Review: Rossignol S3

Review of 2011/2012 178 Rossignol S3

Ski: 178 Rossi S3, mounted at +1 from 0 line with FKS 140s.
Boots: Nordica Hawx 95
Me: 17 years old; 5’11”; 145 lbs; lots of treeskiing, charging, although not super hard, basically like everything; taking small drops up to 10’; no park.
Tip rocker (not decambered): ~11.5”
Tail rocker (not decambered): ~11”
Other skis I’ve skied: 185 Armada JJ

Ok, on to the review. This is my first review, so be easy on me:biggrin:.

Groomers: The S3s really rail groomers. They were really quick edge to edge, and held a carve really well up to a certain speed limit. There was no noticeable tip chatter, which was nice. The ski does tend to wash out in the tails if the edges are not completely engaged, but once they are engaged they rail. This was no surprise to me, as any ski with this much tail rocker will do that. Overall, really good carving, even though I still have to try them on hard to icy groomers.

Tree: This is where the S3s really shine, IMO, especially the 178s. They are super turny, can easily be flinged around, and are really quite effortless. Not much to say about these here, except that they are a blast in trees.

Crud: things get a little sketchy here. Compared to the Armada JJs, which aren’t really crudbusters either, the S3 is really squirrely. They tend to go over all the chop, instead of going through it. I’m not saying they’re impossible here, but you really need to absorb a lot of bumps. I still think they’re fun though, just not meant to straightline down a run that is all chopped up. Softer crud that wasn’t icy was a lot better, and I really enjoyed them there.

Powder: in powder up to a foot, the S3s were quite fun. I only dived my tips twice I think in the 3 days I skied them in powder over 8”, which is fairly good I think noting the waist width, and not so large rocker. I haven’t skied them in anything over a foot, but I do see more tip dive as snow gets higher than a foot. This is where the JJs come in for me.

Conclusion: I think this is a very fun ski, and is not difficult at all to ski as well. Although that is not always a good thing, it is good if you just want to have fun, and not be over competitive. I am definitely looking into something that does crud better, and charges harder than the S3s, but for now, they really work quite well as a one ski quiver, especially for tree skiing. So overall, the positive aspects of this ski outnumber the negatives, IMO.

I’ll post some pics this evening.

You pretty much nailed it.

^Yup. Really fun ski, not perfect but great for everything not-crudbusting and not-stupid-fast groomers. I've happily skied waist+ deep snow on my 186s. Really fun in bumps. Great backcountry ski, great inbounds ski.

Agreed. Just picked up the last years 178's as my skinny ski. Definitely a fun ski to play on in between big storms!

Fun skis, but they definitely chatter if you take them north of 40mph

Anyone know where I could demo a pair of these in the Salt Lake City area?