tour slalom champ had tasted victory just once during the 1997 season (Austin), and with nine tournaments already behind him, his usually rock-solid confidence was beginning to disintegrate.
There were nagging injuries, minor distractions and, of course, ultimate Cup winner Andy Mapple to contend with; but the basic fact of the matter was underfoot: Cox was ready for new fiberglass.
“I really lost confidence in what I was riding,” says Cox, the U.S. national record holder, who won his two tour titles on a VTX. “Really, the ski was the difference.”
The answer to his victory shortage came at Indianapolis, in the form of a 66-inch HO CDX-1. Cox's second win of the season came after just two practice passes on the ski. In the tournament he ran through 39-1/2 off like it was 22 and skied away from the field at the rough-water site – by an unbelievable four buoys.
The CDX-1 is one of a new breed of slalom ski that uses a full carbon graphite composite top and bottom, allowing the ski to flex and rebound instantly for incredible acceleration. The material also allows the manufacturers to lighten the ski for more response with less effort.
“Because of the way things are going in the sport – more powerful boats, stronger ropes – we [HO R&D staff] knew the new ski had to have more speed, to be quicker out of the turn. The graphite lay-up offered it,” says Cox, who finished second on the World Cup.
The carbon fiber/graphite phenomenon isn't new to Dave Goode, however. Goode has been building carbon fiber slaloms since 1995, and his secret is finally spreading like a California brush fire – more than half of the skiers in the Men III division at the 1997 U.S. Nationals rode a Goode ski, including the champion, Chuck Forrest.
“It's really no surprise to me,” says Goode, whose 9100 underwent slight modifications before its breakthrough in 1997. “About three years ago, I predicted that eventually there will be no fiberglass skis built, just as there are no wood skis built any more. Based on the amazing performances skiers are getting with the carbon fiber, I still believe that prediction.”
Aside from its incredible strength-to-weight ratio, carbon fiber offers better torsional rigidity and immediate snap-back – the tail doesn't twist as much in the turn, and acceleration is prompt.
The material is legitimate. Along with Goode and HO, Connelly, Iconn and KD are incorporating top and bottom sheets of graphite into three all-new skis. Connelly's Course is the first tournament slalom for Connelly in two years, while Iconn has designed its Sonic with wood stringers, a thin profile, inside-radius sidecut, three-stage concave bottom and microplane base. KD put a spin on its hugely successful 7000 by adding the graphite composite for the 7000 Composite Special Edition.
“The lay-up and stiffness-to-weight ratio of graphite will make this the most responsive ski on the water in '98,” claims KD's Denny Kidder.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is a new twist on the wide-body shape. Remember the ski that started it all in 1996, the Connelly Big Easy? The response to the model was so overwhelming, so satisfying, that Connelly and other manufacturers have produced two, and in some cases, three distinctly different generations since the Big Easy's debut. All have the same intent: getting “used-to-be” skiers off the couch and on the water.
“We've gotten hundreds of letters and calls from skiers thanking us for the product. It got them back on the water again,” says Connelly's Gordy Holmes.
Many of the same design features that made the Big Easy so attractive to skiers are found on the new lineage of shaped skis: wide tips for easy starts and wider-than-normal tails to keep skiers on top of the water. What has changed, however, is just about everything in between.
Connelly's new Super Mid incorporates an inside-radius sidecut and performance bevels that enable skiers to carve tight arcs and lay into turns – something the first generation of wide skis didn't allow for.
“The Super Mid is a ski that's a cross between our Mid SX and a conventional slalom ski,” says Holmes, who has championed the industry's move to wider, easier-skiing slaloms. “The new generation of skis aren't as easy to start on as the original skis, but they are skis you can ski faster on – 28-36 mph.”
HO has taken a similar approach. On the heels of the radically shaped Radius, the company is debuting the ARC Xtreme, billing it as the “next step” in shaped skis.
“The ARC has a surface area between conventional slaloms and the wider Radius,” says HO's Eddie Roberts. “We've taken some of the design features of the Magnum, a longtime performer, and added a dual inside-radius sidecut and graphite reinforcement. The result is a recreational-to-advanced ski that's high-performance and up to the demands of hard skiing.”
KD's Parabolic Series takes a similar approach: hard-core skis for soft-core skiers. “This new series of skis [two sizes] is designed to turn hard and run the course,” says Kidder. “And they're built for skiers of all levels.”
O'Brien's Freecarve, a compression-molded version of last year's Amigo, is more proof that the shaped design isn't just here today. It's here to stay. In fact, O'Brien team skier Andy Mapple is rumored to be working on a special shaped ski for off-season training, lending even more credibility to the design.
Whatever style you choose – carbon-fiber enhanced or super-sidecut shape – you won't truly understand it until you ski it. If you haven't been on a new stick in some time, '98 will make a believer out of you.
