Hmmmm what to say about the Palmers...
Talked to the rep about them, and he brought a pair by my mountain for me to rip around on for an afternoon. I demo'ed the "twin-tip" White model. I put twin-tip in quotes because the tail of the ski is really not all that raised on the pair I skied. I don't know if it was an early prototype model or what, but the tail has a concerningly low amount of rise to it. Newer recreational skis like Legends/Metrons have a more turned up tail than Palmer's "twins." I don't know if they have changed this design since beginning full on production, but at this stage in the game when tails on twins are getting higher and more pronounced as riders spend an increasing amount of time skiing switch, I think they are going to have a hard time selling it as a twin-tip model.
The front of the ski is pretty soft and the tail fairly stiff. Park ski stiff, not race ski stiff. The flex actually reminds me of the K2 Fujatives from years past if anyone is familiar with those(soft front, stiff tail). The 08 Fujatives are completely different so I'm not talkin about those.
I was not all too impressed with how the ski rode. Even though it was almost brand new, it skied with a dead feel to it that lacked the pop I've come to expect from park boards. I skied it in spring like snow and the fact that it was soft up front and had a fairly wide tip to let it float up was kinda nice, but I like to go all sorts of speeds when I ski, and the Palmer is definitely a cruising ski. Pretty sketchy even when straightlining a short pitch into the biggest hit at my hill which is only a 40 or so foot hit.
I could say more, but don't feel like its worth it. I talked to the rep about pricing, and as a rep for like 5 or 6 different companies he knows the prices stuff usually ends up selling for at "street price." Therefore, I was surprised to hear him say that Palmer expects to get $800+ for the twins and $1200+ for the carving model(Black model).
I was kinda stoked to see what Palmer was going to bring to the market, but ended up pretty disappointed. This ski woulda been cool and at the head of the twin tip pack five or six years ago, but today its nothing special. There are better park skis and better carving skis for $500 less in both genres.