THE COOL SHAPES FOR SKIING

By VALERIE MARCHANT

Soon the only place you'll be able to find a pair of traditional skis will be at a yard sale. So-called shaped skis--a.k.a. parabolic, side-cut cyber--have revolutionized the sport, making the trip downhill easier and safer. Not since metal and fiber glass replaced wood have skiers gained so much from an improvement in equipment. The industry badly needs the boost. The number of skiers and ski-resort visits has been flat for a decade, while the number of skis sold has fallen 40%. Meanwhile, snowboarding has blossomed.

This season shaped skis account for more than 80% of the alpine skis being sold. (Total ski sales of $24.3 million were up 82% from the comparable period a year ago.) Shaped skis "have given a new life to skiing," says Bruce Barrows, vice president for sales and marketing at Elan-Monark, which introduced the first sharply shaped ski four years ago.

The shaped ski, a slim hourglass, is fat tipped, narrow waisted and wide tailed, making it shorter and more flexible than the traditional ski. The curved sides of the shaped ski carve perfect, skid-free arcs when edged into the snow, resulting in more stable and responsive runs for first-timers as well as advanced skiers. More than 60 models are available, and you can get help from manufacturers www.snowlink.com) retailers and ski magazines in choosing. Among the hot skis this year: K2-Four ($600), Volkl Snow Ranger Lite ($475), Salomon X Mountain ($655), Volant PowerKarve ($555) and Rossignol's "the Peak" ($649), designed by Olympic downhill champion Picabo Street.

Snowboard makers have been busy too, developing boards for the growing number of children and adults joining the teenage boys who once dominated the sport. This year's trends include a longer board with deep side cuts that allow snowboarders to descend all kinds of terrain with greater control. Among the hot models: the Search by Sims ($365), Salomon's Directional 163 ST ($420), the Custom by Burton ($430) and Avalanche's Sanders148 for women ($495).

To keep up, ski makers must constantly improve their wares. Salomon recently launched its SnowBlade, creating a hybrid that captures the thrills of skiing, in-line skating and snowboarding. As Carl Helmetag, CEO of Head USA observes, "Snowboarding opened a whole new image of fun, of carving through powder and trees, and these new skis answer that need in skiing. You can hear people on these skis whoop and holler. It's an incredible thing."

--By Valerie Marchant