 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Aren't they super stiff....Best left to the Russians if you ask me.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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whatever you think of their mainstream offerings, you have to give them kudos for producing the first reverse/reverse ski - the Spatula
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Has anyone ever skied them? I've always wondered if their price tag can be at all justified by their performance... 
And yep, they're owned by Atomic now.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'm always amused at the demographic that you see skiing them. In Verbier the majority of people skiing Volants are over 60. Seriously. I can name three of them and think of many more times I've seen this. (Those of you who know Joyce Read is on her 2nd or 3rd pair)
Mrs P thinks it because the graphics are always very straight forward - in fact most of them are just metal sheets, which appeals. The gold ones are probably OTT.
I suspect it's the way they ski, they're pretty stiff and very heavy so blast through everything and offer some great skid-ability.
I find it strange that people, by their own admission, are not as strong as younger people ski skis that are such a pain to carry.
As Arno said though, this doesn't make Volant as ski specialist for OAPs, the Spatula was revolutionary, and they've made other popular freerids skis: the chubby(?) and Machete.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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You know something funny... I used to think Voltant Ski's were the proverbial mutts knuts.
Round about 2001 they used to make some of, what looked like, the best free ride ski's.
And they also looked real cool compared to other stuff available then.
But they seem to have gone seriously off the boil since those days.
And now just produce super side carvers for (ripping) OAPs 
Spatulas were super revolutionary for sure - and attracted a real ebay premium for a couple of years after they stopped making them.
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| And yep, they're owned by Atomic now. |
Which is owned by Amer group who own most of the ski market i.e Salomon, Adidas and lots more.
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| parlor wrote: |
| As Arno said though, this doesn't make Volant as ski specialist for OAPs, the Spatula was revolutionary, and they've made other popular freerids skis: the chubby(?) and Machete. |
They were called the 'Volant Chubbs' it's the people on them that were chubby  Have heard that these were a very good powder ski and easy to ski too. They were around before such skis as the Salomon Pocket Rocket were available. It appears that Volant have gone more upmarket in recent times but all that metal must make them heavy.
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Judging by our testers' comments (I didn't get to ski them myself) they were fairly impressed with the Golds. They seem to be about right for their market: very smooth and stable in long turns, up to reasonably high speeds, without too much rebound. 100% on-piste skis.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| DB wrote: |
| all that metal must make them heavy. |
Actually, all that metal makes them -light-, in the same way that light steel wire can do the work of heavy rope.
Before 2002, before Goode got rights to the original moulds and before Atomic took over design and production, Volants were noticeably thinner top to bottom than wood or foam-core skis and they had to have extra padding in the binding mount area just so binding screws designed for thicker, heavier skis wouldn't go through the bottoms.
Unfortunately most of the ones (in the US market anyway) were mounted with extremely heavy bindings like Marker SC, Marker demo, and this trend continued into the Atomic era with NEOX. I have here a pair of Genesis Ms in 185cm that weighs less than 300g more than the 162cm Metrons next to them. Both have NEOX.
They are NOT STIFF along their length. The original Chubb was a worthy bump ski because of this, the Max line were excellent ice skis in their day because they could be bent into a carve without the longitudinal stiffness making the edge hop out of the ice skate groove.
They are very well damped; this is good when skiing frozen sunmelt, frozen piste basher chickenheads. I find the dampness to be very close to that of Head's Monster series.
Skied:
Zmax,
FX-2, FX-3 (these were offered to ski patrol in ski patrol colours, very easy to work in),
Chubb (had 5 pairs of these since 1994)
Titanium Chubb,
SuperKarve, PowerKarve (my favourite hire ski for ladies back in '97),
Machete (great all-mountain Colorado ski), McG,
2001-'03 era Genesis Silver, Genesis Gold (best citizen GS ski they ever did)
V2 Chubb, FatBastard, Genesis M
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 13-11-08 17:15; edited 2 times in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The Spat and the Machete series were McConkey creations and have a cult following. The rest tend to lack street cred (except maybe the Chubb) and its hard to see why anyone in Europe would pay a premium for them.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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cfc5mu0, that's a worthy ski for 205lb+ skiers.
Too bad the bindings are so hard to shift on the old steel cap ones, or they could command higher prices.
Volant had to provide their own drill bits back in the day; the holes were required to be tapped for threads or the top cap would split.
Old holes couldn't just be filled with plastic plugs; I used to thread M6 hex stainless set screws in and epoxy them in place.
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Hi, I am new to this forum, just snooping on line like a typical ski junkie.... noted the questions about Volant skis. I just happened to have bought a pair
of Volant Genesis Golds today, they were discounted so much couldnt resist.
My first set of east coast skiis were Volant Super Karvers in 1996. Shortly after shaped skiis came out.... I skied on them for 8 years until I bought a pair of Nordica
Hot Rods in 2005. When it comes to skiing the Diamonds & Double Diamonds in the east, with the polar ice caps at the top, I was looking for a ski that you can really
dig into the ice without tearing up the side walls. When I took the Hot Rods out and skied the first icy steep, tried to dig in and the side walls got chewed up. A bummer with
a brand new set of skis.
So, bought the Volant's today in anticipation of skiing ice. They have changed drastically since 1996. Waste is still skinny, but now with a raised platform to help initiate turns
a little quicker, wider shovel. We shall see........
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You know it makes sense.
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be really interested in your thoughts on the ski's, just from a skeek's POV!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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FAQ
