09 185 JJ Review

no_steeze

no_steeze

Active member
I finally got to ride these in enough conditions to write a review about them, I know I'm way behind the curve on this, there are already many JJ reviews, but i thought I'd put in my $0.02 on these boards. I purchased these skis in December, yes, odd and terrible time to buy skis, but I don't regret it, so just now am I able to dissect their performance in lots of different conditions

Stats
5'11
175
Been skiing my whole life minus 2 years of infancy, racer, I like to ski fast, etc.
Located in southern VT, ski was ridden at mt snow, stratton, and haystack

185 JJ's
mounted with Dukes at recommended
I rode these skis wearing Tecnica Race 110's but will soon adjust them to my Radiums

Groomers
These feel like big goofy slalom skis on groomers. They hold an edge fine on icy east coast groomers. They feel very short for obvious reasons, and with a 14.3 radius they turn very sharp, so if you've ever skied slalom skis before, these feel like those just very slow edge to edge. I took these out for a day at Mt. Snow just to get a feel for them and I was carving on icy groomers the whole day and these totally satisfied me. Only gripe is that when you really dig your edge in the skis sometimes like to go 2 different directions but that's only when you do hard SL turns on them

Moguls
Rarely have I found a fat ski with soft tips and tails that is good in bumps. My search continues...these aren't great in moguls. I don't really ski bumps that much and if I were to go ski groomers and bumps for a whole day I'd take out my Tahoes. These just get bounced a little and because they're fat they don't go in the trenches too well

Crud
Wow.
The other skis I'd ridden in crud this year were Hellbents (don't use them in crud) and Bacons. The bents naturally got destroyed in crud and the Bacons were fine but they were missing something and I couldn't really figure out what it was. The JJ's fill all those holes. Despite the soft tips and tails these are sick in crud. The rockered and reverse camber tips make it so you don't hook through soft patches and so you get up out of the trenches. Then the stiffness underfoot carries you from soft patch to soft patch and doesn't bounce you in and out of the ruts like Hellbents do. In light crud the JJ's feel like you're on a groomer, in heavier harder crud they feel like you're on a bouncy groomer, I was very impressed and surprised. These are no Garbones but they do damn well in the chop

Pow
Well this is pretty obvious, this ski contains everything you would want for pow. It doesn't hook at all and because of how turny it is it can handle GS turns or nice little short turns. It doesn't charge that hard, but I find I'm able to charge harder on these than on my Bacons, they just feel more stable in pow and crud. They also do well in crusty windblown shit. There was some of that at the bottom of Haystack when I skinned it and they float fine in it and don't hook at all. These are also fun switch in pow

Trees
I took these in the Trials at Mt. Snow on Sat. and I was impressed. If you take an opposite mindset of the gapers and ski in a different direction, there're plenty of pow stashes so I got to test these in pow in trees. They turn fast naturally, for trees it's always fun to have a super soft ski so these don't really come through on that but nonetheless they're very fun. Only problem is that when skiing them they feel like they're about 155 cm's so you look down and see that the tip is about to hook a tree, that just takes 5 min of getting used to

Sweet Jumps
I did a lap through the park, no rails but hit a few jumps, when you land on hardpack on these they slap down really hard, I tried changing my weight and way I landed but they seem to hit the landing hard for some reason. So then you get a loud noise but it's not really a big deal. They feel a little big in the air but because recommended is only -5 they spin fine, I didn't do anything more than a 3 on these but they do fine. As for jumps in the pow or trees these things are dope

Hope that was helpful to some people on the fence about these, if you're deciding between JJ's or something else, I'd recommend JJ's. Also unless you're a midget, get the 185's, these things ski really shortAlso flexwise, they're stiff underfoot but pretty soft in the tip and tail. They feel stiffer than my bacons but not as stiff as my Tahoes if that helps. Skiing them they feel just right
 
I kind of skimmed the review so I might have missed this, but have you done any touring with them yet? And if so how was it?
 
Hey, I PM'ed you awhile ago about these, just wondering if you have any more experience with them to let me know if I could ski them.

I'm 5'7", 150 lbs. Should I try the 185's? Skiing tight northern VT trees.
 
fuck, totally forgot to put that in
TouringI did a few short skins on these and they felt fine, a little heavy but lighter than 186 Prophet 100s with dukes. I didn't have any issues sliding back or not holding or anything but granted I wasn't skinning anything sketchy or icy. The only thing I noticed is that because of the short amount of ski and how little camber there is, at the end of your stride the ski doesn't really pop up like a ski with a lot of camber does so this makes them a little more work because it's more to drag, you can't do the light drag rest step as much with these. But overall they felt fine for touring, I did a yo-yo with these and then another one with Prophet 100's and after 2 mins of skinning i couldn't tell a difference except for the fact that the JJ's were lighter
 
Great review man.

Yes, I love my JJs too. Did some skinning in the AK BC on saturday and GOD I love powder in them.
 
bump, i've seen a lot of threads about jj's lately, so to avoid lots of repetition just read this and hopefully it can answer some questions
 
thats true, but...

thats what i thought too, but it turns out that alot of skis are sold out in most stores by spring or they are only available in short sizes. i wanted to get EPs in end of april-may but i couldnt find any.

so this year i will buy them earlier, like late winter maybe end of febuary.

thats my opinion/experience.

peace
 
actual stores, yes a lot are. Online not as much. you were also getting a ski that sold out very quickly, so obviously they are not going to have any left by may, let alone for a good price. JJs and EPs sold out very quickly this year so there were no sales. If a company sells tons of a model with mediumishstokyness to lots of stores than that model will be cheap at the end of the season and into the next season (example: 08 Chronics). EPs and JJs were both skis that a lot of people were going to want, and both, especially JJs, were sold out quickly. I bet Chetlers will be the same this comming year
 
I dont want to start another thread, so im gonna post this in this one. I am thinking of getting either these or ARGs. I would really rather get ARGs but they scare me because of how specific they are.

I have seths so i guess i could use them on days with not that much snow, but has anyone skiied both and can talk about the differences between them? I am 6' and 190 pounds. I would be using them on pow days, but probably all day in both pow and tracked pow. (p.s. convince me to get ARGs)
 
Very good review. I order some 2011 JJs and I hope I like them. I thought my Hellbents were okay, but nothing great. Hellbents were a real bitch in the crud though.
 
anything that soft is gonna suck dick in the crud, thats why my old comi's were AMAZING at carving through crud, but no rocker= hard work in pow
 
Yeah, I never expected Hellbents to be good in the crud, but they weren't quite as good as I expected them to be. I've only heard great things about the JJs though!
 
GHSTRCN, scored a pair for really cheap off "a site" (ITS MY SECRET!!!) mounted them with jesters, and DAMN they are sexy.

i've got billy goats (2011) for pow next year, cant WAIT to try those!!
 
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