Atomic Blog (2010)

When the first rockered skis appeared a few years ago, the concept of rocker was like a loose firehose: powerful and potentially useful, but hard to harness. Ski brands have since figured out that applying rocker to traditional camber in small doses tends to make skis more manageable and versatile than rockering the whole damn ski. K2 and Volkl have incorporated slightly rockered tips with great success; Rossignol, with its innovative S7, combined a rockered tip and tail with traditional camber. Now Atomic has done it with the Blog. It’s a twin tip designed for powder skiing. The rockered tip and tail stay afloat in powder whether you’re skiing forward or switch, and a good dose of traditional camber in the ski’s midsection assure manageability on groomers and runouts. That camber also provides pop and energy—attributes that a fully rockered ski lacks. Check out this link for more info (under "Freeski," click on "Blog" then “Product Details” for a nice graphical explanation of the Blog’s unique combination of rocker and camber). [134/110/126; $749; atomicsnow.com]  —Sam Bass