FROM OUR CORDILLERA DE LOS ANDES STRAIGHT TO YOUR FEET
Working hand by hand with the earth
"The land we walk through in Chile is millenary, it has ashes and minerals from the past, and that energetic connection is created in us with our land"
Chile Nieve: "The Story behind AWKA"
(Note: This article was translated to English from Spanish)
Our friends from Chile Nieve: www.chilenieve.com conducted an interview with "Tato Tejeda" our CEO and shaper, which we are happy and proud to share:
Awka, which means rebel, is a Chilean brand of supersonic skis that has more story than you might think just by looking at one of its products. We were talking with his creator about his beginnings and more, about this dream that began when he was a 12-year-old boy who did not know the mountain.
It was the year 1989, in the Pedro Valdivia Norte sector. What was unusual about this neighborhood was that it had internet when almost nowhere else in Santiago had it. It was known for being a satellite neighborhood , where there were many technology and computer offices.
Juan Ignacio Tejeda, better known as El Tato, a 12-year-old boy who was the first of his friends to download music, make CDs and also watch online videos. One day he came across a video of the well-known brand LINE Skis, where they showed their factory in its beginnings when they only made skiboards and you could see the wooden souls of the boards, coupled with each other, Tato was so amazed that he said : " I want to do this", and thus begins the long road of AWKA skis.
Over the years this idea came and went, it was something that Tato had really fallen in love with, despite the fact that he had never seen snow or gone to the mountains. '' It was more than anything a love for design and the hardwood heart of this product,'' he explains about this interest that led him to study industrial design, where he continued in the direction of sport but now designing bicycles as a hobby. However, he decided to change his career: ''I liked designing but I was missing something…like art engineering, so I switched to architecture''.
Architecture, no matter how hard it was for him, helped him a lot to understand the structure, geometry, solidity and inhabiting of the human being in space. Thanks to these tools, he was able to create his first skis but Awka did not exist yet. Tato went to work for an architecture firm, then got married and it was his partner who motivated him to make his childhood dream come true. This is how in 2012, in the garage of a house for sale, the first Awka factory was born. Everything was an experiment, a trial and error, but that was also what Tato liked: experimenting.
Awka is characterized by its innovation in shapes, designs and materials. The first skis were made with friends and they didn't stop there; Thinking that the winter season is short, they launched themselves with skate, surf and wake boards. All in true Awka style: mixing style with high technology.
Within the first skis that were made, several broke in the hand. It was a long process until the technology was mastered and they began to be sold. They were signature skis and their collections were never in series or scale production, but that is what makes a pair of Awka skis so special.
The name Awka has a great connotation and was the result of a long search for names that would demonstrate the essence behind it: the ancestral, the roots, the earth, the minerals. "The land we walk on in Chile, the soil, is ancient, it has minerals and ashes from the past, and that energetic connection is created in us with our land," says Tato.
Together with this idea of the ancestral, AWKA was born, which in Mapudungun means rebel, and since it is a word that starts with A and ends with A, it denotes a greater force. But it is not only staying in the mapudungún, the value of the brand is also innovation. The logo is a selknam walking sideways, this is how the ancestral cultures of our country mix, taking the skis to the temples cared for by the apus.
NOWADAYS
Currently the skis are manufactured abroad, "Outside of Chile they fell in love with the brand and that allowed me to open my market to produce in one of the most prestigious factories in the world, which was a great advance."
A small number of skis are still made to maintain their distinction, and they are always looking for and implementing new technologies and innovation, to at the same time make it more inclusive so that more people can enjoy their Awka.
The 2021 collection is quite interesting. It is called Wengan Newen (Break a path of power) in tribute to all those who suffer and continue to fight in this pandemic. As a brand they want to commemorate all the human losses and their families with only this model of black and white skis, without any kind of design, just the pure expression of its high technology. And this particular equipment is developed to be used in high mountains by three of the best mountaineering athletes in Chile, pioneers in their discipline.
Awka has a lot of history, a lot of mystique and a lot of newen. It is an honor that it is the first ski designed and manufactured in Chile and that it is not only stylish and efficient, but also has a great concept behind it.
Awka - A Legend of Ancient Love
WE RESCUE ANCESTRAL KNOWLEDGE FOR
DEVOLOPING FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES
In our constant search for innovation we have brought to our skis the technological crossover of all the boards we develop, including snowboard, surfboard, wakeboard and skate, leading the pinnacle of all of them to develop one of our iconic models called TOKI / THE BOSS . Below you can see why it receives this name, and since this model has so much details, we have decided to openly show you how it is constituted in its conception.
TOKI
ASYMMETRICAL SPOON TIP & TALE 3 SIDECUT SPOTTED STANCE
Double your ski hours with this freeride machineAn easy float and agile turn make it your perfect companion for those magical days where white dust is sucked in every curve. Try the comfort of our pintail shape that runs through the snow as if you were in the water and its sharp tips that support you on dust without effort. These skis really feel like two feathers on the powder.
Contact Point Transition
The Inner Rocker Transition shape, which is applied on all our models, allows for a smooth transition and added edge grip in skis that offer a rocker/camber/rocker format. Our exclusive shape consists in generating a transition shape between the ski´s contact point (which is were the rocker ends), and the begging of the skis´ camber. This eliminates the drag experienced at the tips with rocker shaped skis, adding extra smoothness to ski in the initiation of the turn, with added edge grip.
2S Spotted Stance
Our Directional 2 Sidecut Radius Spotted Stance technology generates a longer sidecut on the back end on the ski, generating less drag at the end of the turn, where speed is increased. This creates increased control, edge grip and stability at the end of each turn (which is precisely the place where you need it). This creates a predictable and stable ski, no matter what is your throttle appetite.
This technology is applied on all of our directional models. Think of this as a drop water falling through the air, wings of an aeroplane or a quille in the water. The objective is to reduce friction and drag, increasing the hydrodynamics of each turn.
