Skiing Mag Gear Guide 2008

[eastcoastpowderhound]

Case in point...I got SKI yesterday and glanced at the gear reviews.

I hear alot of good things about the Dynastar Legend 8000...I'll be demoing another pair this coming season because I do want a wider (the 8000 is listed at 79mm underfoot) ski better suited to powder skiing. I've heard alot of praises for this ski in this forum, from skiers who sound like they're pretty good in the bumps/trees/BC/powder. A versatile ski that skis alot of things well.

To me, that's the definitiion of an All Mountain Expert ski, a one quiver ski for experts.

SKI says it's an All Mountain Cruiser...designed for ripping big arcs on groomed snow. Why would they say that? It's Dynastar marketing to the people who read SKI...mostly groomer skiers I'll bet.

So, either SKI got it wrong or you guys are full of sh*t. I'll place my wager on the rag being wrong.

It was probably the category Dynastar elected to put that ski into...I'm pretty sure its up to the mfu to select the category. However, that doesn't rule out that any of us are full of it. :smile:

 

[JimG.]

It was probably the category Dynastar elected to put that ski into...I'm pretty sure its up to the mfu to select the category.

Which to me, makes the whole "test" useless.

The magazine is not at liberty to place the ski where the test results show it belongs.

This does not serve the buying public's interests at best and is false advertising at worst.

Unless of course everyone here is full of it.

 

[tjf67]

Case in point...I got SKI yesterday and glanced at the gear reviews.

I hear alot of good things about the Dynastar Legend 8000...I'll be demoing another pair this coming season because I do want a wider (the 8000 is listed at 79mm underfoot) ski better suited to powder skiing. I've heard alot of praises for this ski in this forum, from skiers who sound like they're pretty good in the bumps/trees/BC/powder. A versatile ski that skis alot of things well.

To me, that's the definitiion of an All Mountain Expert ski, a one quiver ski for experts.

SKI says it's an All Mountain Cruiser...designed for ripping big arcs on groomed snow. Why would they say that? It's Dynastar marketing to the people who read SKI...mostly groomer skiers I'll bet.

So, either SKI got it wrong or you guys are full of sh*t. I'll place my wager on the rag being wrong.

I dont like Ski's reviews. They dont make a whole lot of sense to me.
IMO Skiing did a great job. Ski had more skiis but they were confusing. I kept going back and forth between the two mags. In the end I found a few skiis for my girl that I am going to take a look at from Ski. The testers take give you an idea.

I have been buying based on the skiing reviews for years. saloman exscreme, K-2 XP, Atomic Metron, K-2 Recons, My current pair AC4. I have never been dissapointed.

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

Which to me, makes the whole "test" useless.

The magazine is not at liberty to place the ski where the test results show it belongs.

This does not serve the buying public's interests at best and is false advertising at worst.

Unless of course everyone here is full of it.

Yeah...it wouldn't be a bad idea to just test them all and then decide which ski goes into which category after the fact. My biggest complaint is there usually isn't someone on the test panel close to my weight and age...on the SKI panel they jump from about 10 of them under 170lbs up to 244 with only one guy in the middle...Todd Casey at 190...and he's about 6'5...not to mention most of the guys are over 40...not that there's anything wrong with that...guess that's their biggest demographic anyway.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

I didn't ski the power version, not sure which one you have. When I demoed them I felt that unless I had them locked into a medium radius turn they were chattering around and being squirrily. I skied a bunch of demos of varying levels that day and they were the only ones that really gave me trouble. I'd try them again, maybe it was a bad tune or I was low on sugar or something. :grin:

I have the Powers. They don't chatter or get squirrily.

 

[riverc0il]

Jim, as far as the 8000s, the groomers are the weakest link in the "all mountain" part of the ski (not to say they are bad but definitely not excelling on hard pack). It excels on all forms of natural. Bumps aren't super but certainly one of the better mid-fats I have tried in the bumps due to the quick, nimble, and lively feel. I still could be just full of it but I think any one that considers the 8000 a great cruiser needs to get their head examined. That isn't even an issue of different skiers liking different skis better for different uses... that is just completely wrong. Dynastar offers a high speed cruiser ski and it is not in the Legend series. Just goes to show how much trust you can put in these reviews. It is nice to see all the pretty skis lined up with their digits. I noticed powder even broke down dimensions by length which was very nice.

 

[JimG.]

Jim, as far as the 8000s, the groomers are the weakest link in the "all mountain" part of the ski (not to say they are bad but definitely not excelling on hard pack). It excels on all forms of natural. Bumps aren't super but certainly one of the better mid-fats I have tried in the bumps due to the quick, nimble, and lively feel. I still could be just full of it but I think any one that considers the 8000 a great cruiser needs to get their head examined. That isn't even an issue of different skiers liking different skis better for different uses... that is just completely wrong. Dynastar offers a high speed cruiser ski and it is not in the Legend series. Just goes to show how much trust you can put in these reviews. It is nice to see all the pretty skis lined up with their digits. I noticed powder even broke down dimensions by length which was very nice.

Steve, your preaching to the choir.

My impressions of the 8000's mirror yours...lively and fairly nimble, adequate in bumps, but cruising on the groomed was the weak point. Which is good because I definitely don't want them for groomers.

But bad if a magazine tells you they're good for the groomed.

SKI did break down dimensions by length also which I liked too.

 

[wa-loaf]

Steve, your preaching to the choir.

My impressions of the 8000's mirror yours...lively and fairly nimble, adequate in bumps, but cruising on the groomed was the weak point. Which is good because I definitely don't want them for groomers.

But bad if a magazine tells you they're good for the groomed.

SKI did break down dimensions by length also which I liked too.

I just read the Ski review on the 8000's. They call it a west coast cruiser and do not recommend it for east coast hard pack.

 

[JimG.]

I just read the Ski review on the 8000's. They call it a west coast cruiser and do not recommend it for east coast hard pack.

See? I'm full of sh*t too.

Not that that's big news.