Climbing and backcountry ski shop Camu (Helsinki, Finland) organized a nice late season demo/test in Messilä Ski Resort, located about hundred kilometers north of Helsinki. The resort has been closed for two weeks already but the lifts were rolling for free just for the demo day clients.

I skied all of the tested models for about three or four runs. This won’t give you conclusive review of all the skis but some impressions how the models have changed, different upcoming ski types and shapes and so on. I believe almost all new skis are pretty good from the start. The thing you have to realize is, however, that unlike some five years ago the skis in the so-called “freeride” category are not just rebadged, widebody GS skis.

Today there are a refreshingly wide range of different shapes, widths, flexes and most importantly rocker profiles  - the last feature being probably one of the biggest ski innovations since increased sidecuts and first “fat” skis! So, the key is to demo, search information and especially know (or find out) what you are really looking for.

You can find out more about the tester e.g. here. The conditions were soft spring snow groomers and later on the day wet, deep slush. There was also one little kicker where one could get a bit of air – perfect for classic “tongue in cheek” late spring/season end tricks like cosacks, spreads, daffies…

Movement Super Turbo GTI

Now, let’s start with the biggest and baddest. Earlier I have never been that impressed on Movement skis but now I have to admit that Movement had two of the most interesting models on the whole demo fleet. The first one being the Super Turbo GTI – at an impressive 202cm length.

Movement Super Turbo GTI is a big mountain and powder ski with dimensions of 150-120-135mm (tip-middle-tail) and long tip rocker. It has no tail rocker though, giving the ski a more traditional feel when finishing the turns.

On the feet the first impression of the skis is “holy s**t these are big and heavy” (see the picture below – compared to my friend’s Dynafit Mustagh Aga touring skis!). When you start to get speed these didn’t feel like total tanks though. There is just enough sidecut to even get decent turns on the groomers and the ski isn’t overly stiff. Tip rocker part is also so long that on the firmer stuff the ski feels more like a middle stiff 185cm traditional fat ski. The very tip of the skis flap a bit at speed but it doesn’t seem to has an effect on the performance at all.

Conclusion from the four test runs: manageable but quite boring on the low angle groomed stuff (can’t be surprising to anyone?). I also wouldn’t like to jump turn these beasts or try to flick them around on the tight trees – if you are going to buy these, you better know what to do with them. Big ski for big mountains and good skiers but not overly demanding. Seems like this category of skis has “softened” a bit since the likes of Head Im 103s, first generation Big Daddies and Nordica FF 105s.

Movement Fly Swatter 185cm

This is a freakish looking ski: short(ish), very fat and with abrupt rocker and deep sidecut. People carving these on the slopes looked like they have some kind of little “boats” on their feet. Fly Swatter is kind of exaggerated version of the Armada JJ. 150-125-145mm, 17 meter sidecut radius and very centered binding mounting point. It also has the similar “5-dimensional sidecut” profile than the JJ. Nice graphics too. I forgot to take a picture of these, check out the graphics and some more info on this link.

However, on the slopes this was a very positive surprise. Fun, poppy and lively, carves and surfs well, depending on what you like to do. Very playful, makes you want to try silly little jumps/180s everywhere – see the picture below, the skier looks stiff but the ski works better, heh.

Soft, forgiving round flex probably has some speed limit if you really like to charge. And the effective sidecut is quite short -I guess this ski need some amount of soft snow to come alive.

Positive impression probably come also from the conditions (deep slush, small hill) but as a huge fan of Armada JJ I think I could like this ski almost everywhere as long the conditions are  on the soft side. I would be tempted to mount the binding just 1,5-2cm more back (from the recommended mark) but on the other hand due to lots of tail rocker this might not work at all?

Conclusion is that despite the awkward look, Movement Fly Swatter works very well. For the skiers that like soft, playful skis. Also, I bet good backcountry freestylers would make wonders with these “surf boards” on their feet. Btw. Pretty much everyone around seemed to like these skis.

K2 Hellbent 179cm

Already huge-dimensioned Hellbent has growth some more for the next season. It now has a whooping 132mm waist but otherwise the concept is unchanged.

This was a small disappointment for me. The ski has the typical “K2 feel”, soft(ish) but stable and damp. The downside is that this feel offers not that much liveliness and “pop”.

The Hellbent carved ok and absorbed small ruts and bumps very well. But something lacked in my opinion. Maybe the very wet snow had an effect – I felt that ski this wide began to “glue”/stick to the snow, making it even more out of its element (while 132mm waist ski can carve on the groomed, no one could argue that this width is made for the prepared slopes).

Some guys on the test tent praised how K2 Hellbent behaves on the real powder and I guess the story is totally different there. 132mm waist and “powder rocker” concept can’t be bad on real blowder days. Still, I am beginning to be in the school of thought that skis with waist widths bigger than say 125-130mm work better with “5-dimensional sidecut”/pointy tips.

K2 Obsethed 189cm

I have been the fan of the whole K2 Seth line since the original yellow Seth Pistols. For the next season, K2 ObSethed has growth some more, the dimensions now being 146-117-134mm.  It has the rocker profile 20/40 on the tip and 10/20 in the tail (see the picture below).

Again, Seth’s ski didn’t disappoint. For some reason, despite having the same K2 feel as the Hellbent, the whole concept worked much better to me. Maybe for me the longer but slightly narrower ski just felt better? (So take this with a grain of salt – hard to say anything between different lengths anyway, 179cm vs. 189cm). Some have speculated that now the ObSethed have moved from “all-mountain” category to the pure powder ski status. However, I felt that this is “just a ski” (in a positive way). It felt that I could just click into the bindings and ski anything without thinking too much of it.

Armada ARG 185cm

Armada ARG hasn’t changed for the next season (graphics excluded). This was my first time on the so-called Reverse-Reverse skis, like Praxis Powders (I count ARG’s to this category, even though the ski has a very short section of minimal of sidecut). I know what to expect though – a good friend of mine skis these pretty much all the time, everywhere, even on groomed slopes(!).

Very fun skis, just forget carving! If you try to carve, the skis will split and go to the separate directions. But you learn to avoid that in a few runs. Think old school “windshield viper”, sliding turns. No problem for an old mogul skier like me…

Where the slush was deep enough I could feel the ski start to surf/plane. When that happens, everything become totally effortless. In powder this type of ski lets you do the things unimaginable before. There are other options too but if you look for uncompromised and at the same time fun/playful powder performance, I guess ARGs can’t disappoint.

Jumping felt strange with these – no wonder Armada team skiers seem to use JJs more: on booters and kickers some sidecut is your friend IMHO. I guess for powder cliffs there shouldn’t be any problem (once you have got used to the R/R feel).

Armada JJ (as telemark skis)

This was something I have waited for a long time. The JJs are also unchanged (graphics aside) for the next season. Being the huge fan of the concept I have been thinking that JJ must be a really fun freeheel ski too.

Well, telemark skiing is way more dependent on the bindings than alpine. So, I had some troubles with loose (too long) cables and just couldn’t get the “right” feel in the tele turn. General impression was that the “loose” feeling of the rocker ski is really fun also when dropping the knee but with JJs I also felt the tight sidecut become quite “hooky” on couple of occasions (might be my bad tele technique and/or the problem with the bindings).

I tried to jumps couple of times from the small kicker available – here I can understand why some people don’t like tail rocker on tele skis. I ended up very back seated after the launch from the lip.

Can’t say much based on this experience – fun skis as telemark too but one must have good technique and balance and I guess binding selection is pretty essential factor too.

Btw. Another interesting tele option was available too – Voile Drifter 182cm (See the picture below). The cables were just too long for my boots. People seemed to dig that ski quite a lot and it also seemed to work very well in slushy conditions. Too bad I couldn’t test them this time.

Armada ARV 185cm

Unchanged for the 2010-2011 season. I already reported some impression of that ski last season. The fatter skis worked better for the heavy slush conditions though. Anyway, Armada ARV is a nice piste/park oriented all-mountain ski that still work on the soft snow too. Neutral, not too stiff and predictable – good skis but don’t particularly impress on any special area.

Völkl Gotama 186cm

This was also one ski I have been eager to test for some time already. Völkl Gotama changed quite radically (on the paper at least) for this season but for 2010-2011 there is no new modifications. Measurements are 137-106-122mm and the ski has a very subtle rocker through the whole ski.

The original black Gotama had quite a cult following. After skiing this incarnation I’d say that the new model also lives up its legendary status. But there are just huge amount of other options and “competitors” around these days. The ski felt pretty same as my own 190cm 06/07 (white) Gotamas. When standing on the skis the rocker is so mellow that you don’t even notice it. The tips of the skis are very low, to the degree that you wonder how they work in the soft snow. Reports confirm that there shouldn’t be any problems though.

The ski engages the turn just a tad slower than the 06/07 and 08/09 models and the rocker gives maybe minimal amount less “pop” from turn to turn but after a few runs you shouldn’t notice the difference. Seems like Völkl didn’t want to change the winner concept too much,  just changed it a bit more modern.

I guess the new Gotama offers all the same than the older one but adds  a bit more flotation and “looseness” in the soft snow. If you dig Völkl skis/older Gotamas and look for a solid all-arounder, look no further. The 194cm version should be also good option for the big/strong skiers.

PS. This was our last ski review for this winter. The test day was the 43th ski day for me. The awesome winter of 2009-2010 gave us six months of skiing here in Southern Finland. And despite the small molehills we even enjoyed some very rare real powder snow in January and February.

Please comment if you have any more questions – or additions to the ski  test, or even if you totally disagree with me!