Message #7244

[jbotti]

Gary, I agree and I overreacted. This place has always been very friendly and I intend on helping to keep it that way.

I still think that my point is valid, although in the grand scheme it is nitpciking. I own IM88's that are twin tips, Fischer Atua's also twin tipped, Nordica Blowers (also twin tipped) and I like 2 of three a ton (have only skied the blowers twice bot times in the wrong conditions for the skis.

From a purely conceptual/theorectical? place, a flat tailed ski should give slightly more stability at speed than the exact same ski (in the same length) with twin tips, and the twin tips should be no eaiser to manuever in tight spots.

The problem is that all things are never equal. Im 88's are twin tips so we will never know how they will ski with a flat tail.

I will also say that in general, I prefer the flat tail. I feel more control and the ski retains more of what I am used to in my hard snow skis. This is why I think the Fischer Wateas are an improvement over the Atuas (specifically the (4's vs the Atuas). I vastly prefer the flat tail.

Again all is just my personal opinion.

Lastly, I generall have hated every K2 ski I have been on. Very very damp and lifeless. But now after reading reviews on Teton Gravity and reading the sepcs on Peter;s site and in Powder Mag, I think that they may have come up with the perfect combination of rocker, camber and sidecut for the ultimate resort powder ski (the Lotus 138 is still the ultimate heli ski, but with reverse camber and reverse sidecut it is just a bear getting back to the lift on hard snow).

So what ski am I talking about: The obSethed!! 138/105/125 with 14mm and 12mm respective tip and tail rocker with flat camber under foot. To me this looks like the perfect ski for big days at places like Squaw or any of the PNW resorts where the dumps are large but often heavy but you need to ski some harder snow to get back to the lift. The 4Frnt EHP's are a similar design, but they have 30-40mm of rocker, which IMO is too much, and it makes the ski real short and any hard snow.

I am not running out to buy these, but I would very much like to ski them sometime this season. If any mortals (too many of the kids on Teton ski at speeds that I will never ski, and for the most part many of these guys don't like to turn, and they take air 3-5x what I am willing to take) ski this please post a review so that we can hear your thoughts.

I recommend anyone looking for a new technology powder ski (deploying some amount of rocker, reverse camber or flat camber) to put this on the demo list.