Prehistoric:
The Rumblings..
1997- DPS founder, Stephan Drake, is spending his second season riding powder in Las Lenas on Rossignol Viper skis- 60-something mm underfoot. After a 1 meter storm, he is making his 100th over the head face shot turn down Eduardos and collapses in a pile of exhausted sweat at the bottom. Stoked but limited, he witnesses his pro snowboarder roommate olie over him at 50 mph and slashes a huge wave feature at the bottom of the exit couloir. Stephan wants freedom from the fall line, and is ready to quit skiing and take up snowboarding.
1998- Stephan picks up some Volkl Snow Rangers and Rossignol Bandit XXX's- temporary solutions that offer glimmers of hope.
1999- Drake buys a dusty pair of Atomic Powder Pluses sitting unused in the backroom of a Colorado ski shop. 115mm underfoot, and surfable, he takes them down to Las Lenas the following season- there will be no more thoughts of snowboarding from this point on.
2000- Drake lands a cliff in the Aspen backcountry and bends the tips into a nice Rockered shape- Viola! Initially a bit bummed, all of sudden the skis take on a whole new life- they ski more dead but all of sudden way become more surfable, and the fall line is totally opened up.
2000- DPS Founder Stephan Drake is spending every summer surfing pow in Las Lenas, and experimenting with big skis- all of sudden high speed pow skiing is outpacing snowboards. Drake experiments back to the Nordica 105 but realizes the short, race-bred tips aren't doing it.
2000-2002- Drake builds a collection of and custom painted Rossignol Axioms and Atomic Powder Pluses.
Beginnings....
2001-2002- Drake is riding hard with Volkl Snowboarder and former Swiss ski team member, Cyrille Boinay in Las Lueñas. Things have evolved. His skis are 110mm underfoot, custom-painted, custom bent, rockered Rossignol Axioms with a build date of 1993. The two spend chairlift rides and late nights discussing that the lifestyle of storm chasing powder junkies, nor this new dynamic way of surfing powder on skis just isn't being represented by manufactures or media. At the wine bar in the Atenas, they decide to start a new ski brand with a new culture, and a revolutionary technology- carbon fiber. Drake is tired of trekking around the backcountry and wrestling skis that weigh 14lbs./pair. He wants light, ultra-high performance versions of the double metal laminate clunkers he is skiing on. Surfing and snowboarding have it right- light equipment is the best for both energy conservation and high performance riding.
2002-2003- DB- DrakeBoinay is formed. A vision is formed. A four ski quiver is designed. A U.S. based manufacturing partner is secured who is set to build light, revolutionary carbon fiber skis. The flagship model is the Tabla Rasa- the first 120mm underfoot pintailed, and rockered ski ever made- 30cm's of Rocker go into the design and design notes, but DB's manufacturing partner can't quite build it, but it still skis great with its long nose and setback stance. In the product and design description for the Tabla Rasa, and drawing from the term used in surfboard design, the benefits of "Rocker" is touted.The Tabla Rasa in 2002-2003 was the first introduction of the word "Rocker" to the sport of skiing.
2002- 2003: Boinay and Drake meet Oskar Enander in Engelberg, and some great powder sessions and lines surround classic european ski bumming.
2001-2003: Meanwhile, In Colorado, Shane McConkey and future DPS partner Peter Turner are drawing up and building the Volant Spatula. Its design characteristics are dubbed, "Reverse Camber and Reverse Sidecut." The Spatula takes powder skiing to 11.
2003-2005: The DB dream has incredible potential. Preorders fly in, the media loves it, but the Boinay and Drake dreamchild gets sucked down into a whirlpool as a result of a manufacturing partner who consistently fails to deliver product, and when it does come, it's often of questionable quality. Carbon technology in skis is not quite mature. DB disbands in the wake of ski delivery issues.
The Modern Age of DPS
2005: Drake and Peter Turner meet in Utah. Instantly they launch into discussions of flex patterns, laminate structures, and the fire is rekindled for the perfect carbon fiber ski. Turner infamously tells Drake, "it will be no problem for us to build these carbon skis elsewhere." DPS is born, the vision to create the perfect ski using spaceage material continues, and the duo start designing an entirely new 5 shape quiver of skis, including the iconic and groundbreaking Lotus 138 and Lotus 120. The Lotus 138 morphs the Tabla Rasa and Spatula concepts into the first Rockered ski with sidecut- a design that is copied by another brand within 1.5 years. The Lotus 120 shape becomes the iconic 120mm pintail design- a shape that practically every major and small manufacture now produces.
2005-2006: production season. in the wake of the db production disaster, DPS rushes to get skis into production. Turner and Drake sweat it out in Asia. The switch is made from Cap to Sandwich, twist becomes the first big manufacturing hurdle. In theory prepreg carbon skis are easy to build, but the reality proves itself to be another thing entirely. Drake ends up staying working long hours in the Chinese factory for 4 months, has a toilet backup and fill his apartment with ankle deep shit water. They manage to crank out 130 skis delivered by February.
2006-2007: A new factory to the South. New Press and manufacturing technology to battle the ongoing challenges of prepreg carbon fiber. Bamboo Sidewalls evolve as necessity. Offset Pin stripe designs: White Lotus 138's. Black Lotus 120's and Wailers. Lotus 138's provide futuristic powder performance- the buzz starts to gain momentum again.
2007-2008: Year two in the South. Huge startup issues remain. 14 hour days. Piles and piles of prepreg carbon waste mounts. Delivery is late again, but performance is unquestionable. The second year of Powder Road sessions in AK yields updates on Lotus 120 and Lotus 138 flex and rocker lines. 2008-2009: The move is made to switch Back to Plastic Sidewalls. Another start-up issue forces yet another radical move in production engineering. Through the process, a huge breakthrough is made. All of sudden pure carbon fiber skis can be made with the consistency and regularity of conventional fiberglass skis. All cosmetic durability issues are nailed. The warranty rate on a highend carbon skis goes below 1%- the future of highend carbon skis is secured.
2009-2010: We introduce our Hybrid line to complement the highend Pure: carbon+ nano line. The best skiers in the world want the trickest skis under their feet, and DPS looks for nothing less than full global domination.
