Dynamic Skis were the dominant racing brand of the late 1960s and early 1970s. French made/designed in Sillans, France, just down the road from Grenoble. They won more World Cup and Olympic Medals in an 8 year period than any other brand. Period (noticed that someone in the forum said they didn't win anything...he's poorly informed). Jean Claude Killy won all three Olympic Alpine Gold medals at the 1968 Olympics,winning the Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Downhill. All on one ski: the Dynamic VR17.The VR17 pioneered torsion box construction (a lightweight, wooden core--but it could be anything since the core was designed to provide the form for the fiberglass layers), which featured multi-dimensional fiberglass wrapped around the core. This enabled the ski to flex as necessary and also for specific flex performance to be built into the ski via the directional layers of fiberglass. The VR17 (black and yellow in color) also featured "cracked edges"--the first to do so--which are ski edges with slits in them to make them more compliant when carving turns. Combined with high-backed ski boots, and the extreme sidecut of the VR17, these skis enabled the development and domination of the French Ski Team's "avalement" style of skiiing, or "jet turns" (the skier pushed the skis ahead to "jet" out of a turn and then used the torsion box construction and high-backed ski boots to pull themselves back up over the skis. The French Team ruled for a period of about two Olympics because they had Killy (and other great skiers), a new, more technical technique, and better technology. Dynamics (or officially Skis Dynamic) are traditionally stiffer and more suited for racing. If you have sloppy technique they are not for you; you must be able to set edges on ice (a skill that Mikaela Shiffrin has developed to a very high art) to really get the best out of the ski. Dynamic's two big rivals were Dynastar and Rossignol. Rossignol eventually swallowed up both brands. If you're looking for a classic ski racer experience, try to find a good, non-abused pair of VR17s...one of the greatest racing skis of all time. Even today, they'll push you to your limits. One other thing: companies going in and out of business in the ski world is just one of the hazards of that industry. The ski industry has a six month business season and the rest of the time the companies are looking for "counter seasonal" products--something they can produce and sell in the off season. Most companies have an overproduction capacity (they can make far more skis than they sell) and are faced with idle factories if they don't plan carefully. Ever notice how Head has such a prominent position in tennis (as do some other ski companies)?It's because Howard Head--who started in skiing--soon noticed that a ski factory had the technical ability to make tennis racquets, because tennis racquets have a similar engineering requirement (they are "beams" just like a ski) and use the same materials (fiberglass now carbon fiber). So the same guys who design great skis can also design great tennis racquets (voila--counter seasonal product). Jean Michel, the founder of Dynamic and designer of the VR17, once told me decades ago that as soon as carbon fiber became affordable, it would be the material of choice for sports equipment. He was way ahead of his time.
