New skis for the season

turtles

Member
this year im going to be riding primarily in vermont, mostly park. i was checking out the volkl wall and the line chronic.. i don't know much about either of these skis but im 6'1" and about 180 pounds, and a pretty i've been skiing backcountry all my life but this is only my 2nd year in park but will be skiing every day. if anyone could give me some suggestions that would be great
 
go with the chronic or the blend... blend might be better but im not sure because ive never been on chronics
 
I would look at volkl bridges if you will be using it as a one ski quiver. I would look at AR6, Chronics (never ridden them), Moment Reno Jibs and any other of the stiffer flexing park skis. Walls are ok. My take on Volkl Walls:

Piste: Sick. For a centre mounted ski they ski amazing on piste. They are pretty fast (I raced on them and did pretty well), moderately stiff but still playful. They are really great on groomers. Better than other park skis I have skied (1080, Foil, AR6, Anthem). Really quick edge to edge

Bumps: Pretty good here too. A little bit stiff and a the centre mount makes them a bit 'catchy' in the tails but otherwise good.

Jumps (park): Sick!! So solid on landings, good swing weight and fast enough to easily pick up speed to hit the big tables.

Jumps (BC): Not bad, stiff enough to deal with crud, mine were too short and they are too stiff for pow landings really.

Rails: Good. Relatively wide underfoot so a good area to land on. A little bit on the heavy side for a park ski. Otherwise good.

Pow: Suprisingly ok. By no means great but I skied some pow lines on them. They did alright. Bit on the stiff side for this really but as I say they were not bad.

Durability: 2007/08s: Binding pullout after 4 days and again after 10 days. Bases not in great condition after that. topsheet chips, sidewalls coming off.. Crap. But I have been told by friends who are riding them that the 2008/09 ski is bombproof. Friends who ski for volkl have managed to make the new model last 6 months and had no problems when they destroyed 5 or more pairs of the old ones.

Customer Service: Not great by any means. Had big problems in the UK and untracked.com warrantied them for me but said volkl were giving them problems too. untracked.com = great service. volkl uk = shit service. volkl US.. don't seem great but didn't deal with them directly.
 
walls would be dope for a park ski, especially if you have another ski to use for the rest of the time. they are a bit pricey, but super sweet flex, center mounted, suuuuper durable.

chronics are also going to rule. not centered, and centering them makes them a bit twitchy if ur skiing them all mountain. they are probably the most totally bombproof construction i think ive ever seen put into a ski (the sidewalls are twice as thick as on most otherr skis) and they have a great flex.

you cant lose with either, altho if you do want to center it, id lean toward the walls.
 
Walls, they've reviewed SO well for the past 2 years. And if you're in Vermont, I don't think there are too many pow days? If not walls would be best.
 
Walls.. meh.

Its a love them hate them thing. The skis are awesome, but they dont hold up well.

Last season a TON of kids blew them out and ripped bindings out of them super easy.. plus, they have cheap laminates for the base, and it can delam, as I saw a few times and had to repair last year in my shop.

This year, they seem a bit softer, and have a bit more even flex to them. I dont know whether they fixed all the durability issues, but if they did, they would be a sick ski.

Also, the 177cm length runs short. I measured them and they actually come out to about 174.7 or something retarded. Same goes for the 185. They run about at 183cm in reality. I have no clue why this is, but thats what I measured them at i guess.

 
i would go walls if all you are doing is park get them center mounted they can handle some crud and pow but you wont be happy with them. walls are great but dont take them out of park if there is more than six inches of fresh
 
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