oh...those are incredible pics! send some of that goodness our way, wouldja please? :)
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oh...those are incredible pics! send some of that goodness our way, wouldja please? :)
I feel your pain Hombre. You've got the ski of the year leaning on your wall and nowhere to unleash it. Patience grasshopper.
Those pics are Fucking AWESOME! Those need to go on the front page! Thanks for the review!
They were in a Baker TR I wrote (I took them ;))
They were on the front page on ptavv's baker TR.
Edit: You slimy bastard.
Just tried my new ARGs out in hokkaido and liked them as much as the other reviewers. I would just add on the harpack ability, there seems to be a few asking about mounting the binding back from the line, I wouldn't. I mounted on suggested centre and my toe and heel seemed to be very close to where the front and back rocker started respectively (I have a 326mm boot sole). If you were to mount further back of the line, I suspect you would lose the groomer ability this ski has over spats. On the same note, if they lengthened this ski to, say, 190 and put the extra length on the flat portion of the ski I think it would really improve performance on the harpack. I know, you don't but this ski for the hardpack but its difficulty there is the reason many people are put off reverse camber.
From Bossass's photo they're ALL white?!?!? WTF, another white pow ski.....
Shape looks nice though. If only they came in 195cm
Just played with some at Jibij here in Boulder. Stiffest Armada to date without a doubt. I just realized how goofy they look when you set them down and actually think about having them attached to your foot. Just looking down at the Praxis will bug me out for awhile!
I like my pontoons. I haven't crossed tips a bunch, slapped them together, nor have the rocks I've hit caused the skis to explode. They ski fine on traverses and hardpack (though I have not tried them on FIRM-to-icy hardpack), are very maneuverable and pivotalicious in the trees, and ski back to the chair or base like a normal ski. And the wide tips really aren't that much of a problem. So there.
I think they've gotten an unduly bad rap on a couple people's experiences, and that bashing corporate K2 is the coolest around here. So far the product isn't bad. But I will say a conditional "so far".
anyway I think a vital difference is flex - pontoon is soft, ARG is apparently stiff. Sounds cool, I'd love to try it.
Really? I thought the ARG was much stiffer than the ANT....maybe just in the tip and tail....but i dunno...
From hand flexing, my first impression was that the tips and tails are softer than ANTs, but the underfoot section is quite a bit stiffer.
My first day on ARGs: Whistler last Sunday. Not that much deep snow in-bounds so I headed over to Flute Bowl. At first I kept the speed way down heading over to the Harmony lift but soon realized the skis could carve just fine. In fact, no need to slow down at all on the way out to the Flute cat track.
Skating out the Flute cat track was more work than my Gotamas would have been. Lacking camber, the ARGs give you no spring when skating so you really have to push them. All that was instantly forgotton as soon as I got into soft snow. The ARGs got up on plane, totally stable at speed. I don't remember actually working the skis through a turn- just thought "turn" and they pivoted under foot. They handled old, refrozen tracks pretty well, too.
On the second trip out to Flute, I walked up to Flute Summit. I won't deny it-ARGs are more of a pain to carry than my Gotamas. The first chute hadn't been skied-it was windcrusted at the top and soft below. The ARGs would not hook the crust, and then floated the powder below.
So: the ARGs shine in ungroomed snow, do ok on groomers, and are not so fun skating cat tracks.
North Shore Ski and Board in North vancouver, BC has a pair... They might be able to do a sort of mail order thing for ya. Don't really know.
www.nssb.ca
Our local shop has a pair priced at $680, no sales tax, say the word and they can be in the mail coming to you...
That was me. Small maggot world! The cat track gave me time to think about why the ARGs didn't skate well: I'm out of shape, you need camber to push off with, the skis are fr*gn wide and may have been underwaxed...
I'm hoping to get back up next weekend and ski em some more.
I'm hoping to bring mine out this weekend (maybe friday too) and see how they do on the really long cat tracks (spankys run-out). I might have to try some different wax. Its also looking like while the snow might be super deep it might have a pretty heavy wind layer on top, I'm excited at the probability that these will rule in it.