Protesting the Backcountry: Building a Better Backcountry Ski

Tabke had been killing it in contests on his worn out Spats, but he eventually broke them at a contest at Squaw Valley. Local ripper, Kevin O’Meara (cousin of Keith O’Meara), pulled Drew aside and basically said, “Hey, check out what we’ve been up to. They’re back.” So Tabke teamed up with Praxis, and the result was a Praxis-built pro model with an undeniable likeness to Praxis’ version of the Spatula.

Earlier, after seeing Keith’s skis and being impressed by how well they were built, I had sold my own Spatulas and bought a pair of Powder Boards. So when Drew’s model came out, I held them next to my Praxis Powders and noticed that they were almost identical in shape. Tip and tail rocker, tip and tail taper…same ski. There were only two areas of difference.

Rather than the widest point of the ski being right at the foot, the Praxis Protest had essentially just a straight sidewall along the boot (well, it was 1mm wider behind the foot, but who’s counting). It was just enough ‘not reverse sidecut’ to eliminate the splits on hard snow.

The Protest was also just slightly cambered underfoot. This, coupled with the barely existing sidecut, gave the ski just enough bite to ski on hardpack with your shins pressed against the tongues of your boots, ski “normally,” and relax a bit.

I’ve had a pair of Protests as my resort powder day ski for 4 years now. It is 99% of the Praxis Powder Boards / Spatula in every single snow condition that isn’t hardpack. But that 1% compromise is worth it, because I can end the day much less tired, knowing that I had used my energy skiing rather than working to keep my damn skis straight. This sentiment has been echoed by countless Protest riders; it essentially offers all of the three dimensional snow performance of a full reverse/reverse ski while addressing the lone, glaring shortcoming.

Obviously, I love the Protests. They don’t have the overkill sidecut of any of the other skis out there that have a similar taper and rocker profile. Because it’s a powder ski, that mess just isn’t necessary. The sub-18m radius of many skis following the same hybrid approach actually makes the ski behave poorer in exactly some of the conditions the ski was designed for. Just in terms of the Armada JJ, 136-115-133mm sounds completely reasonable…until you decide you want a long taper in the tips and tails and have to cram those dimensions in a much smaller length of the ski to accommodate it. Those dimensions work great for a more traditional shape, but they become more and more of a hooky snowblade the closer those tip and tail widths come to each other. Too many skis end up in this hole, in the manufacturers’ attempt to make their version of a hybrid ski that does it all.

Easily half of my ski days are in the back country, with more hours walking uphill than just about anything. For all my love of the Protest, it’s a wide ski to be driving edges into sun baked, iced over sidehills, and it’s tiring to get a 130mm waisted ski to bite perpendicularly for hours on end. Plus, breaking trail with it means that there’s that much more snow on top of the ski with each step.

An idea was planted in my head the first year I skied the original Protest: the shape is proven, the rocker profile is proven…so I’d be willing to bet my right arm that the shape would work fine in a narrower version.

There was only one problem: nobody makes this ski.

Some skis, however, are close. I bought a pair of 4frnt CRJs this year because they’re by far the nearest thing to the general shape I’ve been after. The CRJ’s tail flares out more than the Protest giving it a much smaller turning radius, but more importantly, a wider section away from the foot hinders the buttering, ‘slarve-ability’ of the ski. Wide points create drag. As straight as the CRJ is, it’s still not as straight as the ski so dear to my heart.

But the 4FRNT CRJ is extremely close to the width I’ve been envisioning for years. You’ll hardly hear a complaint about the CRJ’s ability to float in powder, so it’s width isn’t exactly keeping anyone from ripping pow turns. The common complaint about the CRJ is typically the flex pattern. Praxis has never turned out anything that could be considered a ‘soft’ ski, so it only made sense to me to approach Keith O’meara about building this ski.

Plus, anyone who’s ever owned a Praxis ski can attest to the build quality. In my opinion (an opinion I regard as a fact, by the way), Praxis does a better job building skis than the vast majority of shops of any size putting together sticks these days. So, to get Praxis to build this version of my ideal back country ski would not only be proper etiquette, since Drew and Keith came up with the design impetus, it would ensure that this ski would be one of the best built skis available.

Follow the link to learn more about the final details and options available for the WooTest, and why you really ought to consider picking up your own.