One of the most distinctive shapes to come along in recent past, the BBR is the brainchild of Bertrand Krafft (Beber to his friends, or BBR for short.) Krafft is the venerated Salomon designer who also gave the world some of its best skis.

Instead of using a traditional X-shape, Krafft designed the BBR to be like a V, with a surfboard-shaped tip, narrow waist and pintail. Krafft's vision behind the ski was to create a product for everyone and everything a ski that embraces the real-world conditions, not just untracked powder. With its radical sidecut, the BBR claims to carve on hard snow, while its broad shovel/tip should give it a measure of float on powder days. This year the line expands with the BBR Skylite, designed for intermediates who ski all over the mountain. A monocoque (structural cap) construction around a foam core should make it light and forgiving.