The ski was initially envisioned by professional freeskier Shane McConkey as early as 1996, and he convinced the company to manufacture the first prototypes in the summer of 2001.
The Spatula gained a cult following, and along with its successor the K2 Pontoon (2006), inspired other ski manufacturers to experiment with a variety of camber shapes.
That same year, McConkey came up with the concept for the Spatula at a bar in Argentina and sketched the first design onto a beer napkin, believing that a "fat" ski with reverse side-cut would provide additional floatation underfoot where the skier needed it the most.
Eventually the group realized that some de-cambered Chubbs bent upward at the tips and tails skied better in the fresh powder than any of the new prototypes did.
Gaffney's assertion prompted McConkey to locate his bar napkin from 1996, and ponder the concept again considering that powder is similar to water.
Turner and fellow Volant engineer Ryan Carroll were the only people interested in pursuing this concept with McConkey amidst a company financial crisis, so in the summer of 2001 they hand-built four pairs of concept Spatula skis in their spare time at the original Volant factory in Wheat Ridge, CO.
While other professional skiers flailed in the wet heavy snow, McConkey reported enthusiastically back to Turner how well the ski performed.
Volant Closure and Acquisition by Atomic By the time McConkey returned home from New Zealand, stocks buoyed by the tech industry had fallen.
At some point, one of the prototype Spatulas was given to Larry's Boot Fitting in Boulder, CO, where it was displayed to the public with a signed message from McConkey directed toward the ski industry.
Per an employee, during the ownership transition from founder Larry Houchen to Charlene and Todd Hoffman and Elaine and Dan Vardamis in 2020, the McConkey-signed prototype Spatula was stolen.
McConkey wanted to build the next generation of the Spatula when he lost Volant's support and moved to K2, where he ultimately designed the K2 Pontoon to avoid future patent infringement.
Peter Turner went on to co-found the ski company Drake PowderworkS, better known as DPS, and discussed ways of improving on the Spatula design with McConkey, including by adding a small amount of side cut underfoot to give the ski controllability in hard snow or in risky conditions such as a ridge line traverse or the top of a snow chute.
Although Atomic maintained Volant's existing intellectual property rights for stainless steel skis, it did not pursue the patent for the Spatula itself.
Atomic continues to manufacture Volant stainless steel skis as of November, 2023, but after retaining its own branding identity for nearly 20 years, the volantski.com domain started directing to atomic.com.
With McConkey's tragic death in 2009 and the ski's unique properties due to its shape and its stainless steel construction, the Spatula's popularity only increased.