Wayne Wong has been on skis for more than 41 years.
A former world freestyle ski champion and revered ski legend, Wong is trying to help introduce the next generation of skiing to something the industry hasn’t really seen before.
Wong is a representative with the Anton Active Suspension, a glider ski invented eight years ago by Anton Wilson.
Wilson is no stranger to successful inventions; he was one of two creators of the Anton/Bauer battery that runs professional video cameras widely used in television and film today.
After Wilson was in a serious car accident, his rehab required physical activities to build his body back up.
He took up rollerblading and then skiing.
But Wilson wanted something more out of his time on the hill.
“The sensation that (Wilson) felt rollerblading was sort of gliding down the road,” Wong said. “And he wanted to get that same sensation for skiing. But he couldn’t do that and couldn’t figure out why.”
The inventor searched for a way to allow skiers to have more stability, mobilization and directional control at all levels.
What did he do?
He put a suspension system on the top of a ski.
A 162-centimeter one-size-fits-all ski, the UFOria Anton ski may look alien to most skiers, and the suspension system is as complex as it looks.
The active suspension system serves as a stabilizer that allow skiers to keep a constant state of balance; leaning too far forward or backward on a pair of skis isn’t going to be a problem any more according to Wong.
“It’s so simple,” he said.
The design features both a tip and tail pressure system, including 16 spring elements in a pair of skis.
The system is designed to help skiers both expert and beginner to enjoy skiing as a whole without the out-of-control feeling when blazing down the mountain.
Wong and his associates were in Park City this week marketing the ski around the city’s resorts and on Monday skied with some of the top instructors at Deer Valley Resort. He heard nothing but positive reviews.
But this new-line invention comes with a caveat. Right now, a pair of skis fully loaded with all the amenities is listed at $2,500.
“Yeah, it’s expensive,” Wong said. “But if you can afford it, you should get it. It’s a game-improvement tool. It’s going to change how you feel about skiing and how you ski.”
Wong said the plan is to lower the price down the road so that the skis are more marketable to a larger target audience, but right now the company needs the volume to do price tuning later on.
The suspension system is built in the U.S., with some of the skis made in Telluride, Colo., and others in Slovenia.
According to Wong and his associate Karl Lund, who worked as a ski instructor at Deer Valley for 17 years, the system will be best suited for hard, icy snow and even moguls. Admittedly, the pair said, the ski isn’t ideal for powder snow because it sinks fairly easily.
“I am not afraid to take someone who’s never skied before and put them on this ski,” Lund said.
Both Wong and Lund helped design and test the UFOria series.
“We’ll build you a custom ski to fit your specific needs,” Wong said. “In reality, we can change so much of our system here to really, really customize it for the individual.”
Marketing to an audience typically set in its ways will be difficult, but Wong, who has seen ski fads come and go, sees this as a product that will not just become a distant memory.
“It certainly has a broader range of functionality than anything else on the market right now,” he said. “That’s what we’re very excited about.”