The Raven - Hoji's New Masterpiece
sweet.
I've got 4 days now on my new raven 190's with kingpins.
First impressions...
at first I kinda couldn't ski them. They were deflecting like crazy and super hooky in a weird way. Bt it turned out they had a horrible tune off the shop wall (the bases were cupped slightly, weird texture, dried out no wax, and apparently only a 0.25deg base edge angle measured with the dude's laser). Got them professionally ground and tuned and they were a totally different beasts. I think I really like them. I did mount at -2cm (as per Hoji's formula in the article above), and I'm still unsure on the mount, but so far it's not jumping out to change yet.
They have more Renegade "feel" than Hoji "feel". To me, that means a slightly more aggressive ski, in contrast to the Hoji which feels more mellow to me... but still the same style of skiing. They do have some of that magic thing that happens with the Rens where you can get the right mojo going and pressure the heels just slightly more and they turn in to rocketships and just want to accelerate out of everything, but still in total control. I like that, and I haven't really felt it in other skis. I certainly trust them to go fast.
good float in soft snow... actually I was surprised at that part. And good edge hold on hard snow. Even good on the few groomers I've skied on them.
The lightweight is going to take some getting used to for chunder, but it did make me feel a lot lighter on my feet and more easily bring my knees up in the air.
anyways - so far I'm pretty happy with my Ravens. Enough so that I'm selling my Hojis and Renegades; to replace with the new lighter Renegades to compliment the Ravens.
