Black Diamond Megawatt Ski - 2009 BCS

These skis are incredible. I can not say enough good things. The tip rocker make these skis very turnable even in the 188 length. So do not be afraid to buy them as long or a little longer than you are used to. For telemark skiers the dreaded "tip dive" is virtually eliminated by the unsinkable rockered tip on the Megawatt. The progressive flex gives this ski a nice tail that can handle hard charging skiers no problem yet this ski still seems to be the most user friendly fat ski I have ever skied. 5 stars really doesn't do it. As far as powder big-mountain boards go this ski is 6 stars for sure!

The same old trusty powder slayer with a fresh coat of paint. I still feel the way about them as I did when I first posted a review two years ago.

"Warning, this may read like a bad infomercial, but I'm really in love with these skis.
How do you make 4" feel like 8", 8" feel like 16" and over 2 feet of snow the most fun you've ever had. Behold the Megawatt! Hands up, or hands down the best powder ski I've ever had the pleasure of playing with. We've had some really deep days this winter and it's nice to finally be on a ski that I can say is fat enough. No more wallowing and poling your way out when the slope flattens, these boards bring the fast flotation. The front rocker helps in several ways. The ski turns quickly, it eliminates the classic tip dive tele tumble and makes crusts, upside down pow, and variable snow a pleasure. Accidentally ended up not skiing powder one day and it was a big surprise to find they actually rail on the hardpack as well. They have acquired the nickname "Mega-what", due to all the questions folks ask when they are seen touring around the backcountry. With big skis comes more weight to lug around and I'm down with "light is right", but these are worth every pound and they come with me whenever there's fresh snow on the ground now. If I wasn't clear, I like them very much and highly recommend them if you ski powder often."

This ski is great. In fact all Black Diamond skis are great. Mounted with some Dynafit AT bindings and you have one of the lightest set-ups in the backcountry. The mega's are your deep deep deep powder ski. Equivalent to that of K2 Hellbent but just much lighter. You wouldn't want these to be your everyday ski tho. This is your special occasion sort of ski. If you're lookin for a good slack/side country ski for big dumps then this is a great choice. If you're lookin to tour up the side of a mountain, I would look at some of the smaller Black Diamond skis like the zealot.

These skis are so awesome in powder. The fat and rockered tip floats like a dream and I've never had tip dive, which is a constant worry for tele skiers in powder. The non-rockered tail helps to stop wheelies and its great for skinning. I've skied them in a variety of conditions and I have to say they are NOT an all-around ski. They work but I rather take out another ski if there isn't much powder. I ski them with BD 01s and customs

These sticks aren't like other early-rise or reverse-camber models. The shovel rises up like a fire shovel, and looks like it could be used as one. The sudden upturn is unusual, unique, and effective at keeping tips from sinking, even if the sticks are short.
Sure, this early rise shortens the effective edge, and with such a dramatic rise, it will not hook tips into the groomers like other moderately rocked skis would. Other skis like the ObSethed, Gotama, Anti Piste, or Sir Francis Bacons which have 'rocker,' can carve into hard snow like a regular cambered ski, because a regular cambered ski is de-cambered in a turn. The 'rocker' is accentuated when the ski is further de-cambered.
The Megawatts don't really have camber but have 'early-rise,' so when the ski is de-cambered it does not really raise the ski tip anymore.
The main thing that I like about the Megawatts is that the tail is stiff. This is especially good for telemark skiing because you don't get the 'wheelie' effect like you would with Hell Bents or JJ's, which have early-rise tails, too.
With tele-skis, you don't have a back-seat like you do on Alpine setups. The Megawatts' stiff tails give a more stable feeling behind you, so you don't pop a wheelie and land on your ass. This tele-friendly stiff tails is what sets these whips apart from the rest.
Even with the early rise tips, the M'watts handle pretty well on the hard-pack back to the lift, but they are far from a one ski quiver. These are a great ski for people who look at groomer days like vegan looks at bacon.

For those bottomless pow days!!!

Sick in any condition, skis chop like your riding in po, skis pow and pops and porpises really well. Basically kills it, way too easy for a ski this big. Great on groomers with FKS, carves awesome.
188 and I am 188 with gear, great combo

Enough has been said about this beast's outstanding pow capabilities, so I will not expand on this. Let me tell you why this is a must as a versatile second ski. I went to the Black Diamond sponsored BigLePowSki in St Anton late Spring 2010, (a must event in the US and Europe for back country fans and newbies, because BD lets you ride all their sleds all day, for free). The piste was mushy, melty, icy mounds and uber-crudy on the shady piste, etc. Piste you say, why are you on the piste at a back country ski venue – well you have to traverse on piste from time and again, and at the end of the day we wanted to get a few runs in and check out the Apre ski. I asked my trusted BD consigliere, Danny, what ski I should use if I wanted to get a few piste runs in at the end of the day. He said “Big man, you need to take the big ski,” so I did. I had already been on the piste earlier in the day, and had to labor on other DB skis. Let me tell you, these water ski’s slammed through the Spring Krap like the Ginsu cuts through a tin can, effortlessly. They were actually a pleasure, even when going over the endless ice bumps at med-fast speeds.

So what am I trying to tell you. If you are on a budget and you already have pair of all mountain / piste skis, and you are looking for a second ski to go off piste in the pow, this is it. Why?

1. Because this is a forgiving ski in the pow that is easy to ski, and a ton of fun that lifts you like no other.

2. Many people put their skis away when March 1 turns the calendar – not with these planks. Instead of saying as Feb ticks down “I can’t wait till next year,” you will be saying, “cool, I have another month or more of skiing and gawking at the snow bunnies.”

3. When you ride these sleds, everyone will stop and ask you about them. You’ll be the guy all the birds are flocking to, and if you are no so good looking like me, you need all the help you can get, and the Megawatt is it.

If you are a classically trained Swiss or French style skier that keeps your knees and feet together like a school girl who wears patent leather shoes, these will take some getting used to as they are wide and will clank together, but I found that after 2-3 runs I had it figured out, and I am not a great skier – just an average Joe.

Word of advise – think about the randonee bindings you want to use. Beefy bindings will add weight, while these skis are not as heavy as they look, they can become heavy with heavy bindings. If you go with a cheaper binding that is too light, you may not want to rip it up on piste. So think about the bindings. I recommend either the heavier Markers, or lighter Fritschi Diamir. Talk to someone smarter than me about which one is right for you.

Peace, Love & the BD Megawatts

I love these skis but the mounting point is way old school/tele. Get them mounted a bit forward (3 to 6cm) for maximum pleasure. Nice and floaty, kill crud and are stable on groomers. I am remounting mine with Dukes. I'm told that the rocker is okay for skinning with these, especially if you aren't going for 6k vert on an icy track.

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SKI THESE. Just because they are fat does not mean that they are only going to work on powder days!!!! I ended up demoing these skis because the shop said they would have the justice (that i wanted to ski) but ended up only having this in...ends up i went home and ordered the ski. I'm a telemarker and unless i'm trying to beat bode miller down sheet ice, i have no issues carving on these. Definitley worth a demo if you are between these or something more like the justice. You will be surprised!

I tried those two years ago, a couple of demos, and the feeling was right there. But I waited almost two years before I actually bought them (from Backcountry) january this year. Since then I have used them almost every day, skiing in the north of Norway, from Lofoten to Lyngen. They are made for me, I`m shure about that!

Are they water skis? Are they floatation devices? Questions I got in the lift line. No they just helped an old man levitate down the mountain. WOW, WOW, WOW! I was just like a snowboarder floating down the slope and through the trees. I have skied the megawatt and I have risen on Easter weekend.

Rode these bad boys at Solitude about 2 weeks ago on the 188 with O1 tele binding. It had dumped several feet in the last couple days and I was able to snag a couple of first lines in deep stuff and they just floated so wonderfully. I'm still pretty new to tele and had no problems. Later in the day they dropped the ropes for Honeycomb and it was just incredibly. Effortless floating through the deep stuff, just too bad a tree knocked out power in the canyon so the one trip through honey comb was all i got.

The day before that it was wet clumpy snow and they worked pretty well there too but were a bit much for the churned up, heavy packed out bumps that were forming (atleast for me). On the grromed stuff though I was amazed at how well they got me back to the lifts being full rockered and so wide but there were no issues.

I'll be taking them out again soon and will keep you all updated.

Confidence inspiring, floaty, and so much more versatile than you would think. I probably used these 8/10 days last year. One look at the dimensions and tip rocker and it's obvious that Black Diamond declared a holy war on tip dive. They ski suuuper smooth in the soft stuff because of the lack of shape and flat tail. In fact this could be a problem because you start going faster than you normally would and when you get to tighter terrain/trees you'll need to shut it down right quick. I started a torrid love affair with a new mistress, and her name is megawatt.

My review likely won't be very helpful.

I took this ski out on some of the worst conditions possible this year. It had snowed 2 days prior, but the day after the storm things started to get slushy. That melted snow quickly re-froze again and we had conditions similar to a coral reef...except somewhat sticky.

Why was I on this ski...no idea.

I decided to drop into a little chute up at Snowbird. I hit an ice chunk and broke the Demo Marker Jester bindings clean off of the ski. I now had to ski a 42m turn radius ski on 1 foot, while carrying the broken one in my other hand, on snow that these skis shouldn't have been on in the first place... I wasn't having fun.

I started to get the hang of skiing on 1 foot even though I was barely able to put it on edge. I got to the bottom of the lift, looked at the binding, and thought I could simply slide it back onto its track. I got back on the lift. Everything seemed okay. Immediately upon exiting the lift the binding ripped off of the ski again. I had snapped the plastic hardware for this demo binding so my attempt at sliding it back onto the track proved to be futile.

I began the unwelcome task of skiing such a massive ski on 1 foot again. This time I switched feet.

Needless to say, i was not a very happy skier. I cannot blame any of this on the ski. The few runs I did get on it with both feet were on some of the worst snow conditions possible. The ski seemed like it could be fun in deep pow (although I like a ski with a little more tail), I guess we will have to try it again on a better day..with better bindings.

First, this is an awesome powder ski. It floats up high in fresh snow and busts through crusts and crud like they're not even there. In deep, heavy or wet pow, these are my go-to ski.

On that note however, that's where the fun stops with these skis. You really have to swing them out wide to carve down any sort of packed snow. Instead of laying trenches, you just have to make big, surfy, skidded turns on the groomers and packed stuff. In the bumps, they're a bit burly, tankish, and while you can easily get through them, it's just not the most fun I've ever had. For instance I skied about 6 inches of fresh over some decent-sized bumps in the Wildcat area of Alta and the skis just felt slow and heavy. Still, these are my first choice for fresh deep snow conditions.

This ski is fantastic in all off-piste except firm. They get a bit twitchy at very high-speeds.