Go Ahead, Look Down
Custom skis that turn, float, and rip it up the way you like

Clay Ellis

Two seasons ago, Forest "Jump" Sandberg, a big-air hucker in Jackson, Wyoming, launched an 80-footer on a powder day. Unfortunately, he landed where there was no fluff—in an avalanche-bomb crater—augured into wet snow, stopped breathing, and had to be revived through CPR. Sandberg's custom-made Igneous skis, however, needed no attention at all.

Credit Igneous founder Adam Sherman, a skier and entrepreneur who makes some of the burliest boards around. Each maple core is hand-selected and vertically laminated before being shaped, wrapped in a triaxial braid of fiberglass, and then sandwiched between two layers of Kevlar tissue to shield against core shots. You select the shape (fat or mid-fat), side cut (slalom, GS, or carver), flex pattern (round alpine or progressive race), stiffness, and graphics (check out a partial sampling of the topsheet patterns, right).

What do all these choices get you? A set of boards that conforms to your desires, looks outrageously cool, and is tough enough to defy edge blowouts for many years to come. Sure, Igneous skis are a little heavy—well, OK, at nearly 12 pounds a pair, the damn things feel like they're lined with lead. But that, plus a bill somewhere between $500 and $1,500, is the price you pay for limited-edition, one-of-a-kind custom skis. Sherman should have little trouble unloading the 500 pairs he plans to make this year.