I've ridden both. The chronic is stiffer than the ar6 in the nose by a decent amount. I think the ar6 gets stiffer from nose to tail, right? I'd say the tails are only a little softer, if not the same in both skis. They both have a ton of pop, I think the ar6 was slightly more lively when jumping around. The ar6 felt lighter, that may be due to the slight difference in pop and stiffness or it may just be lighter. I like the symmetrical flex in the chroincs though, they're really fun to land backwards on.