The Story of ISPO
They say it takes ten years to become an overnight success — and I'd argue the same is true for awards. The journey of the Citadel becoming the top ski in the world for its category began many, many years ago .
We knew winning Gold for our HDT™ technology again would be difficult since the Endurance already took that crown in 2015, but the Citadel had something going for it since the beginning — it's light. Really, light.
Weight and stability go hand-in-hand. There's a reason F-1 cars aren't allowed to use mass dampeners — it works too well, so nixing the equivalent to 1/3 of a ski in weight wouldn't exactly help the cause for a normal ski.
Yet, this is actually exactly how we won ISPO. A ski normally underperforms on harder snow if it's too light... what if we could prove that wrong?
Enter VibeStop™.
We had already proven it capable of incredible damping levels, especially in high-vibration situations. So it was only natural to combine it with a light, full-carbon, layup to see what would happen.
"Yet, this is actually exactly how we won ISPO."
Essentially, HDT™ performs better and better the more extreme the environment. This is how why it 'ramps' up its dampness co-efficient as a ski gets more and more excited (i.e. vibrations & speed increase) — in effect, reversing the chatter and vibrations in a ski.
The same is true of a ski with a full-carbon layup like the Citadel. Carbon has an incredibly high tensile strength (which is exactly what makes it so light), but this strength also comes at a cost in the form of teeth-chattering vibrations and that 'oh-shit' feeling at high speed. Combining HDT™ with carbon is akin to an extreme environment due to carbon's high tensile strength.
Adding HDT™ to carbon instantly increases HDT's effectiveness and allows us to create a lighter ski that doesn't chatter nearly as much as a normal ski. It's low swing-weight makes it easy to maneuver and flick around in the trees, bumps and bowls, yet still be incredibly stable on groomers or hard snow.
"Combining HDT with carbon is akin to an extreme environment due to carbon's high tensile strength."
It's never going to beat a race ski that is 3-times the weight, but it's far beyond what anyone has ever been able to accomplish in making a light ski handle well.
Precise channels are milled into the Aspen wood core. The final design for the Citadel has almost twice the HDT™ shown here.
Which leads us to the Gold.
I.S.P.O is the largest gathering of outdoor brands in the world and takes place in Munich, Germany each winter. The most prestigious award in the industry — I.S.P.O. Gold — was awarded to Renoun for the second time in 4 years for this breakthrough of light yet stable ski design. The award is only given to the best of the best. It represents the pinnacle of innovation and is testament to Renoun’s continued dominance in ski technology development.
The Citadel's full-carbon construction melded with Renoun’s patented technology makes for the most stable, full-carbon ski in the world — a mighty claim that has clearly held up.
“This is game changing. . . we spent years developing and testing this ski — the team is excited to see it capture such a notoriously difficult international trophy.” — Cyrus Schenck
Renoun first won Gold for the Endurance ski in 2015 and to win it again in 2019, only 4 years later, is an achievement few can claim. The technology that powered both these awards, HDT™, is in all of Renoun skis.
The Citadel is available only online at www.renoun.com/products/citadel
