Sweet as it Gets Directional Shred Stick

By Elias Littenberg January 14, 2011

Cool recipe Armada has going on here. Take the JJ nose and put it on a narrower and tapered platform, give it a boost with a bunch of camber, take the rocker out of the tail, and keep it going with the weight saving AR50 construction (blend of sidewall underfoot w capped tip and tails). The result is a directional shred stick that just begs for high speed, stay in the fall-line ripping. Despite the very light weight and big rockered nose, this is not a lazy surfy powder ski. Instead the Armada TST seems purpose built for the roughneck skiing in steep and rocky zones at the top of your local mountain. The surprisingly stiff flex is very confidence inspiring when you're straight lining out of big airs or dicey lines. Meanwhile it's so light that you can spin and butter off anything you see. Skiing switch isn't the easiest thing to do on a ski with such a big difference between nose and tail widths, but it can be done with a bit of practice.

Not that the TST isn't a great ski in pow, but despite the rockered nose and tapered shape towards the tail, I'm not reaching for it on a deep day. It's a little narrow in the waist for our classic Utah deep and I still love the really fat, fully rockered skis for storm days. I'll wait 'till the clouds blow off, the mountain is tracked, and then grab my TSTs for those send-it days before all the hits have lame traverses cutting up the landings.

Quick note on mounting, mine didn't show prescribed lines for mounting (sample?), but there is a spear graphic near where your boot would end up. My repair shop buddy and I measured between the contact points and pulled back my boot center -2 from the middle of our measured running length. We crossed referenced this with a similar sized Salomon Shogun and felt good about where the boot stood. Glad to say that it's working for me.

I'm 5'8", 140lbs and the 183cm is all I need.

View Details: Armada TST Ski

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