Hawkshot99
Active member
On Mon. the shop I work for was joined by Rossignal skis/boards, K2 skis/boards, Atomic Skis, and Burton Boards for a demo day at Jiminey Peak. Through out the day, I demoed around 15+ skis, and will try and give reviews of the ones I can clearly remember.
*Disclaimer* These are how I thought about the models, your opinion may vary.:razz:
Rossi:
Z-11: New for 08 is the Z11. It is a ski simular to the Mutix, but based on the Z9. It has switchable arms like the Mutix, but is the shape and flex area of Z9's. It seemed to be much softer in flex than the Z9 when holding them, but held very well when being skied. At high GS speeds they held incredibly well. The didnt feel like they were reaching their limit. However they were very flickable in tight turns. I only skied them with the soft arms(slalom) so I imagine that they would be a bit harder to handle at snappy turns with the stiff arms. I felt I could push them very hard, but still have fun and goof off on a light cruizer.
Z9/Z3: I did not ski these as I were told they are identical to last years models, except for graphics.
K2:
Raider: This ski is a Recon with out metal in the core, so its a bit softer. I really liked this ski. It was very stable at speed but yet very flickable for tight turns. I was able to take these for a few runs when we had hard snow fall, and found lots of fresh. They were great busting through the drifts, and still able to dig into the unexpected ice under the snow. Great all around.
Recon: Last year I demoed these and was not impressed with them. There was nothing terribly wrong with them, but nothing about them jumped out at me personelly. I decided to give them another try after hearing tons of people rave about them this year. Again, I felt the same way. They skiid nice at speeds, but felt odd in the sharp turns. Dont know what it was about them, but still I am not needing to buy a pair.
Crossfire: One ski up from the Recon. Being a pretty stiff ski I went in to it guessing it would be a real high speed ski. And oh, how it was nice at that. They were a pretty wide ski that was nice in the bit of trees I took them into. The only short turns I took, was when I tried to follow the group through the small moguls. Now I am horrible at mogals, so I would make a mogal ski look horrible. Being very stiff they beat the crap out of me even more, but I dont blame them for this. Very impressive, but not a all around ski.
Atomic:
Metron 11: Dont remember it very well, but do remember how well they held a edge on ice.(This is the case with almost all Atomics I have skiied) I remember them feeling very planted, but when I looked down at them, the were visibly flexing alot with each little shape of the snow. Very cool yet weird.
Nomad Crimson: I didnt ski these on Mon. bit skied a friends earlier in the year. The night I skied them it was extremely hard snow. Friend I was with was saying it was hard to carve into. The Crimson's attacked the mountain with no mercy. They were a beast doing every thing I asked of them. They are a pretty fat east coast ski(not sure of specific width) and I skied them in a 177(or right around there) and they skiied like a much smaller ski. Typically a real stiff ski like that has some hefty weight to them. The Crimson's were incredibly leight compared to a comprable ski.
Punk: The lone twin-tip of the day that was available. (For comparison my every day ski is a K2 Public Enemy) These skis were WAY softer, but are designed to be a park ski, not all mountain like the PE's. The fact that they were so soft and mounted at core center made them a very unstable ski to be used on regular trails. I was happy to hand them back in, but may have felt differently if I was into rails and such.
I skied a few other skiis, but they were either lower levels or I do not remember specifics about them to post. The standouts for a all around ski to me, were the Rossi Z11, Atomic Crimson, and K2 Raider.
I hope this may have helped someone, but get out there and do some demos.
*Disclaimer* These are how I thought about the models, your opinion may vary.:razz:
Rossi:
Z-11: New for 08 is the Z11. It is a ski simular to the Mutix, but based on the Z9. It has switchable arms like the Mutix, but is the shape and flex area of Z9's. It seemed to be much softer in flex than the Z9 when holding them, but held very well when being skied. At high GS speeds they held incredibly well. The didnt feel like they were reaching their limit. However they were very flickable in tight turns. I only skied them with the soft arms(slalom) so I imagine that they would be a bit harder to handle at snappy turns with the stiff arms. I felt I could push them very hard, but still have fun and goof off on a light cruizer.
Z9/Z3: I did not ski these as I were told they are identical to last years models, except for graphics.
K2:
Raider: This ski is a Recon with out metal in the core, so its a bit softer. I really liked this ski. It was very stable at speed but yet very flickable for tight turns. I was able to take these for a few runs when we had hard snow fall, and found lots of fresh. They were great busting through the drifts, and still able to dig into the unexpected ice under the snow. Great all around.
Recon: Last year I demoed these and was not impressed with them. There was nothing terribly wrong with them, but nothing about them jumped out at me personelly. I decided to give them another try after hearing tons of people rave about them this year. Again, I felt the same way. They skiid nice at speeds, but felt odd in the sharp turns. Dont know what it was about them, but still I am not needing to buy a pair.
Crossfire: One ski up from the Recon. Being a pretty stiff ski I went in to it guessing it would be a real high speed ski. And oh, how it was nice at that. They were a pretty wide ski that was nice in the bit of trees I took them into. The only short turns I took, was when I tried to follow the group through the small moguls. Now I am horrible at mogals, so I would make a mogal ski look horrible. Being very stiff they beat the crap out of me even more, but I dont blame them for this. Very impressive, but not a all around ski.
Atomic:
Metron 11: Dont remember it very well, but do remember how well they held a edge on ice.(This is the case with almost all Atomics I have skiied) I remember them feeling very planted, but when I looked down at them, the were visibly flexing alot with each little shape of the snow. Very cool yet weird.
Nomad Crimson: I didnt ski these on Mon. bit skied a friends earlier in the year. The night I skied them it was extremely hard snow. Friend I was with was saying it was hard to carve into. The Crimson's attacked the mountain with no mercy. They were a beast doing every thing I asked of them. They are a pretty fat east coast ski(not sure of specific width) and I skied them in a 177(or right around there) and they skiied like a much smaller ski. Typically a real stiff ski like that has some hefty weight to them. The Crimson's were incredibly leight compared to a comprable ski.
Punk: The lone twin-tip of the day that was available. (For comparison my every day ski is a K2 Public Enemy) These skis were WAY softer, but are designed to be a park ski, not all mountain like the PE's. The fact that they were so soft and mounted at core center made them a very unstable ski to be used on regular trails. I was happy to hand them back in, but may have felt differently if I was into rails and such.
I skied a few other skiis, but they were either lower levels or I do not remember specifics about them to post. The standouts for a all around ski to me, were the Rossi Z11, Atomic Crimson, and K2 Raider.
I hope this may have helped someone, but get out there and do some demos.
So, no trip report?
