New this season, we now offer our flagship All-Mountain Freeride model, the Satori, with the option of either a traditional camber profile, or a tip-and-tail-rocker profile. Rocker, rocker, rocker. The word is everywhere these days it seems.
You can't open a ski magazine or look at skis online without being bombarded with rocker this, rocker that. Most ski shops carry models with various incarnations of some sort of rocker concept.
But what's it all about? And how does it apply to the Satori?
Well, simply put, progressive profile shapes ("rocker" falls under that category) open up a whole new dimension which ski makers can use to create new ski experiences. Now, there are no textbooks, no best practices of rocker design, so ski shapers can really push the envelope and come up with profiles ranging from the moderate to the ridiculous, and achieving varying degrees of success.
Traditional camber ski vs. full reverse camber ski
The options are endless really (tip only or tip and tail rocker? full reverse camber? camber underfoot or flat underfoot? early rise vs rocker?) but regardless of the specifics, the primary goal of incorporating rocker technology into a ski is to increase the ski's performance and "fun factor" in deep snow. Better and easier floatation is the name of the game, with a tip that naturally stays on top of powder. Not to mention the ability to quickly dump speed, smear and slide in deep snow, which are all concepts newly introduced to the sport of skiing thanks to this new technology.
All very exciting stuff, right?
So what does the Satori rocker option look like?
Satori 165 with rocker option and Vancouver topsheet - showing the tip rocker
With the Satori rocker option, we went with
- a very progressive, long tip rocker of relatively small amplitude
- a flat section underfoot
- a long, progressive tail rocker of relatively small amplitude
| Length (cm) | Tip profile | Tail profile |
| 187 | Rocker: 14mm over 560mm | Rocker: 9mm over 393mm |
| 180 | Rocker: 14mm over 528mm | Rocker: 9mm over 359mm |
| 165 | Rocker: 11mm over 451mm | Rocker: 8mm over 283mm |
Satori 165 with rocker option and Vancouver graphics - showing the tail rocker
And why did we go with this design?
Well, the Satori is an All-Mountain ski so we wanted to preserve versatility, even with the rocker option. With the combination of long progressive tip and tail rockers and a flat camber underfoot we were able to really get the best of both worlds: enhanced floatation when it's deep, while sacrificing very little performance on harder snow and in chopped-up / crud conditions (and Ullr knows that as much as we'd all love to ski untracked powder all day every day crud often ends up on the menu).
In short: order your pair of Crown Satori's with rocker option today, and be ready for the La Nina powder!