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March, 2009-- His book "Freeheel Skiing" inspired
a generation of telemark and backcountry skiers, and Paul Parker
has also already left his mark on the sport through his product
development work-- particularly in boots and skis. Paul has been
heavily involved in the evolution of modern telemark gear for
decades, from the era of leather, through the early days of plastic
tele boots, and continuing into these times of very wide, shaped
skis. Many of his contributions in these areas are well known,
perhaps lesser known is Parker's involvement in the development
of NTN.
Representing Garmont,
Paul participated in the initial meetings of "the consortium,"
as it was then called, a group of binding and boot makers Rottefella
took the lead in putting together more than a decade ago. Their
goal was bold and ambitious: The cooperative development of a
new way of attaching a tele boot to a ski, and of advanced bindings
and boots built to this new "norm." Parker skied the
early proto types, witnessed the progress, the struggles, and
the fits and starts. He skied more proto types, gave his feedback,
and even when the NTN program appeared to have stalled dead in
its tracks, in all of our conversations through the years, Parker
always made it clear that he remained a believer in the possibilities
of NTN, as well as in the future benefit to the sport of a full-featured,
duckbill-less, modern telemark boot/binding system. |
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So it came as no
surprise when Garmont announced its return to the NTN fold, and
the news of Garmont's commitment to the system could not have
come at a better time for NTN, struggling in its debut year.
Even before I skied Paul's early versions of his and Garmont's
Prophet NTN last April, and then again when boot issues continued
to plague the NTN system this year, two things seemed clear:
Help was on the way, and Parker would deliver a powerful boot,
properly optimized for NTN.
In this three-part
series shot at the last OR show, Paul Parker introduces us to
Garmont's Prophet NTN as we discuss all things NTN generally,
but before that, in Part One, Parker recounts some of the early
history of NTN, tells of his initial impressions of the performance
of the system, as well as offers
his insight into key turning points in NTN's development, and
much more. Once again, Paul Parker finds himself at the center
of a nascent revolution in tele gear, one that promises to be
as important to the progression of the sport as were plastic
boots, so long ago, and we are grateful to Paul for speaking
out and taking the time to share his thoughts and knowledge during
this exciting and notable time in telemark's modern history.
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