As band saws whine in the telephone’s background, Ski Logik's founder David “Mazz” Mazzarella lets slip only a tiny hint of nostalgia, “it's bittersweet, I used to ski a lot more. I love to ski. I should have started a golf club company.” True, not much snow falls on his new tropical home in the South China Sea. But it’s a small price to pursue the one thing he loves more than skiing, building skis.

A few weeks prior to my conversation with Mazz, I'd spent a day buttering up Breckenridge’s Horseshoe Bowl in 22 inches of fresh on a demo set of Ski Logik Bombsquads. The experience left me pondering. I needed explanation on how the beautiful wood ski smeared powder one minute then crushed bumps or railed groomers the next. I couldn’t fathom why the featherweight boards felt stable and reassuring underfoot. My curiosity spiked when the skis stood up to every type of terrain yet were such a drastic departure from the epoxied, ABS, and metal laminate weapons to which I’d grown accustomed. So I called him and asked.