My Favorite Big Mountain Ski Ever!!

[jbotti]

This forum will be proud to know that I picked these skis up last year after the season for $329 flat. I mounted them with Dukes as I will use them in the backcountry as well. What ski: The Fischer Watea 94. I bought the 178cm length. I can't say enough great things about this ski. I have heard many peopole say that they use a 90-100mm waisted ski as their everyday ski, and in general I though this to be absurd, until I skied the Watea 94. Thius ski rails on hard pack in edge locked carved turns. I can also ski tight brushed carved SRT's on harder snow on them. I can do slalom flsuhes edges locked but the ski is pretty slow edge to edge vs my 84mm waisted skis that do edge locked carved slalom flushes prety well and quickly. Off piste the ski really comes to life. I skied in in mid calf deep snow on two days and it just ruled. Incredibly easy to ski but also incredibly stable so I could be really agressive and straightline more of the mountain if I wanted to. I also could do SRT's at will and in bumps with soft snow on them the ski really shined. In harder bumps on a diffrent day I was amazed how easy it skied. Not necesaarily my favorite choice for hard bumps but amazingly manageable. Lastly in crud and chop and difficult snow on difficult terrain the ski just killed it. It was as soild as many stockli skis, but much more forgiving and very skiable for a mortal ike myself. I absolutely love this ski. I will use it from anywhere from 4 inces of fresh up to bottomless. I realy don't need anywmore ski or float to ski deep stuff, and this ski will slay the stuff that fatter, wider, rockered boards tend to do less well. Again, my all time favorite big mountain ski!!

[Ron]

So many skis! Glad you like them, they are really great skis for sure.

[Gary]

Nice to hear J....and such a great deal. Every once in a awhile, a ski comes along that seems like it was made for you....and there ya go.

I also owned the Water 84 and 94....both were great in pow and bumps giving the carving prowess headsup to the 84. What I found at my 158lbs if I layed over carves on the 94, the downhill ski became ultra dominnet....it wanted to go solo so I had to be wary of that. Great energy in both for all mountain performance.

It's truly amazing the versatility of todays skis. I still like that 70 something underfoot for eastern carving or out west "been dry no snow"days..

I have found that my Icelantic Pilgrims 90 underfoot can be laid over and carved at speed and high edge angle with not a pilot worry. Can't say I've found that to be true with the Armada JJ's yet, time will tell....but then again, I bought it for a different reason.

It's always great fun hearing about skiers experiences on their skis and what kinds of conditions they are skiing.
Hope the pow keeps droping in your area.? Best, Gary

[LivingProof]

Damn it John Botti, your makin me want to buy a new ski.

I was standing in a lift line yesterday next to a person using the Watea 94 and it looked like we would be on the same chair and I wanted to talk to him about his skis. So, there's this boarder dude right in front of me who decides he's too good to ride with others and stands there like an idiot. So he got to ride with the Watea's.

The 94 will be on my short list to demo in JH.

[Philpug]

I skied Ron's 94's in Steamboat a couple of years ago..very nice ski, one of my faves. I have one word for you..FX94..yep it is coming next year...Shhhh.

[jbotti]

I emailed the West coast rep for Kastle because I wanted to find out the factory tune specs. The FX 84 comes 1* base and 2* side (I will take them to 1 and 3). The rep responded right away. I am looking to set up a demo day in Montana where I could try all the skis. If it happens that will be a fun day and potentially very expensive. But if not skis what else!!

[SnowHot]

The Watea 94 has become a favourite among the guys I ski with here in Michigan.  First our friend John then Doug after he tried Johns at Loveland, then Mr SnowHot(AKA Terry) had to have Watea 94.

I've never skied it, maybe I should have, but after my experience with the Kastle FX84 I'm thinking a 94 in that line would be awesome!