The world’s first truly two-dimensional material, graphene is an almost impossibly thin sheet that’s literally an atom thick, formed of a hexagonal matrix of carbon atoms. Though it’s been theorized about for decades, researchers have only recently been able to isolate, study and mass-produce graphene, which is now on its way into production for all kinds of useful applications. Head Skis has found one such application in their new all-mountain-ripping MONSTER ski collection, where they’ve used graphene to help create a ski with “unparalleled light weight, balance and control.”
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WTF is Graphene? Head’s got it in their new MONSTER ski collection
The world’s first truly two-dimensional material, graphene is an almost impossibly thin sheet that’s literally an atom thick, formed of a hexagonal matrix of carbon atoms. Though it’s been theorized about for decades, researchers have only recently been able to isolate, study and mass-produce graphene, which is now on its way into production for all kinds of useful applications. Head Skis has found one such application in their new all-mountain-ripping MONSTER ski collection, where they’ve used graphene to help create a ski with “unparalleled light weight, balance and control.”
Imagine peeling the thinnest possible flake off a chunk of graphite. That thinnest possible flake of carbon would, in theory, be a sheet of graphene—and this is exactly what researchers Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov did when they wanted to isolate and study graphene. Reportedly using a strip of regular adhesive tape, Geim and Novoselov extracted a single graphene sheet from graphite in 2004, using it to demonstrate graphene’s unusual quantum characteristics as well as its revolutionary physical strengths. Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, and graphene is now on its way into mass production and integration into our everyday lives.
“As a material it is completely new – not only the thinnest ever but also the strongest,” the Nobel committee wrote. “Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again.”
HEAD Skis saw this groundbreaking new material as the perfect complement to their new MONSTER ski collection aimed at high-performance all-mountain domination. The use of graphene “allows the reduction of common material like wood and glass fibres and, consequently, the addition of extra titanal layers, which creates a ski with unique reactiveness and responsiveness,” reports HEAD.
Combined with HEAD’s ERA 3.0 rocker technology, the graphene-reinforced HEAD MONSTER collection “will chew up and spit out any terrain that comes your way.” Designed with hard-charging, high-speed shredding in mind, the HEAD MONSTER collection comes in three different widths—88, 98 and 108mm underfoot—so you can pick your poison, from a narrower all-mountain shape to a solid midfat crud chomper.
For more information on the Head MONSTER ski collection, check out www.head.com and HERE
For more information on graphene—which looks pretty rad, and which we’ll probably be seeing a lot more of soon—here’s what the Nobel Prize committee has to say about it.