Imagine that your ski can surf down the powder slope
like a surfboard.
Imagine that your ski can skate down the hard trail
as it got short metal skids (or fins) cutting in the snow
just behind your ski boots.
Imagine that your ski can track and turn better
than any other ski you are passing by.

http://members.aon.at/edvsyste/DSC00939.JPG


Very first prototypes of the strange "ski with fin-control"
emerged on TGR forum in last winter.
We called them "Rax skis" to honor their Austrian birth place.

Heavy discussions on all big European ski/board forums followed then.
As a result Rax skis have been further developed to improve user comfort
and to ease the operation. Fins were moved forward, closer to the ski boots
in order to minimize the effort needed to press the fins in any hard surface.
Rax skis got much wider to promote fast surfing.

Recent models are hand-made wooden cores with all-metal extensions.
Yet the original recycling idea (cutting off used skis
and mounting one-piece extensions on them) was not given up.

http://members.aon.at/edvsyste/DSC00977X.JPG


The function of metal fins:
A)
When skier executes a carve turn
the right or the left side-wall fin starts cutting the hard snow,
such working as a functional extension of the ski edge
and preventing ski tail from skidding away.
Side-wall fins help accelerate the carve turn or modify dynamically
its radius when skier transfers his weight forward or backward.
B)
Raising ski tips presses the center fin in the hard surface
and lets skier "skate down the slope" close to the fall-line.
This is a new type of ski control. We call it "raxing".
At any moment it can be combined with carve, skidded and jump turns
or even plowing.
C)
All 3 fins as well as the swallow-tail automatically cut in snow
and control the direction and speed when surfing down powder or other soft snow.

http://members.aon.at/edvsyste/DSC00891.JPG
More than 250 Europeans have tried out Rax skis up to now: snowboarders,
backcountry experts, adult beginners, orthodox carvers, ski acrobats.
Childern and those who never left prepared piste before could suddenly ski
natural snow.
Unlike many adults, kids do not feel ashamed of wearing non-conform skis.


Rax skis are coming to USA now.
You are welcome to test this Austrian invention
or to become a member of hard-core RaxRiders.

Our first stop is New Hampshire and Vermont
from Mar 13 to Mar 23.
Ice Coast and all your beautiful trees and glades: we like you !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWLzE2O9PNw

Opportunity to test the Rax is on
- Friday Mar 13 at Mt.Cannon the whole day, 12:30pm
lunch in the lodge near the ski school.
- Saturday Mar 14 Magic Mts VT
- Sunday Mar 15 Mt.Cannon again
- Monday Mar 16 Stowe VT
- Saturday Mar 21 Sugarbush VT
- Tuesday thru Friday and Monday Mar 23 not yet reserved
but I can imagine Wildcat and North Conway