As President of RAMP it has been incredibly fun and exciting to develop a completely new product line of skis and boards starting from scratch. I have worked in the ski industry the last 34 years - as a factory worker making skis, a tech rep, sales rep, sales manager and VP of sales and marketing - and one of the most frustrating things was that we were always having to work around what we already had. New trends are always coming, and particularly over the last 10 years they have been coming faster and faster. Most big companies have about 35 adult models and most of those are no longer relevant. Companies generally wish they could get rid of of these and build all the new trends that are coming, but they can’t. Too much money is invested in their existing product.

At RAMP we can look far down the road and identify the trends around things like shape, width, camber and flex. The skis and boards on the market are all over the map, many at the extreme end of the trends. When we do extensive testing with a clean slate we can focus in on where trends like early rise and different types of camber are going to settle out and design new molds that really make sense. When all your molds are totally relevant and futuristic, AND when we then make these new shapes in all the right sizes, we can create a line which is incredibly advanced and clear.

We are introducing a new type of sidecut called Razor Cut which dramatically increases edge grip, even on wide skis on very hard snow. Our skis have very sophisticated shapes using as many as 5 different radius’s on a pair. With reverse sidecut at the tip you have a radius to the contact point making them more catch free. Another smooth radius follows from contact to heel where we have the straight Razor Cut section. From there back to the tail contact point is another smooth radius and the tail with reverse sidecut has another radius. Amazing technology.

Next week I'll talk about the logic behind the progression of shapes in skis and boards

Kilch
President and CESnow.