Broke my Atomic Punx after only ~30 days

Cyanicenine

Cyanicenine

Member
I don't ski rails, just jumps. I'm 5'2 130lbs and while I consider myself an expert skier I'm still just entry level at park. I will straight air huge jumps, but my tricks are limited to grabs (off anything) and 180's off small jumps. I was riding park all weekend since this is the last week my local park will be open. Went to put my skis on the rack today and noticed that one ski no longer has any camber and is now pretty much full rocker. The outside is intact, so my guess is the wood core inside is broken.

Sucks for me because I really loved those skis, most fun ski I've ridden in the park. Gonna try and warranty which I know is unlikely to work, but worth a shot anyways. Just thought I'd let anyone who cares, know.
 
Have you tried talking to Atomic for warranty yet? Super odd to hear of a ski breaking while hitting jumps and 180ing, and what I'm guessing would be aggressive all mountain skiing.
 
sucks, but to be honest i have a lot of buddies who ride punx, and all of them have major problems, i think they made the ski super poppy but no reinforcements, i would honestly not even bother getting another pair, keep them as a rock ski to use early season, pick up some strong ski like armada or scott, or rossignol, idk about small companies i have never used any to this point, but get some strong ones and use them well
 
I ski out west man. Steep chutes, drops, tight trees = expert skier. If there is pow to be found anywhere I'm riding it, not the park.
 
Not yet, it just broke today so I haven't had a chance. Gonna go out tomorrow and see if they'll warranty it. I ski aggressively, but I've never broken a ski before. I would think that my light weight would make it pretty hard to brake a ski like this no matter how hard I ride.
 
i have the 11/12 punx. i wouldnt say they're rockered now but she dont have the pop she used to, das truth.

the edges are nice though, no pullouts after 60 days or so, a nice relationship.
 
You don't know shit about skiing don't you?

And OP, how about you provide us with some pics of the skis, maybe the edges and the place you think they are cracked too.
 
Hard say what will happen when taking the Warranty route.

Advice for OP next time buying: Buy from Backcountry.com or REI. Both companies will always except returns no matter the condition of the gear. Always. It's like having insurance on your gear. This great for poor ski bums like me in case the worst happens.
 
I've always been dubious about how far you can take this, what's to stop you saying the skis got near disintegrated and sending in a tiny piece of topsheet? sure it'd never happen, but what's stopping you.
 
if it straight got rockered, they will probably warranty it. that shouldnt happen and that is due to a weak core. the same thing happened to my friends thalls and he was able to get them warrantied
 
My friends brother has sent like 3 pairs of skis to backcountry in one season, all due to absolutely destroyed edges. They always give him new ones. Every rail is a C rail when you slam into it hard enough...
 
Thanks for the comments all, except Gingy, who has apparently never heard of anyone owning more than one pair of skis.

I tried to take some photos of the damage, but it turns out it's pretty hard to show the change in shape with a picture. The break seems to be somewhere at or around the heelpiece, the first picture in this album is straight on with the sidewall of the ski, with both punx side by side on my workbench. You can hopefully see that the camber doesn't quite match between the two anymore.

The rest of the pics are various views of the broken ski near the heelpiece, the ski isn't pristine (thanks late season low coverage!) but there's no obvious big impacts or anything.
 
Have you tried giving the skis a hand flex yet? Another test I do at work on composites is a coin tap test. Basically you take a coin, repeatedly tap it on the laminate, in this case our ski, and run it down the length of the ski. If the core is snapped, and has delamed some of the layers around the snap, then the count should make a drastic change in sound when you hit that spot. Good for pinpointing the break. Either way I think it's apparently obvious that there is a snapped core in there. Good luck with them, hopefully you can work something out!
 
there is a chance that the core is in tact, it just softened up due to skiing on them for a season. My friend's punx no longer have camber on them due to buttering them, and its likely if you are just starting out in the park that you have had a few backseat landings, which would greatly flex the ski. My Halo's now have a very large amount of tip rocker due to nose butters, skis just seem to warp over time.

The core could have broken though, I can't tell because i am neither a shop tech nor have I seen the skis.
 
unfortunately a really soft ski like the punx will wear way quicker than a more stiff ski. If there was a break in the core there would have been a noticeable difference in how it skied. I'm thinking it's just from skiing them. a season on a pair of punx will render them useless for a second season since they become wet noodles.
 
Has the ski bent evenly in the tip and tail, or has it just bent back like that on the tail? You can see in the pic, that it has bent, does not look broken to me. It looks like you took a big back seat landing and have bent the tail so much of one ski, that the edge has bent and that is what is keeping the ski permantly bent. If you had broken the core you would be able to pretty much bend the tail at a right angle.

This probably is worth sending into warranty. Did you buy them or get them prodeal. If you brought them, just take them back to the dealer and they can send them away. If you got them prodeal, well you should know what to do, but if not just contact atomic for an ra number.

 
Alright so I took them into the shop and they couldn't really tell me much. They apparently haven't had much dealings with atomic warranties so they were like "I dunno, they might warranty it, they might not."

While I was there however, they messed with the bent ski a bit, flexing it to see what was up, and it made a crackling noise and flexed way easier than the non bent ski. It's bent right under the heelpiece, it's not a gradual bend or anything like you might see in a ski that's just worn out, it's an obvious sharp angle right there. I should have gotten another picture when they took my bindings off and stacked the skis on top of each other it was very apparent that something was jacked up with the one ski.

I'll update again when/if they decide to warranty. Crossing my fingers.
 
Sounds like a definite snap if it's crackling and bending at a pronounced spot. The top sheet, base, and fibreglass can still keep a ski well intact, and hide any snap damage below the surface very well. Even though manufactures do their best, wood is wood, and you never know what inconsistencies that one piece may have had especially when dealing on such a large scale. Hopefully you get some warranty!
 
Good news! Just found out Atomic is going to warranty, but because it was late season they will replace them with next years model, due to ship out August 26th.

While it's great that they are replacing them I'm a bit concerned that they won't be as fun as the 2013's. A big part of what I loved about the 2013's was how soft and springy they were. How much stiffer are the 2014's? I already have some k2 recoils and I don't really want a carbon copy of them which is what the 2014's are sort of sounding like (I like the recoils they just aren't as fun as the punx). Should I sell my 2014 punx when they come in and just buy some 2013's since I liked them so much?
 
Why not get them swapped for the infamous? The infamous is nice and soft lime the 2013 model but its a little wider so I fou d them more stable and generally more fun. They are a cheaper ski then the punx so when yours get credited I'm sure the shop who get the credit would be happy to swap them for you. If you go for the new punx I'm sure you will still enjoy them, the slight rocker keeps them as playful as the old ones and although they are slighter stiffer I'm sure you will get on fine with them for the type of park riding you do
 
So I guess my real question is how much do the 2014 punx ride like the K2 Recoils? Since I already have a pair of recoils I don't need or want another pair of nearly the same ski.
 
I have not ridden the recoils I'm afraid so can't really advise, but I did not find a huge difference between the old punx and the new. The added rocker makes up for the slight flex change. They still felt supper snappy and poppy with a good soft flex still in the tip an tail. But honestly look at the infamous it's a really good ski and if you liked the old punx you will really like them
 
Just reading about the recoil and it says it the updated public enemy. Those skis were super stiff so don't worry the new punx are no where near that stiff. Honestly I would still call them soft flexing in the tip an tail
 
Thanks for the feedback Tom.

I'm still leaning towards just getting the 2013 punx again, but I would like some more feedback from people who have ridden the 2014's.
 
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