Which new skis?

Hi Guys,

Happy New Year to you all. Due to damage I need to replace my old skis,
Rossignol Salto FX 10.2 (184cm) with which I was quite happy. I'm
comfortable on smoothish blacks and looking to move off into some softer
stuff. Although price isn't an overwhelming consideration, I have an
aversion to paying for adverstising hype. What should I be looking for
that's good vaue and gimmick free?

TIA,

Rod

"Rod" wrote in message
...
Hi Guys,

Happy New Year to you all. Due to damage I need to replace my old skis,
Rossignol Salto FX 10.2 (184cm) with which I was quite happy. I'm
comfortable on smoothish blacks and looking to move off into some softer
stuff. Although price isn't an overwhelming consideration, I have an
aversion to paying for adverstising hype. What should I be looking for
that's good vaue and gimmick free?

TIA,

Rod

Rossy B3s are well worth a look. If you are going to a French resort they
can be picked up with quite a discount!

They are designed for 40/60 piste/off piste mix but are really quite a good
on piste ski so are very good for making the leap into the soft stuff.

Regards,

Steve

On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 18:56:04 -0000, "Flyfire"
wrote:


"Rod" wrote in message
...
Hi Guys,

Happy New Year to you all. Due to damage I need to replace my old skis,
Rossignol Salto FX 10.2 (184cm) with which I was quite happy. I'm
comfortable on smoothish blacks and looking to move off into some softer
stuff. Although price isn't an overwhelming consideration, I have an
aversion to paying for adverstising hype. What should I be looking for
that's good vaue and gimmick free?

Rossy B3s are well worth a look. If you are going to a French resort they
can be picked up with quite a discount!

They are designed for 40/60 piste/off piste mix but are really quite a good
on piste ski so are very good for making the leap into the soft stuff.

While I agree that the B3 is a good ski, I'd suggest that they're much
more dedicated to the powder than the
OP is looking for.

There are better on/off piste skis around, IMO. The Salomon 1080 foil
my wife and I independantly chose last year combines an amazing
agility on bumps with decent hard-pack grip (almost completely absent
in the B3s) and almost as much powder float as my old Pocket Rockets
(now renamed the 1080 Gun). But it's a last year's ski, which may have
been surpassed this season - such is the pace of change.

But really, the best approach to buying new skis is to study the
literature (Ski & Board, for instance, will be publishing tests of all
new skis, as will other mags and online resources over the winter) and
make a short-list, then pre-arrange with an in-resort ski shop to test
as many as you can in the time and conditions available. In my
experience one's own individual style often leads to very different
choices from that gleaned from others' test results.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Flyfire wrote:
"Rod" wrote in message
...
Hi Guys,

Happy New Year to you all. Due to damage I need to replace my old skis,
Rossignol Salto FX 10.2 (184cm) with which I was quite happy. I'm
comfortable on smoothish blacks and looking to move off into some softer
stuff. Although price isn't an overwhelming consideration, I have an
aversion to paying for adverstising hype. What should I be looking for
that's good vaue and gimmick free?

TIA,

Rod

Rossy B3s are well worth a look. If you are going to a French resort they
can be picked up with quite a discount!

They are designed for 40/60 piste/off piste mix but are really quite a good
on piste ski so are very good for making the leap into the soft stuff.

Regards,

Steve

Hi,

I'm still on last season's B2s - I think they're meant to be 80/20
piste/off - provided I kept the edges nice and sharp last season I
always got good, grippy, fast cruising. They seemed okay in the soft
stuff as well, although I'm not practised enough to know just how okay
they were. Ask me again in four months... :-)

Anyway, I guess I'm saying take a look at them as they're definitley
function over fashion (all my friends wouldn't be seen dead on them)
but I have to agree with Ace - test as many as is practical when you
get to resort.... and let us know what you end up on.

Cheers,
Matt

In message
Ace wrote:

[snip]
While I agree that the B3 is a good ski, I'd suggest that they're
much more dedicated to the powder than the OP is looking for.

There are better on/off piste skis around, IMO. The Salomon 1080 foil
my wife and I independantly chose last year combines an amazing
agility on bumps with decent hard-pack grip (almost completely absent
in the B3s) and almost as much powder float as my old Pocket Rockets
(now renamed the 1080 Gun). But it's a last year's ski, which may have
been surpassed this season - such is the pace of change.

But really, the best approach to buying new skis is to study the
literature (Ski & Board, for instance, will be publishing tests of all
new skis, as will other mags and online resources over the winter) and
make a short-list, then pre-arrange with an in-resort ski shop to test
as many as you can in the time and conditions available. In my
experience one's own individual style often leads to very different
choices from that gleaned from others' test results.


Last year I replaced my Volkl Vertigo G3s with some Dynastar Legend
8000s (172cm length, 19m radius) on the recommendation of Rob from
Namaste Sport, Argentiere. They've turned out to be an excellent all
mountain ski, but quite heavy and perform best when skiing aggressively.
What I like about these skis is that they float well in powder, cut well
through crud, but can also hold a good edge on steep icy pistes. However
for touring and also for lower speed cruising I prefer the lighter
weight and easy turning of my Atomic Beta R9.22s.

Mike
--
o/ \\ // |\ ,_ o Mike Clark
\__,\\ // __o | \ / /\, "A mountain climbing, cycling, skiing,
" || _`\,_ |__\ \ | immunology lecturer, antibody engineer and
` || (_)/ (_) | \corn computer user"

On Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:11:54 GMT, Mike Clark
wrote:

In message
Ace wrote:

[snip]
While I agree that the B3 is a good ski, I'd suggest that they're
much more dedicated to the powder than the OP is looking for.

There are better on/off piste skis around, IMO. The Salomon 1080 foil
my wife and I independantly chose last year combines an amazing
agility on bumps with decent hard-pack grip (almost completely absent
in the B3s) and almost as much powder float as my old Pocket Rockets
(now renamed the 1080 Gun). But it's a last year's ski, which may have
been surpassed this season - such is the pace of change.

In my
experience one's own individual style often leads to very different
choices from that gleaned from others' test results.


Last year I replaced my Volkl Vertigo G3s with some Dynastar Legend
8000s (172cm length, 19m radius) on the recommendation of Rob from
Namaste Sport, Argentiere.

They were very much the ski of the season with mountain guides and
pisteurs last season. Or was that the 8800? I can't remember, TBH, but
I did demo them and found that they didn't suit my style. In fact, as
I now recall, I really couldn't get on with them at all. This doesn't
mean that all the other folks are wrong - just that they're not so
good for me.

They've turned out to be an excellent all
mountain ski, but quite heavy and perform best when skiing aggressively.
What I like about these skis is that they float well in powder, cut well
through crud, but can also hold a good edge on steep icy pistes.

Indeed, as do several of the other skis mentioned above. It's always a
compromise, but skis are getting closer to the ideal of doing all of
these things well from one year to the next. I found the Foil only
marginally less superb on real soft powder than the Pocket Rockets,
but almost infintely better on ice, where I could almost treat them
like ice skates.

However
for touring and also for lower speed cruising I prefer the lighter
weight and easy turning of my Atomic Beta R9.22s.

I've never got on with any Atomics I tried, although ISTR that those
were OK, in a 'nothing special but just does the job' sort of a way.
Fortunately both the aforementioned Salomon skis are quite light,
although the narrower waist on the Foil can catch you out a little
when touring.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Thanks for the comments. I've ended up with Scott Aztec Pros. They're
rock solid on ice and seem to float nicely in powder (see Les Gets
report below). They've given me a great confidence boost (and they have
nicely restrained graphics)

Rod