DPS Skis Lotus 138 Spoon Ski Madras Purple, 182cm
It's hard to describe why powder skiing is awesome without sounding like you've been taking spiritual instruction from your burned-out uncle, but hey, sometimes you've just gotta float through pow like a disembodied conscience through the beautiful nothingness that we call existence, man. Whether you prefer your cold smoke metaphysical or a little more concrete, the Lotus 138 Spoon Ski from DPS will get you to the doorstep of deep-snow nirvana, with a hearty blend of float, power, and quickness that'll take you from resort storm riding to heli-trip enlightenment without needing to spend untold hours hanging out under the Bodhi tree while you wait for perfect conditions. As a narrower, but still giant, version of the classic Spoon, the Lotus is a slightly more versatile board, but it's still a no-questions-asked powder ski. It's 138mm underfoot, which isn't exactly all-mountain, and it has a fully rockered profile that lets you float through the deepest, fluffiest snow on the planet, pivot on a dime, and throw your skis sideways to scrub speed, powerslide, and get juuuust loose enough. The minimal sidecut tapers down to almost nothing at the rocker contact points in a design that DPS calls Paddle Tech, which means the Lotus is an exceptionally smooth, reliable, and hook-free turner, and the shovel employs Spoon Technology--a slight convex shape that turns up towards the edges, improving the ski's ability to plane over soft snow, make predictable turns of all varieties, and slide sideways without biting and bucking you off your line. Bodhi wood is in short supply, so DPS built the Lotus on a lightweight and energetic aspen core that's sandwiched between two layers of prepreg carbon fiber and finished with UHMW sidewalls (all together this construction is called Pure3) , making the ski both 30% lighter and 30% more torsionally stiff than similar boards with more traditional constructions. The end result is a ski that can charge without feeling lifeless and one dimensi...