realskiers

Liam, you are clearly one of the tiny percentage of shop people who put some thought and consideration into matching the right ski with the skier. Kudos to you. I spend a lot of time browsing ski shops, and buy a lot of skis, and it's a rare shop that has someone who asks the right questions: ability, weight, intended use, skier style (finesse vs power), snow type...  So few ask these very pertinent questions.  I can probably count the good sales guys I've met on one hand. 

The CX80 is a good example actually.  Every shop where I saw that ski (there were a lot of them), the sales guys were punting the CX80 to me as the ultimate all mtn ski, and claimed it would be a perfect match.  Forget it.... That thing was way too stiff for anyone except a heavy, aggressive, high speed power skier.  I never even bothered with a demo.  Dynastar's Contact 4x4 was similar - rave reviews, but when I demoed it I found it to be a plank -- great at high speed, but zero fun factor any other time. One of the few Dynastars I have not enjoyed.

As for well-written reviews, there are few.  Forget the commercial magazines. One of the only ones that makes a half decent attempt is Ski Canada mag, which at least has rankings for each ski wrt. skier ability level, weight and skiing style. But even at that, their reviewers only take a single run per ski, and then come to a judgement.  Skiing Mag also does a an OK job.

Some of the best reviews, IMO, are found on Epic, where guys like Dawg and Sierra Jim do a great job of evaluating and presenting their thoughts, taking into account the key variables.  I also read some of the German forums, and the depth some of those guys go into is truly impressive.