1985 – 2004retired
Aldus PageMaker
“It taught the world that anyone could lay out a page — then let InDesign take the next shift.”
“It bent the rules of ski design backwards and the sport followed.”
The Volant Spatula was a ski built from 2001 to 2003, and the first production ski to feature both reverse camber and reverse side cut — a shape that looked wrong on paper and rode wonderfully on powder. It began as the pet idea of professional freeskier Shane McConkey, who had been pitching it since 1996 before convincing Volant to build the first prototypes in the summer of 2001. Skiers who got it, got it completel
Volant discontinued the Spatula in 2003, ending a brief but consequential life. Its spirit lived on in McConkey's successor design, the K2 Pontoon of 2006, and in the wave of camber-shape experiments it inspired across the ski industry. Few dead products can claim they permanently changed how their whole category is made.
Spotted something wrong? Every fact on this page traces to a dated source. Fixes make the graveyard better for everyone.
“It taught the world that anyone could lay out a page — then let InDesign take the next shift.”
“Exposé showed us every window; nothing could hide from you, and we loved you for it.”
“Kyū-hachi: the machine that taught Japan to type in kanji, retired undefeated.”