Last year I would agree that the stepups were not really worth the money but they have seen some much needed improvement this year. They are not full skate deck like the afterbang anymore, they shaved alot of weight by going to a sidewall with two deck layers. My other issue with them was the base sucked, it didn't seem to hold wax no matter how well you took care of it but they switched to a proper sintered base for this season, so it runs fast and hold wax. So for this year it is a much better ski but for the price spend a bit more and get an AR7 or a little less and get the Atomic Punx.