realskiers

Ok Lynn.....

Here are some skis you might consider demoing at Steamboat:

Dynastar Exclusive Legend 114 75 102? ?158 length? (My favorite of the bunch)?

Fischer Vision Vapor 118 76 102? ?155 or 160 length

Salomon Jade 124 83 113? ?156 length

Salomon Temptress 117 83 110? 161 length?

Volkl Tierra 118 78 104? ? 156 length

Best,
Gary

Lynn's demo report from SteamBoat as relayed to her correspondence secretary.

At Gary's instigation, Lynn decided to sign up for a 1/2 day ski demo at the yurt at the top of SteamBoat.? Program is $30 for half-day, $48 for full day for as many skis as you wanted to try and with the demo fee applied to any skis purchased.? The "top of the gondola" location was more convenient since it eliminated the need to return to the base area to exchange skis.

Lynn initially picked the K2 One-Luv (74mm waist) and skied that for about 3 hours.? REALLY liked the ski, felt it was damp (once she got an excellent sports car analogy from Michael to explain what Damp meant).? She also didn't feel like it was any harder to get on edge than her iC160 (63 mm waist).? Since they didn't have Salomon or Dynastar, her next choice was the Fischer Vapor.? The yurt didn't yet have the demo bindings for the Vapor, so they suggested a Nordica for a possible alternative (I don't remember the model name).? Lynn skied this for about two runs and decided it was too stiff for her light weight.? She went back and skied the One Luv the rest of the day.? Gary and I were quite surprised to notice that Lynn's iC160's were mounted at 0, so we also moved those to +15 so that she could see if she preferred that with the iC160's at the end of the day.

That evening we walked down to another ski shop in the base area that was recommended by Ron and talked with a knowledgeable young man at the demo desk.? He had nothing but good things to say about the Head Every Thang and said that he hadn't heard very good reports from people demoing the Dynastar Legend (but who knows what kind of skiers they were).? Surprisingly, he pointed out that the One Luv could be torsionally hand flexed in the shovel.? Although she hadn't felt this when skiing, this was disturbing to Lynn.

As we were walking back, we walked into the same shop that was associted with the top of the gondola yurt (without realizing it) and they had just received the demo bindings for the Fischer Vision Vapor.? At her Bronx best, Lynn informed the staff that there wasn't any reason for her to demo from their store? when they could send the Vapor skis and bindings to the yurt for her to demo the next day.? They (eventually) agreed (the two stores are different profit centers, little desire to cooperate).?

She really liked the Vapor, and that has now replaced the One Luv as her front runner.? She felt that the ski just did everything for her.? Held a good edge when carving, flexible enough that it stayed on her feet when she accidentally skied through a ditch, excellent float on the powder, more snow feel (less damp) than the One Luv, still easy to edge even at a 76mm waist width.

She plans to demo the Head Every Thang and either a Dynastar and Salomon as the winter progresses and use the Fischer Vapor as the benchmark.? I believe that she was a bit surprised that she could feel the difference in skis, even though she doesn't have Gary/Ron/Michaels ski knowledge to describe the differences.? Guess you don't have to be able to exactly describe WHAT you feel in order to know whether you like it or not.
 

PS. She also feels the difference with the iC160's at +15, hasn't decided whether she will still prefer that location when skiing back east. She did feel a bit of "backseat" skiing in this forward position as Michael Barrett said there might be. However, the fresh snow conditions may have contributed to this and once again on eastern hardpack/ice the forward position may be the best one. Now that she knows how to adjust the railflex herself, some playing with this is in order.