Two simple ideas of Arne Backstrom’s have made it to production with the Tecnica/Blizzard brands. They’re so simple, it’s amazing that other companies aren’t producing similar products (at least for the 2011-2012 season).The first is the Flip Core Technology method of producing reverse camber skis. Basically, with the traditional method of pressing skis, the core of a ski is convex on top, and flat on bottom, and is then “bent” to have reverse camber, so you’re essentially fighting the core. With the Flip Core method, the core (as well as the rest of the process) is flipped upside down, so the core naturally wants to have reverse camber, and any bending generally goes with the core. The end result is a more stable ski that still has the benefits of flotation and forgiveness that fully rockered skis have.
The second was to put Dynafit inserts on a race-flex boot for high performance backcountry skiing. If you’ve been following Unofficialnetworks.com since last season, you may remember Arne’s Frankenboot entry, which was essentially the prototype boot for Tecnica.
The video serves as an introduction to the Freemountain Line, explaining how it came to be. While the video focuses on one main ski and one main boot, there is a full line of each. Keep checking Blizzardsportusa.com and Tecnicausa.com.