Joe Prunckle

Absolutely blown away with its performance in the powder. 178 with a Tele setup, Hammerheads (boot center -2cm). Its a point and shoot type ski in the powder, but also amazingly fun and playful in the trees. Zero tip or tail hook like I've read in some other reviews. It does fairly well on the groomers, but wouldn't use it on a groomer day, maybe its me but I can't hold a rail like I can with my Moment Ruby's. The rocker makes skiing variable conditions so easy its not even funny, and the no camber under foot helps hold an edge in the hard stuff. A lot of powder skis have more of a continuous rocker with maybe 10"-15" of contact when held together. These seem to have a bit more flat than others, closer to 30", which may help with its performance on hard pack snow. And probably why people have said its now their DD.

I love this binding, mounted on 180 Moment Rubys. Feels more active than the G3 and BD03. Not as powerful as the Hammerheads. But touring mode works great, so easy to skin these fairly large boards its not even funny. Very easy to go from ski to free pivot. I had an issue with a cartridge, called BD and they overnighted a set of four replacements (great customer service if you ask me). The cartridges do loosen a little, but there are cures for this problem, my cure is to check them at home before heading out. My climbing hooks do not pop out, I installed them with the heel piece off so they aren't stretched out.

The only reason I gave 4 stars is because of the cartridge issue I had which seems to be 1 in 100,000.

I finally was able to put a few days on these skis to get a feel for them. First off I have the 180s with BD01 tele bindings mounted with boot center 4 cm behind recommended boot center, and I ski them in the Sierra's.

Pros:
They are great in powder, no tip dive especially for a non-rockered ski.
They bust through tracked out Sierra cement quite nicely although with 111 underfoot sometimes they tend to float a bit more than I'd like.
Super light!! Just over 12lbs with the 01 bindings.
Hold their own on groomers, a little tip wobble at mach-chicken when I get tired an not applying enough force on the rear foot. The wider ski takes a run or two to get use to laying it on its side, but not an issue at all with the camber and side cut.
Backcountry they are super light and great for breaking trail.
I got the 130 wide G3 Alpinist skins and they fit perfect!
The length is a true 180 if measured tip to tail along the base. The point of contact is a bit less due to the tip & tail.
Much more stable in straight lining it in a parallel stance than my other skis.

Cons
Need to take your time on ice...but it isn't an ice ski so not a problem.
Not a big fan of the twin tip, but each their own.
Top sheets are not the strongest, will scratch, but who cares as long as the ski performs.
I do wish it was a rockered ski just because that is the new craze.

Overall I absolutely love this ski and will probably ski it on almost everything except for Spring Corn.

This beacon is very simple and easy to use. Its a little bulkier than some of the other higher end beacons, but one of the better for the price. We were playing find the beacon the other week, and everyone enjoyed using this beacon much more than the others. Very easy to learn how to use, and more accurate from further distances than the other beacons we had.

I upgraded from old three buckle T1s this year to these. It was a night and day difference in ability to drive wider skis. The ability to drive down the back ski and control it was much better. The bellows is also more flexible which I prefer. I like the 3 buckle design with the power of a 4 buckle (saves weight).

The foot area is wider and the toe area is not as tall as my Scarpas, which is good because the sides of my feet were killing me after a day last year. However the shorter toe area did take two baking sessions and a handful of skiing sessions to finally pack out. My large toe was being smashed and needed a little extra room. I also went down a 1/2 size. My Scarpas were 27 and Garmonts are 26.5.

The grooves that the buckles clip into have a very nice feature which holds the portion of the buckle into the buckle catch groove. So if you need to unbuckle the top two buckles for a hike, tour, or walk to the truck, it holds the buckle in the groove...no more swinging buckles. The red anodize on the buckles are starting to peel a bit but who cares.

I demoed this ski yesterday, 181 w/ hammerhead bindings at Mammoth Mtn., I'm 5'-10" 155lbs with Garmont Voodoo boots. The conditions were very light and fast hard pack snow, bumps, and crud. It took a few runs to get the true feel of this ski. By the end of the second run I felt like I could throw this ski anywhere, and even do some great GS style turns (even with the 108 underfoot). The rockered tip seemed to make the ski feel and ski shorter than it actually was (although they still do run a few cm longer, so I would say the 181 was closer to a 183 or 184). I don't like crud or bumps but it seemed to handle it fine, the ski was a bit long for my liking in these conditions, I had to slow down and muscle the ski quite a bit more to keep a rail. I really wish there was some powder to be had, but I could only imagine the width and rockered tip handling it with ease.

Overall this ski seemed to be very good. Probably my favorite ski that I demoed yesterday.

Actually this is a great helmet. Very light well constructed nice vents. I love the look of the brim, and love how well the Smith I/O goggles work together.

The reason for just a 4 starts is because there are too many other skiers with them. Its kind of silly when you look the the left and see a kid with the red helmet and look ahead of you and see someone with the black one. I usually like having something different than others. But I guess its a great helmet if everyone wants one.