Realskier Reviews are up!!

[jbotti]

He has about ten manufacturers up today with more coming later this week. The Dynastar Sultan 85 gets very strong reviews!!

[Ron]

yeah, looking like a sweet ride. Greg will be set with his new Nomads and the Sultan. 

Eric, one of the instructor/guides who is sponsored by dynastar had skied that last year and loved it as well.

[jbotti]

From looking at the reviews, my view that there really are only 4 traditional ski manufactuerers worth buying continues to hold. Head, Fischer, Elan and Dynastar it appears continue to make quality traditional skis in line with their racing roots. Everyone else has gone in a different direction. Volkl and Nordica make some reall stiff ass skis, but I can't ski them because the flex pattern just doesn't work for me. Volkl clearly has a free ride franchise (although it is getting eaten into by others and many of the new boutique shops). K2 is prety much focused on free ride, rockered skis. Solly and Rossi haven't made any good hard snow skis for years but seem to have some interesting stuff in the new fangled zone.

Before anyone gets offended, let me say that it really is an amazing time to be a consumer. Innovations like rocker, reverse, no or limted camber and the littany of boutique shops making variations on all of these themes. As a consumer, our choices have gone up exponentially both with innovation and with the number of shops making skis. This is a very good thing. And as everyone here knows, when there is excess supply in this industry, it means that one can buy skis cheap, often as early as February for this years slkis.

For me, I am for the most part done with Rocker. In Miontana the powder is so easy to ski (unlike Tahoe) that I don't need rocker to ski it well. Once you get into anything else, the rocker really detracts. Even on the Lhasa Pows that have limited rocker, I got worn out with the tips deflecting in any chop. In Tahoe they were great for the first hour, but once it got tracked out a traditional ski is a much better tool. For those that want or need help skiing untracked, rocker is a great tool.

Back to the Sultan, a higher performing Watea 84 would be awesome. The 84 is great, it is incredibly predictable, does everything fine, quite manuevrable and OK on hard snow, it just doesn't have that wow factor, pretty much ever (and mine have been skied over too many rocks!!). Maybe the Sultan 85 is like a fatter IM 78, with great hard and soft snow performance.

And all of thhis leads to my main point: Demo, Demo , Demo!!! So many choices, so manny design innovations and so many different ways to ski. The only way to find out if a ski works for you is to try it first.

Whcih also leads to me second point, in that I could probablyy buy the Sultan 85 and prety much know what I'm getting up front. Why, because they have stuck iwth that traditional sandwich race construction the same as Head, Fiischer and Elan. Quality stuff, dependable annd predictable.

[Ron]

 Have to say that after skiing Valle' on the Pilgrims in 4-8" of fresh and cream cheese and then the Nomad, I didn't miss or need the rocker. I do still think the Hellbents which are hugely rockered 20/40 are just fun and bring a different kind of skiing to the skier. being able to jump into low angle powder and ski lines others can't do the lack of pitch was great. So much good stuff around to get into and it was just fun to make different turn shapes that on regular skis you would have to worry about tip dive on was fun. Another tool for the box. not mandatory for sure.

I would add to your statement that I would recommend that a skier learn to ski pow on regular skis first before jumping on rockers. 

[nevils]

WOW! Kastle FX84, all 5's

[jbotti]

"I would recommend that a skier learn to ski pow on regular skis first before jumping on rockers. "

We can take this an extreme step further and say that skiers should learn to ski pow on carving skis before jumping on fatties!!

I will tell you that I watched Harald Harb on his first time on a rockered ski!! He was on my DPS Lotus 138's and it was the first time that I had ever seen him look off balance and uncomfortable on skis. It was obvious what he was doing, he would look to ride the sidecut of the ski the way he aways does, but as soon as he put any edge pressure on the Lotus, which is reverse camber and reverse sidecut, the tail would just pivot out. He ws trying to go straight, or do a GS type turn and he was getting propelled into a right angle pivot turn. His comment to me after skiing them for half the day was "put these up on Ebay fast!!"

I agree with your comment. Learning how to plivot without leraning how to use the skis edge and sidecut to turn can definitelly be costly for an intermediate skier (obviously my opinion). Of course when you are in a tight spot, being able to pivot in soft snow can be a blessing!! I just hate the way they ski anywhere else but pure untracked.

Wow, I am dire need of some snow!!! All this equipment talk and review reading just sends me into an addictive tailspin. Then I say to myself, it won't be long now, but who am I kiiddding, I won't be on snow until November!! At least the cycling is still awesome in the bay area.

[Ron]

too funny, good thing that they aren't meant for the groomers.  I would say that there's different skills for different applications and you should have all of those skills! I have to say that I enjoyed the Hellbents on soft groomers!? They were a blast. It took a couple of runs to adjust but even with 122 underfoot, they could be arc'd over. they are not reverse camber, just no camber. It's all good in my book, all different ways to enjoy the mountain!

[Ron]

'We can take this an extreme step further and say that skiers should learn to ski pow on carving skis before jumping on fatties!! "  Do you define carving ski's by i'st width underfoot? That's not what makes it a carving ski. 

Powder skiing: What's a powder day? 4" of lite fresh? 8"? I would agree that if it's a 4" day or so, there's no real need to be on a "fat ski" for a beginner. If it's a real powder day, its a rarity for most. If a little wider ski, 80-90 underfoot enables a skier with sound fundamentals to enjoy powder more easily while gaining confidence and skills, why not? Why make that person struggle on that most joyous of days and not enjoy it? You don't really ski differently on a fat ski (fat to mean means 100+) than an narrower ski, it's a little easier and requires a little less balance an input but the basics are the same. I think the skier should make the best of thier days, a little instruction and a lot of smiles; nothing worse than hearing a person say they hate skiing in powder.

[jbotti]

I was joking about skiing on carving skis. A few seasons ago when I was having trouble off piste and in some powder Harald Harb told me to ski powder on my Head Super Shapes 66 under foot. I did it for about the first 5-6 powder days. I will tell you that it is great practice. Skis that skinny in heavy Tahoe snow will not support poor technique. I hade a very clear gameplan on the SS's (use the deep flexion/tipping SRT) and without it the days would ahve been horrible. It did make going back to fatter skis seem easy.

So after doing this for 5-6 days and learning to ski powder and chop on them, do I grab my SS's ona pwedr day? Of course not, but it was a good learning experience. But it was only a good learning experience because I had a specific gameplan and the appropriate technique toools to make riding the SS's successful.

Actually just as skiing a 66mm ski in powder can be good training, so can trying to bend the IM 88's on hard snow, or trying to bend a true RD GS ski on hard snow. It requires prefect technique to tighten the turn arc.

 I also agree with the lots of smiles concept!! At the end of the day skiing is supposed to be fun!!

[Ron]

yup. but keep in mind that for us 5-6 powder days is not our whole season but for most, 5-6 days is almost what the average skier skis in a season. So I do agree with you but you do have to keep in mind the "smiles per mile" factor! agreed though. I skied the frist 3 days on my pilgrims i Vn to work on technique in the steeps and nasty stuff.