Armada ARG Ski - 2010 BCS

@big willie style. The EP pro is a completely different type of ski. If you ski pow much slower and want to pop around a bit more then the EP pro is great. IF you really want to charge hard and eat up crud as well as have the ability to surf the ski in pow at 50mph then you need something stiffer and RR

I disagree about the ARG being the best powder ski out there, I sent mine back to Backcountry.com after buying the Line E.P. pro. I feel they float just as well, are just as quick in the tree's, smear turns as well, BUT rail on groomers as well. There is no advantage to a reverse-reverse ski anymore. With the shapes out there now combined with rocker and flex, you have 99% of the benifits of a reverse- reverse but the versitility of a normal ski.

I totally agree with your last statement Will. The Kuro is definitely softer than the ARG but stiffer than the Pontoon. If the ARG are 7/10 in the tip, 8/10 underfoot, and 7/10 in the tail, and The Pontoon is 4/10 in the tip, 6/10 underfoot, 5/10 in the tail, then the Kuro is probably somewhere close to 5/10 in the tip, 7/10 underfoot, and 5/10 in the tail.

also do you know how stiff the kuro is compared to the arg?

I was talking more about bottomless powder. but the pontoons are good in crud and do land cliffs well in bottomless. i agree that they can't charge very well. i would get the arg but i'm not quite tall enough. the tips are really soft on the pontoons. the pontoons are the best for bottomless in terms of floatation I have never been able to sink the tips. i think mcconkey was trying to make the pontoon so it could ski across grommers when he added the sidecut in the tips insted of staying 100% reverse sidecut.

I disagree William. While Pontoons were a very fun ski at their outset in 2006, they have, however, rightly been cast in the shadow as their huge tip and tiny tail along with their soft flex makes them both too directional and too soft to be a very good ski everything soft ski. Sure, in bottomless snow the Pontoon is awesome due to its flat, but when you get into anything sketchy, even when it has fresh snow in it, the Pontoon starts to not live up to its hype. Don't get me wrong, they feel like waterskis in deep snow, which is awesome, But they lack the umph you need on bigger drops and on sketchier lines.

A ski to check out that is similar to the ARG, slightly softer but even more poppy is the Moment Donner Party. Same reverse sidecut shape, similar rocker profile, slightly fatter, really really poppy ski.

these and the pontoons are the best powder skis out there for sure. Pontoons are very soft and can't charge nearly as hard but have the best flotation. Brain floss helps a lot in understanding why the ARG's and the pontoons are the very best.

These and the pontoons are definitely the best powder specific skis on the market.

Bottom Line: This is truly a powder specific ski. Forget about all of your 120, 130, or even 140mm underfoot traditional powder skis. Traditional sidecut in powder does not make sense. This is a fully reverse sidecut ski. What does that mean? If you look at the dimensions to this ski, its skinniest point is actually in the tip and tail, while the ski is fattest directly under the skier. The ski is also fully rockered. Enough with the ski jargon...what does this all mean? It means that this is hands down one of the best powder specific skis on the market!

Pros: This is a fairly stiff ski, but its rocker makes it very playful, allowing the ski to do everything from straightlining a couloir to nose-buttering a 540 off of a pillow. As long as there is some sort of fresh snow, this ski will absolutely destroy it. This ski makes powder skiing effortless. This makes crud skiing more fun. This makes groomer skiing...horrible.

Having the sidecut of the ski reverse gives the ski a far lesser swing-weight. This makes the ski really fun to spin and flip with. This really is a great backcountry jib ski. The reverse sidecut with rocker also gives the ski very little tip to be deflected by wind buff and crud, allowing you to charge crud very easily.

Cons: As I said, this truly is one of the best powder skis ever made, which has made its ability to ski groomers horrible. This isn't like a traditional powder ski, where the only thing that makes it imprudent for use on groomers is the width of the ski. Atleast on a regular powder ski you are able to power through a turn. On these skis you cannot engage the sidecut on a groomed run, instead you have to make "windshield wiper turns", pushing out the tail of your ski to slide a turn around. Its not a big deal, just don't bring these skis when there isn't fresh snow. You do get used to it and they aren't too bad. But then again, that isn't what this ski was meant for, so it didn't effect my review negatively, just something to note.

For all of you neigh-sayers that have not tried fully reverse sidecut skis yet, it is time for you to give these things a shot! They seriously charge hard. And if you are too afraid to try something new, I put my dad on a pair of these at Powder Mountain this year...he could not believe how awesome they were in fresh snow!

If you can find the 5-page booklet by Shane McConkey entitled Mental Floss, you will learn a bit more about the history of this reverse sidecut shape as well as a little bit more on how to ski a ski like this.