When, in the early 1990s, alpine skis started showing up at retail shops looking a bit more like snowboards and less like traditional, straight-edged skis, customers had their curiosity piqued: what was the advantage of this new shape, and why bother to upgrade? The fact that almost 20 years later ’shaped’ skis are the only type of ski being manufactured and sold is testament to the answer: they work. That is: shaped, or parabolic, skis ski well and with remarkably less effort than those traditionally designed. Borrowing from the shape and design of snowboards, which do not have a straight edge, but rather an arched one, ski designers and manufacturers began experimenting on alpine skis in form and function. The traditional...

Human creatures have, for the past 4.5 thousand years, found snow skis useful to increase mobility under certain conditions. But, only within the last 150 years has skiing become popularized as a recreation or sport. The roots of modern skiing can be traced to well known 1800s Norwegian pioneers, Sondre Norheim (the father of modern skiing), and Torjus and Mikkhel Hemmestvei (creators of the worlds first ski school). Near St. Paul, Minnesota, in the United States, is a tribute to Pete Dennison, 1909-1988, the apparent father of skiing in the USA. Skiing was also rooted in early American industry. As early as the 1850s, the wooden snow ski was used as an aid in the conveyance of men and materials around the gold fields of the Sierra Nevada...

Alpine skiing was revolutionized in the mid 1990’s by the introduction of the parabolic ski. Suddenly, alpine skiers were able to make sharper turns and ski down more challenging slopes with increased precision. Not only could alpine skiers with parabolic skis do all this, they suffered much less fatigue from skiing, as the parabolic ski transferred the hard work from the leg muscles to the skis. What is it about parabolic skis that make them so perfect for difficult slopes? The secret is in the shape of the ski. Parabolic skis have an hourglass shape, with the middle of the ski being the skinniest part and the ends of the skis wider. Parabolic skis are also a bit shorter than the straight-cut traditional alpine skis. The hourglass shape of...

Since they were first introduced in 1993 parabolic skis have slowly become increasingly popular amongst skiers all around the world. If you are not familiar with parabolic skis the difference between them and regular skis are that parabolic skis are very thin around the middle part and much wider and thicker at the ends of the skis. This type of shape is important because it makes activities such as turning while skiing a simpler task than before. Using parabolic skis made skiing easier for those who were just starting out. This has had an overall impact on the sport of skiing making skiing much more popular now that it is easier to learn and do. Even seasoned skiers are embracing parabolic skis because of the fact that they take less energy and...

Parabolic skis or shaped skis became popular in the 1990’s and 2000’s and are growing in popularity. Prior to parabolic skis, most Alpine skis were manufactured with straight sides. Parabolic skis are shaped with a rounded leading edge, broader ski face in the fore foot of the ski, a narrower middle portion, and a fatter back area. Imagine the shape of an hour glass elongated and set horizontally to create the shape of the ski; broad, skinny, broad. Alpine skis are those skis which are most commonly associated with downhill skiing. Downhill skiing is the practice or sport that is common at most U.S. ski resorts where in a ski lift transports skiers to the top of a ski slope and the skiers ski down. Other types of skiing that commonly take place...