HOW I GOT HOOKED ON MONOSKIING

I have been skiing for 30 years & have been president twice of The Balboa Ski & Sports Club of Newport Beach, CA. and this year I am race director.  I was the first member of Balboa to purchase a pair of “fat boys” when they first came out.

After watching snowboarders float through deep powder in Warren Miller films, I watched with interest two monoskiers in Mammoth several years ago.  It turned out that he was a fellow pharmacist and his wife had a serious knee accident on skis five years before.  Her orthopedic surgeon had said “DON’T EVEN THINK OF SKIING AGAIN.”  He said, “I took up monoskiing while she was in rehab the first year and  she has been monoskiing the last four years”.  I asked, “How are they in powder?”.  He said, “YOU WILL THINK YOU ARE IN HEAVEN !”.

I spent two years looking for a parabolic sidecut monoski.  I located Snowshark Monoskis after a web search.  After a short drive to their facility, and an in depth discussion with the designer and manufacturer I was ready to purchase the Snowshark.  I found it had a wood core, carbon and glass fiber, 360 degree ONE PIECE EDGE, a sidecut shape, and cap construction.  I BOUGHT IT IMMEDIATELY!!  All I wanted was to get the bindings on and to get to Mammoth Mountain.

Now, it’s all history.  A short learning curve and all my ski and racing techniques transferred easily.  There is a time when your learning curve shoots straight up.  The day after my learning curve shot straight up, Mammoth had a foot of Sierra Cement.  It was great.   My friends were having yard sales and dead quads and I was floating on the snow.  I was on a PERFECT PLATFORM.

The Snowshark floats on the powder, plows through the crud, carves on hardpack, effortlessly glides through slush, has a quick learning curve, is ACL friendly, has downhill fall line skiing without the blind spot of a snowboarder and NO TIPS TO CROSS.

My “fat boys” gather dust in the garage since I have not skied them since.  My quads can ski all day on powder.  Since I race for Balboa, I have to spend about 30% of my time on my slalom and GS skis, however, I head straight for my Snowshark after my race.  My fun meter is MAXED OUT on my monosk and Snowshark has made me a better racer by improving my balance and edge control.

I normally ski 25,000 to 30,000 vertical feet a day on the monoski in Mammoth and have skied 40,000.   It all depends on the lift lines and lunch with my friends. 

COME ON, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?  YOU KNOW YOU’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO SKI POWDER LIKE YOUR BUDDIES.

Hey, if you have any questions, call or e-mail me.