The Anton Glider Ski makes its mark on the slopes

Bretton Woods ski school offers revolutionary new skis

There's a new and yes, revolutionary ski on the slopes of Bretton Woods and a few other resorts, and its makers say it can change the way skiers ski by getting them onto their often elusive edges.Known as the Anton Gliders, the Colorado-made, hand-built skis are being used this season by the staff of the Bretton Woods Ski School and a few other resorts.They're expensive at $4,300 a pair, but then, they are still in their custom-built phase. Costs are expected to come down to the $1,000 range once the manufacturing capital is obtained by designer and developer Anton Wilson of New York State, a process that he is currently embarking on with the guidance and contacts of SnowSports Industries of America, a Washington, D.C.-based national trade organization for the snowsports industry headed by former Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce executive director David Ingemie of McLean, Va.The skis are short and feature a full active suspension system, which pre-loads the tip and tail to give beginners and intermediates a stable platform by keeping pressure on the whole length of the ski.The ski works whether the skier is leaning back in a back-in-the-saddle stance, or evenly over the tips or boots. It's also true whether the skier is going over a flat or bumpy surface.In addition, as writer Mort Lund wrote in a recent issue of Snow East magazine, This sophisticated suspension design would give the skier this support constantly and therefore provide a reassuring feeling. This is opposed to a conventional ski, where the support from the tip and tail is constantly fluctuating between not enough on smooth terrain and too much when going over a bump.Based on automobile and motorcycle suspension principal, the skis are designed using a system of composite springs (not coil springs) between a chassis and the ski for consistent fore and aft support while allowing the ski to be very flexible.It's all about getting skiers to learn how to carve turns by getting them on their edges.During the recently held annual meeting of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association at the Mount Washington Resort at Bretton Woods, March 26 through 30, I had the pleasure of testing the two models manufactured by the company and to receive a lesson with sales representative (and former freestyle ski competitor) Jay Frischman.On one of those warm, cobalt bluebird-skied days skiers and riders live for here in the White Mountains, we took to the slopes at Bretton Woods on the 4 1/2-foot long Gliders. They flexed unbelievably, and featured a width under the boots of just 34 centimeters.Being a hockey player, it felt like I was bombing down the slopes on a pair of ice skates the skis reacted immediately to my every weight transfer, and I could feel that incredible feeling of being on my edges.And that's exactly what inventor Wilson was striving for when he began working on the design for the Gliders six years ago.Inventor of the longterm camera battery cell that is used by news organizations all over the world for their video cameras, Wilson, now 62, was an intermediate-level skier and in-line skater who was frustrated by how shape or parabolic skis never allowed him or other most beginners and intermediates like him to ever get up on their edges.I was a retired engineer, who had been in a bad car crash. I got into rollerblading for my 50th birthday, and I was trying to make my way down a road that was covered with wet leaves, and I was trying to learn how to brake, Wilson related in a recent phone interview. When I skied that winter, it was like deja vu from my rollerblading experience, as everyone on the slopes was skiing like I had encountered those wet leaves while rollerblading they were not on their edges, they were trying to put the brakes on because of the design of the skis.When those leaves dried up, he continued, I found I could let the brakes go on a minimal incline and really go down the hill feeling very relaxed. It dawned on me that that is exactly what powder skiers are doing when they ski through the deep powder in a controlled freefall state as they glide. Those advanced skiers were having their flight without wings feeling whereas we other intermediate and beginner skiers did not have wings on our feet instead, we had brake pads.He likened his frustration to having an ongoing tug-of-war with gravity which was the opposite of the experience he was seeking. So it really was not a new invention behind all of this it was my longing to have that feeling on skis that I had gotten from rollerblades. And it struck me that as an engineer, I really ought to be able to design something that would allow me to get that feeling on skis, said Wilson.As a first step, he approached the history of skis from an engineering standpoint. Essentially, if you go back to 3000 B.C., they have found skis in the bogs of Sweden which look pretty much like modern skis in terms of shape. They were clearly designed for skiing in soft impressionable snow. The ski is long, and the weight is distributed the whole length of the ski and that was fine in powder and ungroomed slopes. You were really skiing on a mattress, as the ski was flexible as you sank onto the compressed snow and the weight was transferred the length of the ski and the ski would bend. The snow was the suspension system, and it allowed you to use an unsophisticated ski. But, says Wilson, that all changed once we started grooming slopes after the war, around 1950.He likened that radical change to being like someone trying to use the same waterski on a water surface that had frozen. If you put a regular ski on a flat surface, versus an ungroomed surface, nothing compresses and there is no pressure on the tip and tail of the ski whatsoever, said Wilson.He set out to design a ski that would work on today's groomed conditions.I clearly wanted a pure carve; I didn't want to skid through my turns, said Wilson.His suspension system allows the tip and tail to always be touching the snow, instead of just 10 inches, as is the case with most skiers when they use a shape ski.It makes it so you are always in contact with the snow, like a motorcycle is always touching the ground even as you lean the front and rear wheel has to be in solid contact with the surface. You also want it to be high compliance, meaning that you want the pressure to be fairly constant, said Wilson.His new ski does that and for ski schools like Bretton Woods, it may just be the missing link for beginners and intermediates. I like it because it gets my students to feel the sensation of their edges that I am trying to get across to them, said Bretton Woods Snowsports School director Steve DeBenedictis.During the day of our clinic, four women from Massachusetts stopped by the ski school to return their Anton Glider skis. They were on the blue 5.5 nerver-ever beginner skis Anton also has an EX gold model for intermediates and experts.Asked how they first-ever outing on the snow had gone, the four women said they were impressed with the ease and comfort they felt on the new skis.We went from the Anton Gliders to regular shape skis, but we felt we could feel the snow under our feet a lot better on the Gliders, said one of the women, speaking as the others enthusiastically nodded their agreement.My skis aren't just for beginners and intermediates. I designed it to allow anybody on a groomed slope to be able to achieve that flight sensation that experts get in soft snow. You fly stable. You can get as much speed as you want on a green slope; a blue slope becomes challenging and fun because you're on your edges. The fear factor is gone what was once challenging gravity becomes a really pleasurable recreational activity, said Wilson.What began six years ago as an engineering exercise led him to an improved design four years ago.And in a sport where studies show that 85 percent of first-timers never return for a second lesson, Wilson says he and others in the ski industry are excited about the prospects for growth.I really think that carving on a groomed slope is the Holy Grail that eludes most beginners and intermediates. It's very hard to do on the conventional ski you need the whole ski and the suspensions to do it, and these skis achieve that, said Wilson.The skis are being used at the ski school at Bretton Woods, the Starting Gate at Stratton, Vt.; Belleayre in the Catskills of New York and Vail, Colo.I think ski resorts will embrace this as the word gets out because it will be a boost to their skier customer base it will excite them and get them to want to have that breakthrough and get on their edges to really carve their turns, said Wilson.For more information, go to www.antongliders.com or call the Bretton Woods ski school at the Mount Washington Resort at 278-3320. Bretton Woods is scheduled to remain open through April 20.