Demo Day 2, PMGear Bro and Praxis Concept

Rounding out some of the local ski options, I rented a pair of PMGear Bro Fat 183s for the day, and managed to hop on some Praxis Concept 187s too.  With 6+" of fresh, it wasn't a bad day to do it.  That said, the fresh snow was over a sketchy base, so a damage waiver for minor scrapes was purchased, and tried to stay clear of known rocky zones to avoid any serious edge damage.

After a late binding release last weekend, it's been taking a little time to warm up the torn muscle in my calf.  And my flatlander lifestyle and work commitments/travel combined with only enough snow to motivate 7 days of skiing so far this year meant the opposing quad had taken a beating over the last few days.  Protecting a bad leg is harder work than previous realized, I learned.

With that, I was on a pair of PMGear Bro Fat 183s (183cm, 136/112/126, 33m radius) much of the day.  It took me a bit to settle in, as they don't punish you at all for being a bit laid back with them.  They listen and behave fine, but aren't terribly exciting and make you feel lame and weak.  Get on top of them with a great aggressive stance, and plenty of speed and they completely wake up.  Somehow lively yet stable.  I was pulling huge arced turns through the afternoon chop and grinning the whole time.  When you inevitably ended up on a skid patch of ice, no problem, they hooked up and kept you going.  I really felt like they'd serve me better in a truly sketchy spot than anything else I skied.  But they definitely made me work for the full amount of fun.  I only wonder if I'm really comfortable enough at speed to bring out the best in them.  But seriously, FKNA!  If I'm looking to storm everything, these are the skis to do it in.

I spent significantly less time on the Praxis Concepts (187cm, 139/117/125, 26m radius), so I don't have as thorough of a review.  That said, Praxis Concepts were more playful for sure, and rewarded a more centered stance.  Definitely damper than the Bros.  They were shockingly happy to just straightline through the chopped snow.  Much more like the Bibby Pros for me, they were a completely different ski than the Bros.  It's a little hard to compare directly to the Bibby Pros since the conditions were so very different.  But it seems to me like they'd fill a similar spot in my lineup to the Kikus.. bouncy, more relaxed, and let you have a ton of fun even if your legs aren't feeling 100%.

It sounds like a real contradiction to claim that the damper ski was more playful, but somehow to me the playfulness comes from bouncing out of turns, which the Bros just didn't need you to do at all to feel lively.  In any case, I don't claim to be an expert, it's all just my personal experience of my skiing style (lame as it might be) on these skis.

At the end of this little experiment, I really feel like I couldn't go wrong with the right length of any of the local skis I tried -- Moment Bibby Pro, Moment Governor (Bibby Special), PMGear Bro Fat, or Praxis Concept.  I'm personally more excited about the Bros than the Governors as chargers.  The Governor just didn't have enough for me as a skier over the Bibby Pro to justify the less playful feel.  On the playful front, I'm having a harder time comparing the Bibby Pro and the Concept.

The other realization is that I'm significantly less sore than I would have been on my shorter EHPs or Kikus all day, without making any effort at all to avoid the chop or crud.  Once I got some heat into my quad and calf, I felt pretty good, and real achiness still hasn't set in many hours later.  The longer skis are a nothing short of a revelation.

Demo Day, Moment and DPS

Alpenglow and Moment were running free demos today at Alpine.  As I mentioned before, I'm starting to search for something a bit longer than my 179 EHPs (179cm, 128/116/122, 39m turning radius) and 178 Kikus (178cm, 137/106/122,  23.6m turning radius) for both more speed and more float. 

That said, I'm looking for another every day ski, not just a powder-specific tool.  Groomers aren't my choice, I'd much much rather be off-piste, so I haven't regretted any choice to move to a wider ski yet.  So, I demoed a few of the Moments and one pair of DPS today.  Here are my thoughts.

Started the day on 184 Bibby Pros.  The ones on the left there.  (184cm, 143, 116,134, 24.5m turning radius)  Playful was the word of the day.  Completely responsive to anything I had to throw at them, they turned on a dime, slarved better than anything else I've ever been on, and left me in complete control.  They also chewed up the crud and bumps perfectly.  I haven't skied such a fun ski on moguls for a long time.  I felt like Tigger.  That said, their light weight and playfulness meant they're not the right tool for a steep, icy couloir.  They handled their speed incredibly well, but didn't rail on edge in a way that'd give you supreme confidence in a tight, icy spot.  In a little bit of fresh in the steeper trees/bushes/rocks, though, they were shining.

186 Governor (skis on the right above) is kind of like a Bibby Pro with a stiffer tail and a bit more weight.  (Was on next year's skis, so hard to say about the exact stats.)  They were meant to rail a bit more, and they were a bit of a transition coming from the 184 Bibby Pros.  Nearly caught myself out until I realized they needed to be skied to the end of the tails.  After that, they were great.. I didn't feel like I was much faster on them than the 184 Bibby Pros, though, and they weren't quite as playful feeling.  So, I couldn't figure out why to choose them over the Bibby Pros.

Next, I jumped on the 190 DPS Wailer 112.  (190cm, 141/112/128, 18m radius) Was. Not. For. Me.  18m turn radius constantly had me feeling like it was trying to turn uphill when I skied it with an aggressive, forward stance.  I finally gave in and surfed it in the backseat.  I was surprised, as it was the best behaved ski I've ever been on while sitting in the backseat.  That said, I didn't feel like I could take it into anything constrained since every time I set an edge it turned me uphill.  If I were to put a powder newbie on a ski, this might be one of them.  I bet that tip would float like nothing else and give a powder newbie all the confidence in the world that they wouldn't tip dive.  But I need a much more aggressive ski for where I'm trying to go, and I'd prefer a ski that didn't insist I ski backseat.  The EHPs wouldn't like it, and would punish me later for my laziness.

Since I'm looking to size up, I wanted to know whether the 184 Bibby was enough, so towards the end of the day I hopped on some 190 Bibby Pros (190cm, 143/118/134, 26.5m turning radius).  Definitely a bit too much for me.  I was struggling in the tighter spots to get the ski around, and don't feel like I'd be confident in things like my favorite C2 lines, Corkscrew, or Granite Peak at Squaw.  On the easy frontside of Alpine, no worries, but that's again not where I'm aiming to spend my time.

Jan skied the 196 Governor and the 186 Night Train in addition to the 190 Bibby Pro.  He was happiest on the 196 Governor.  He didn't find the night train very playful, and complained it always wanted to be set on edge.

Oh, and since this is a review from skiislikeagirl... next year's Bibby Pro graphics are great!   Just not clear that I'm willing to wait until they release in September.  Instead, they look like this, which is OK, but not as cool to me as next year's topsheet.

at least it wasn't the knee

I'm still fretting about whether I'll have to skip day 5 of the season today.  It was a lovely day out yesterday, spring-ish, but not gloppy.  Problem was, I took a tumble jamming down the moguls on granite.  My right ski tip dove into a rock, ski stopped short, and I released fine when my foot twisted.  No problem, tumbling, but time to arrest with my left ski still on.  I got around on my back and suddenly my left ski dug in.  Eventually my ski released and I stopped, but, not without a lot of pain around the top of my boot in my calf.

The pain was familiar from last year when I hit a hidden dip in a run and both skis stopped short.  It's pretty intense to start, but this time I remembered that it fades.  After a kind assist from someone who gathered my right ski from ~60' up the slope (I do this a lot for strangers, nice that it came back around), I was back and moving within a few minutes.

But... the pain kept getting worse in my left leg and after a few more runs I skied down to the car mostly on my right foot at 2pm.  Limping significantly yesterday evening with a fair amount of pain, including shivering after trying to stand on it.  This morning, I'm walking better, but there's still pretty real pain around my entire calf where the top of my boot ends.  Doesn't bode well for turning the EHPs the way they want to be turned.

Given that this type of pain on release has happened twice, I'm wondering if for me it's time to get off the Barons inbounds.  My best bet is I tore a bunch of calf muscle on release.  There are a few other reports about release problems on these bindings.  And no, my DIN is not cranked.

My mantra for today: At least it wasn't the knee.

argh. what length do girls really ski?

So, I'm mainly skiing a pair of 2010 Volkl Kiku 178s (for chilled out surfy days), and a pair of 2010 4FRNT EHP 179s (for a bit more speed and a more aggressive line).  Both are feeling too short these days, and I'm definitely in need of some more float on the bigger snow days to have more of a chance of keeping up with Jan on his Praxis powder boards.  Wishful thinking on both fronts (keeping up and having a bigger snow day), but it's nice to dream.

Trying to work out whether something like the PM Gear Bro 192s are way too much, or just right for bigger snow days.  Loving the weight on them.  Unfortunately, the only help I can get is from size charts like this which declare that as an "expert" I should be skiing a 170.  Give me a break.  It'd be lovely to know what the competent girls out there are skiing these days.  Tried to figure out what the female comp freeskiers around my size are on to find a reasonable maximum, but I haven't managed yet.  186s seem like a no-brainer in general, but over 190 starts to look a little less obvious.

2012, opening slowly

Days One and Two this weekend for 2012.  I was even in the area just after new year's, but didn't think taking a day off of work was worth the tradeoff of manmade snow and ice.

We skied only a few hours today and yesterday, and it turns out that 63 days of skiing last year continue to pay dividends after a long break.  The ice bumps were relatively friendly, and new snow is starting to make things look a little more like winter.  Gold Coast was open, and there were some fun floaty turns to make if you looked a little bit.  I'll be happy to make it off of the low-angle terrain as soon as possible, though.

Reminder to self, again: EHPs are much more suitable for ice than full rocker Kikus.  Winter, I'm looking for an excuse to round out my quiver with a real set of powder skis, so help me help the economy, please.

Working a bit over the weekend means I'm planning to get a few runs in before work tomorrow.  Hopefully tonight's storm will be kind.

2011/2012 season so far: 2 days, a paltry 13,153' of downhill so far.