Saturday, June 16, 2007

Line Sir Francis Bacon 2008

Line, Sir Francis Bacon, 2008

The Sir Francis Bacon is an amazing looking pair of skis and as innovative as one would expect from Line. With huge dimensions, 142-115-139, and a relatively short length of 182cm should prove the Bacon's very useable and agile in the way that their snowboard inspired ethos would have you believe.
The tip and tail are softer and easier to "butter", essentially to skid and slide over terrain features, the ski is going to be torsionally less stiff so that you can make more backcountry freestyle manoeuvres.
Aimed at the specialist the bacon is going to be best in the hands of an expert or aspiring Pro skier. If you wanna go big, spin high, and get yourself into the celluloid then a pair of bacon's could be for you.

The manufacturer says this about the Line, Sir Francis Bacon, 2008:

Eric Pollard never stops progressing his riding, nor the design of the skis that support him. This year he took his successful Elizabeth design, a few steps further in the form of Sir Francis Bacon. Sir Francis was given 10cm more length, 5mm more width and extended tip transitions for the best freestyle performance in the powder to date. Slash wind lips, butter off cornices, throw zero spins off cliffs, and stomp it all in fresh powder like it ain't no thing. This is how Eric Pollard rides, and this is his ski.

Eric is not only a sick skier; he's an artist, a visionary and most of all an incredible inventor. Most people will tell you they wish a ski was a little softer or stiffer, with more or less sidecut. When Eric wants to change a ski, he doesn't change it, he invents a new one. Read the PROPHET DEVELOPMENT STORY to understand what we're talking about. The Elizabeth and Sir Francis Bacon is one of those skis that many don't understand the first year because its so damn ahead of its time, (like many of our new models) but those that get on it can never go back.

Eric was spending 20 or more days a year snowboarding and was always frustrated when he went back to his skis that he couldn't get the same performance out of them. After months of thinking about it, he sent us some designs for a ski that had snowboard like features for snowboard like performance. He wanted a deep sidecut that was super quick at the tips and bigger in the waist so that he could carve easily off the lips of jumps to get corked and carve effortlessly once put on edge like a snowboard. He asked for a very soft flex so that he could butter on them in control like a snowboard instead of fighting the stiff flex. He made the geometry and stance slightly set back only about 1.5” but made the flex symmetric so that it would respond equally over terrain when riding forward or backwards. He insisted on sidewall construction for not only cool looks but a very forgiving snowboard-like feel when on edge. Then of course he wanted it to be wide for stomping fakie landing in pow and he strongly believes you should never ride anything narrower than your sneaker even on hard-pack. Ask him about it.

The result was the Elizabeth, possibly the most fun freestyle ski ever created. Most people think of this as a powder specific freestyle ski but Eric actually uses it mostly for park and insists that over time, others will as well. When he's exclusively in the powder he actually uses a 140-150mm waist version of the Elizabeth that we build for him only…for now. We made Elizabeth in a 172cm length only because that's what Eric rides for reduced swing-weight and light, optimal maneuverability while doing tricks. As you now know the ski was a huge success with the few that purchased the limited quantity produced the first year. Many skiers asked for a longer version so we listened and built the Sir Francis Bacon. While we were building a new length, Eric thought it would be a good bonus to go 5mm wider and adjust the tip transition too for even better float.

Eric painted the Elizabeth on canvas then we scanned it in the computer to print the top. The Sir Francis Bacon he drew on the computer using Adobe Illustrator. Eric named each of these skis . . . he's a creative guy. The Sir Francis Bacon was a famous dude who, coincidentally, was around in Queen Elizabeth's time. Google him or read the stories we found.

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