Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Skis: Fat-Ypus

Fat-Ypus. Bet you can't guess where it comes from. If you look at an image of a platypus, you'll see a wide and platform-like nose and tail. That and snowboards is where the idea for fat skis came from. About six years ago, company founder Jared Mazlish observed that snowboarders had superior flotation in powder snow. He conceived a design for a "super-fat" ski (140mm wide underfoot) that would give the skier more lift in the especially deep snow of the west. This revolutionary ski, called the A-Lotta, was popular immediately with the skiers of the deeper snow or backcountry. Considering it handled so well in the backcountry it was astonishing how it performed on hardpack and other snowpacks. It was a Freeskier Magazine editor's pick from the year it was released. Today, both Fat-Ypus and the A-Lotta are staples in the freeskiing community. The main questions remain though. How fat can we go? How fat should we go? What'd y'all say?




Fat-Ypus handmade skis,
Freeskier Magazine.

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