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Early season decisions ?????

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  • Early season decisions ?????

    Hi, still relatively new to the skiboard scene but love my spruce raptors, Eman uprise aka revolts and also acquired a pair of blunts from Valmoral last season....still trying to work out what is my go to board from these 3 and realise they all have different characters and uses. Having read all the great reviews over last winter including the new short ski revolution introduced by spruce I am wondering should I stick with my existing rides this winter??? (expecting 4 days mid December in Meribel France followed by 8 days mid March in les Arcs France)
    I am very tempted by the short ski argument either the spruce options or locally I can get the Gpo short rocker 130cm ski with direct mounted otyrolia bindings from the short ski company. I could also go with this seasons new super model.....the sticky icky icky. I usually ski on piste carving with my wife but like to push myself and like the thought of small jumps, through the trees stuff and powder perhaps someday?? Getting on a bit now at 50 but love this sport so much, happy with what I have but wondering if there is better out there for me????? Love this forum btw it keeps me going through winter. appreciate your thoughts.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • #2
    That's a pretty cool three board quiver, that covers a lot of bases.

    A true shorty, a classic cambered skiboard and rockered longboard. What else could you ever need
    Just these, nothing else !

    Comment


    • #3
      The choice of boards is very personal - only you can determine what you like. I had the Raptors, the Revolts, and the 120. All quite different from each other. I really liked the Raptors for a while, but then the harshness of their ride on frozen or nearly frozen groomed terrain (most of what we have around here) got tiring to me, plus the added fore-aft stability of the 120 was appealing. So I sold the Raptors and skied the 120 for a bit. But then I tried the short skis from Spruce and they were so much easier to edge and better to carve on groomed slopes than any skiboard that I've tried, that I saw no reason to use skiboards for that particular purpose. However, skiboards are just different - more maneuverable, more fun at lower speeds. So, if the latter is what you want, stick with what you got. If carving bigger turns on groomed slopes is what you like most, I think the short skis, traditionally mounted with a bit of rear setback are just better for that. If you like to ride backwards and do tricks in addition to carving, then stick with center-mounted variety twintips (like Spruce's short skis).

      You can read the reviews of the various short skis here - the Caddy is great and nimble on groomed slope, but not that great when it is soft and deep. But my daughter loves it and took it away from me to become her primary ski. The Ethan Two is better on soft groomers, but some complain they don't like them in powder as much as they like the rockered fat skiboards (I can't tell, as I have never tried the fat rockered skiboards in deep snow, and I am too heavy a 90kg+ for the Raptors to work well in soft conditions). I did like the Ethans though for all conditions short of deep powder, especially if I was not after top speed and big wide turns or if it was really frozen hard, where I prefer full-sized skis with their added stability and better edge hold in all conditions.

      I really liked the Revolts for their nimble handling on well-groomed slopes, but I did not like them when things got softer on steeper groomers - just too short to offer good support during turns (in those conditions there is no substitute for longer boards and to me full-sized skis worked better there than skiboards or short skis).

      And for really fast carving down groomed slopes (especially in less than ideal conditions) I much prefer full-size skis over skiboards. When I slow-down on the same sloles, the short skis seem more appropriate. If I slow down even further, the skiboards begin to make more sense to me

      On bumps, which I'm not an expert on, I found I like to have some medium length - the longer skiboards and short skis seemed to work better for me there than the shortest boards and the longer full-length skis.

      All that writing - only to tell you again that you have to decide for yourself, based on your skill level, the type of snow you like to ski, and how fast you like to go. For this year I'm definitely going to continue with long skis (in normal and short length, but mounted "traditionally" rear of center, not like skiboards), plus try a bunch of short skiboards that I have not tried yet (KTP, Dynastar, Nomad - all in the around 100cm length) and also continue to ride the center-mounted short skis from Spruce (probably mostly the 151cm Ethan Two, since that's what I'm left with after my daughter took the 131 Caddy and my wife the 141cm Ethan). I'll sell some of the too many boards that I've accumulated by mid-season if I find too much overlap or don't like some of the new boards.

      As a reference, at the end of the previous season I was happy with long skis and the 151cm Ethan Twos to the extent that I sold off every other skiboard I had as they just did not match how and where I skied and I strongly preferred these longer boards for all my skiing. The "new" skiboards I'm trying this year are different from what I had before, so the jury on these is still out.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Kocho View Post
        The choice of boards is very personal - only you can determine what you like. I had the Raptors, the Revolts, and the 120. All quite different from each other. I really liked the Raptors for a while, but then the harshness of their ride on frozen or nearly frozen groomed terrain (most of what we have around here) got tiring to me, plus the added fore-aft stability of the 120 was appealing. So I sold the Raptors and skied the 120 for a bit. But then I tried the short skis from Spruce and they were so much easier to edge and better to carve on groomed slopes than any skiboard that I've tried, that I saw no reason to use skiboards for that particular purpose. However, skiboards are just different - more maneuverable, more fun at lower speeds. So, if the latter is what you want, stick with what you got. If carving bigger turns on groomed slopes is what you like most, I think the short skis, traditionally mounted with a bit of rear setback are just better for that. If you like to ride backwards and do tricks in addition to carving, then stick with center-mounted variety twintips (like Spruce's short skis).

        You can read the reviews of the various short skis here - the Caddy is great and nimble on groomed slope, but not that great when it is soft and deep. But my daughter loves it and took it away from me to become her primary ski. The Ethan Two is better on soft groomers, but some complain they don't like them in powder as much as they like the rockered fat skiboards (I can't tell, as I have never tried the fat rockered skiboards in deep snow, and I am too heavy a 90kg+ for the Raptors to work well in soft conditions). I did like the Ethans though for all conditions short of deep powder, especially if I was not after top speed and big wide turns or if it was really frozen hard, where I prefer full-sized skis with their added stability and better edge hold in all conditions.

        I really liked the Revolts for their nimble handling on well-groomed slopes, but I did not like them when things got softer on steeper groomers - just too short to offer good support during turns (in those conditions there is no substitute for longer boards and to me full-sized skis worked better there than skiboards or short skis).

        And for really fast carving down groomed slopes (especially in less than ideal conditions) I much prefer full-size skis over skiboards. When I slow-down on the same sloles, the short skis seem more appropriate. If I slow down even further, the skiboards begin to make more sense to me

        On bumps, which I'm not an expert on, I found I like to have some medium length - the longer skiboards and short skis seemed to work better for me there than the shortest boards and the longer full-length skis.

        All that writing - only to tell you again that you have to decide for yourself, based on your skill level, the type of snow you like to ski, and how fast you like to go. For this year I'm definitely going to continue with long skis (in normal and short length, but mounted "traditionally" rear of center, not like skiboards), plus try a bunch of short skiboards that I have not tried yet (KTP, Dynastar, Nomad - all in the around 100cm length) and also continue to ride the center-mounted short skis from Spruce (probably mostly the 151cm Ethan Two, since that's what I'm left with after my daughter took the 131 Caddy and my wife the 141cm Ethan). I'll sell some of the too many boards that I've accumulated by mid-season if I find too much overlap or don't like some of the new boards.

        As a reference, at the end of the previous season I was happy with long skis and the 151cm Ethan Twos to the extent that I sold off every other skiboard I had as they just did not match how and where I skied and I strongly preferred these longer boards for all my skiing. The "new" skiboards I'm trying this year are different from what I had before, so the jury on these is still out.
        I'll be curious to see how you like the Sticky Icky's - assuming we get to try Wookie's pair sometime during the season

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks Bad Wolf & Kocho, appreciate the time and your thoughts on my dilemma, if you can really call it that when I have 3 pairs of skis [emoji3]. I will give it some further thought but think I will take what I have on my first trip, then, following early season comment on the forum decide if worth changing or adding another ready for my longer break in March.


          Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

          Comment


          • #6
            Me even more curious Hope to see you both at Elk Jam or just at some other time this winter. I hope to drive up to Elk at least once this year, but most of my skiing will be more local. Maybe a trip to Utah would happen during spring break for my daughter ...

            Originally posted by macrophotog View Post
            I'll be curious to see how you like the Sticky Icky's - assuming we get to try Wookie's pair sometime during the season

            Comment

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