by B.Mulligan » Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:37 am
Would think the ideal PMTS ski, or any ski for advancing technique has the same set of desirable characteristics. Tell me if I got this right.
1. Even flex, probably on the medium stiff spectrum, but not unbendable or only bendable at speed under a very strong skier. A lot of technical skis seem to suffer from the overly stiff plank syndrome.
2. Must have Metal, maybe not two sheets of heavy duty ice destruction, but the damping of metal and the precision and surefootness, and feedback it provides can't be replicated by carbon alone or 'matrices' or any other marketing nonsense to make you feel better about the lack of some serious titanal.
3. Narrow waist, of course. Somewhere between 65 and 74, right? Turn Radii: 12-15m depending on flex and length. Personally, I'm a happier with a radii at the slightly longer end of slalom.
4. No funky tip designs, no taper. Absolutely no rise in
the tail. The tail rise is why I disliked the volkl codes and blizz quattros I've tried. Tail Doesn't have to be square, but it has to be flat if you want the feedback necessary to whip a tail push habit.
5. All that adds up to a few key overall qualities: The ability to ski it slow and still make clean arcs, and a ski that gives good feedback when you're on and when you are off, and a ski that feels good when conditions don't feel so good. I know a lot of tech oriented instructor types are high on beer league GS skis, I haven't had much luck with those. Enjoyed some beer league SL skis, and really enjoyed a few rec carvers that are a slight step below the beer league slalom.
I'll share the one's I've tried and liked and am considering buying, I'd be interested on this to hear if others have had similar experiences or think I'm on the right track.
1. 2018 Elan SLX 165cm. Local shop had one of these to demo and one for sale, wish I had bought it, but they sold both a few weeks ago. I loved it, very easy to ski, very smooth, has kick back but tolerated my intermediate-is skills in slower turns. I think it's one to try if you can find this rare beast!
2. Rossi Hero ST ti 167cm: Liked this, too, but it it wore me out a bit. Has a lot of bite and pop. Very energetic and lots of feed back. I found it hard to ski well in slower turn, a more advanced skier probably wouldn't have any trouble, but it wore me out after a while.
3. 2018 Rossi Pursuit 700ti 170cm: This is a great and almost unknown ski. They dropped one sheet of metal from this model, updated the binding and made it a great learning/ growing ski. I spent an extended two days on this as the local shop is a big Rossi dealer. Fun, lively, capable of high speed stability on rough, ice terrain, but very, very easy to ski slowly. Again, hard to find, but it's worth a look. I found the waist width-73mm and the turn radius: 14m just about perfect as an all-arounder.
4. 2017 Volkl Racetiger UVO SL 165cm. I know Volkl's are stiff and don't get a lot of love on this forum, but this is a very manageable, damp, and fun citizen slalom. I found it less taxing than the Rossi Hero ST ti, quite a bit more damp as well. It's still more work than I'd want in a 90% of the time frontsider/ learning ski. But, I get why it has a following.
Other skis, I've never skied:N the Head SS ispeed or their sl skis. I have skied the Rally and the Titan, they're well made skis that a lot of people like, but I found them just a bit clunky, if that makes sense. No interest in Kastle or Stockli-they'd make me feel guilty next time I vote for Bernie. I tried to grab a 170 or 177 Hart Stryker, but was too late. So I bought a 164cm Hart Stryker for my son, he's ripping on it.
I'd love to try the Fischer Curv's.
Anyway, I felt like waxing a bit about technical skis for skill advancement and this seemed like the right place.