The rest of the story...

The aging RG10 was replaced in 68-69 by the S430, and what’s notable is that the model name was the factory’s phone number (430 in Sallanches; automatic dialing had not yet reached Haute-Savoie). Later on, it was paired up with a new giant slalom counterpart replacing the MV2, that kept up with current available technology but retained the omega rib core.

The early seventies saw Dynastar’s successful introduction of the Omeglass, a lightweight slalom ski, using a fiberglass “omega” rib that had become the company’s technical DNA and used acrylic foam as partial filler. Light skis would be an area where the brand would somehow create a niche for itself, even though many argued that extreme lightness wasn’t always a desirable attribute in an alpine ski; this feature was probably more appropriate with the “Altiplume,” a lightweight mountaineering ski.

This time also ushered a long period during which Dynastar slid from meaningful technical innovation into what could be called “marketing gimmicks.” The highly successful Omesoft model would follow in 78-79 and popularize the concept of “soft, easy skis” with a massive tip protector billed as vibration-reducing device that would pave the way for Dynastar’s introduction in 1984 of its “Contact System,” a protruding red heart-shaped stabilizer placed on the ski tip to counter Rossignol VAS system.

This would be compared to the Jarvik 7 artificial heart by those who mocked the contraption; the “Airflow” (an elaborate hole surrounded by a molded insert in the ski tip supposed to “stabilize” the ski at high speeds) would follow and confirm Dynastar’s penchant for questionable features. The “Assymetric” concept, that would give users two pairs of skis for the price of one by simply switching skis from right to left, followed and it became clear that desperate quest for differentiation was clearly fueled by a heightened competition between Rossignol and Dynastar.

The later didn’t want to play second fiddle to the first and lose its separate leadership, R&D funding, distribution and ultimately, its independence. Since its foundation, Dynastar managed to move its annual production from less than 10,000 pairs to more than 400,000 pairs in 2003 before falling today to around 200,000 pairs.

It remains debatable whether this sibling rivalry and duplication of expenditures between Dynastar and Rossignol had been beneficial for the whole group as opposed to a consolidation that would have shared development, manufacturing, racing programs and distribution costs and also forced early a differentiated positioning of two brands on all world markets, move that would only be initiated to a limited extend just a few years ago after the entire ski market began to collapse.

As the cards may soon be re-distributed, it remains to be seen which position, if any, the brand with the moustache will be able to fill; will it remain a “Legend” as its current flagship model or will it be history? If you’ve followed that story and have any opinions or details of interest, please send me your comments!

The early years

When I finally outgrew my blue “Duret Contreplaqués,” I broke my piggy-bank and purchased my first pair of Dynastar Compound RG5 in 1965 on a pro-form, picked the skis up at the factory and mounted them with a single pivot Salomon toe and a Look turntable, which probably wasn’t a very safe combination, but try to tell any seventeen year old boy about safety! I loved the skis; they held on ice like no others, were slick, fast and their only downside was that the tip was a bit too shallow and would make bump skiing a bit hazardous as it would too easily engage into a sudden change of terrain…

That same year, Les Ressorts du Nord, a steel maker, purchased the fledging brand and in addition to Marielle Goitschel signed up top level racers like Guy Périllat, both competing as amateurs, and Olympic Champion François Bonlieu who competed on the early U.S. Pro Tour. This is precisely when another ski company, Aluflex, also based in Sallanches, jumped indirectly into the picture. The company, founded in 1954 by Charles Dieupart, built one of the first metal skis using an aluminum sandwich construction (flat bottom sheet and “omega” shaped top enclosing a wood core.

That new ski design was endorsed by that time’s previously famous French champions like Émile Allais and James Couttet. Aluflex was also the official supplier to the “Chasseurs Alpins” (French Army’s mountain division.) Since Périllat was racing in both technical and speed events, Dynastar only had a slalom ski and now needed a ski for downhill and giant slalom.

Jeannot Liard, their legendary race chief, received some propitious inspiration from the Aluflex design, his previous employer, borrowed its overall design,capped a top aluminum sheet over the “omega” rib, completed it with phenol sidewalls and the MV2 was born (the name was a take on the physics formula multiplying an object’s mass by the square of its velocity.)

At the same time, the fiberglass slalom ski was revamped and renamed Compound RG10 while it received a dark blue cosmetic extending to its sidewall. That summer of 1966, the French ski team’s domination of the World Championships in Portillo sealed the notoriety of the brand and its future was further secured when Rossignol purchased the company one year later from Les Ressorts du Nord.

The beginning...

At a time when Dynastar is fighting for its life, I fondly remember how important that brand has been in my earlier ski years and I wanted to write its history, which by the way is available nowhere and is probably ignored by Dynastar’s current management.

Like its famous “moustache” logo introduced in 1966, borrowed from the coat of arms of Sallanches, France, where it’s been located since 1963, and that represents the meeting point of two small local streams, the brand had been a product of confluences between other brands, technical ideas and various ownerships.

I noticed the first pair of skis related to Dynastar in 1963 in the window of Alson Sports in Morzine, France. It was then branded “Starflex” and the model name was “Compound RG5,” the top was black phenol with clear resin sidewalls showing the fiberglass weaving. The product was made by a company called “Les Plastiques Synthétiques.”

These, aside from the “Fiberglass Jean Vuarnet” by Rossignol, were the first non-traditional wood or metal skis that I had ever seen. At the same time, Dynamic skis, which only made wood skis turned to Les Plastiques Synthétiques to design and develop its first torsion-box fiberglass ski for the 1964 Olympic Winter Games and the product that came out of that collaboration was no other than the now famous Dynamic VR7. For those sticklers with details, the “RG5” moniker meant “resin-glass, five years of development” while “VR7” almost meant the same in French with “verre-résine,” but this time the development time had somehow been bumped to seven years…

What’s more astonishing is that the Sallanches manufacturer wanted to create a legacy out of its collaborative work with Dynamic by subsequently changing its name from Starflex to Dynastar, a contraction between Dynamic and Starflex; it even stuck with the same lettering style, which goes a long way to say that Dynamic’s trademark attorney was probably asleep at the switch!

Sallanches must have been a hotbed of creativity when it came to naming products (more on that later...) Claude Joseph, the French distributor of Marker bindings, who at some point had his fingers into Starflex, named his line of ski poles Kerma, just by turning the Mar-ker name around!