Atomic sweeps the podium

[jtslalom]

After watching the last FIS ski race where Bode Miller took first in the overall standings, I noticed almost every top skier in their respective disciplines(GS, SL, superG, etc) was sskiing on the Atomic system. It included Atomic skis, boots and bindings. I've watched FIS racing all season long and have so for the last 3 years. I've noticed more and more skiiers skiing on this system. Does Atomic make snowboards? If so, do they make carving/racing decks. It seems as though they've pinned the market on race skis, imagine what they could do for snowboard race decks.

[bobdea]

AKA the now defunct Oxygen

and more recently Atomic snowboards no race decks yet but the jibber stuff is quite good

[Jamie]

Atomic owns Oxygen Snowboards but I doubt they are available in North America anymore.

You can buy them used, on ebay or at Blue Tomato.

You can view their lineup from 2003 (including 2 race boards) at www.oxygensnowboards.com but the website hasn't been updated since then.

But I'm pretty sure that they have dropped the Oxygen name now to go with Atomic Snowboards for good. From what I understand, they thought Oxygen image was too "Euro" for the American market, so as you can guess they no longer make alpine boards.

I used to have a Proton 172 and it was great until an airline broke it..

[kamran]

I saw new oxygens protons(new topsheet, same spec) for 2005 on bluetomato site a few months ago. I checked them again a few weeks ago and they were sold out.

[philw]

I rode an Atomic in 1989 here in Wuro land. I think they invented the name "Oxygen" to get around the anti-ski marketing thing which happened in the early 1990s. I assumed that they'd reverted to the Atomic name because that's all ancient history now.

Their soft boards seemed well constructed compared with most of the stuff you see. I suppose they'll make race boards as soon as the sport gets fashionable again.

[patrickfreen]

If you look close you'll see all the world cup racers on atomics are riding sandwich construction skiis but the atomic race skiis sold in shops are cap construction. form your own conclusion. I've worn out 3 oxygen proton slalom boards and one gs proton board. I really like them a lot. They're the best commercial raceboards I've ridden but I find the core breaks down after about 60 days of riding, and now that they're not available in the U S (because atomic usa won't bring them in, claim "they don't sell") , dont know what I'll do when my new 172 wears out.(got it off e-bay) Awhile back I thought about contacting Fin and asking him to look into bring some into the country but never got around to it.

[Neil Gendzwill]

My understanding: Sandwich construction is better for building limited run, or custom or whatever skiis which is why you see the racers on them. They almost never race on stock skis. Cap construction works well for mass production but is pretty tough to customize.

FWIW the Atomic production skis are also supposed to be pretty good. Ski Canada consistently rates them very high in their annual tests, which are some of the only tests left that actually say A is better than B for these reasons.

[patmoore]

I just bought the Atomic GS11M in a 176 length. The shop told me it was a Race Stock model and that the 171 cm is not available in Race Stock.

I'm not sure what the difference is between Atomic's Race Stock and off the shelf but I do know these are great skis. I'm taking them and my Volkl RT GS board to Park City for the NASTAR Nationals on Wednesday.

Anyone else going out there?