Praxis Protest..just how cool is it?
After some debate and thought I think I’m gonna keep the Protests as a resort only pow ski and pick a different ski for my slack tour set up... any suggestions? Praxis Backcountry? Qs? Wootest? GPO? ON3P Steeple 116? C@D?
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Praxis Protest..just how cool is it?
I didn’t quite click with my Protests / felt I had to lean back to keep them up (felt some tip dive) until I realized that they aren’t really meant to feel like the tips are just floating on top like Pontoons or just more traditional Skis in general where the tip is the widest part.
The skis felt way more confidence inspiring and natural when I started trying to ski “in the snow” instead of on top. Not necessarily just leaning forward and having your upper body really start to try to sink the tips, but letting the ski get into the snow a bit.
Being in the weird limbo of leaning back and then sometimes getting bumped forward can feel like tip dive, where as when I trying to ski in the snow, pressure on the balls of my foot, resulting in loading the skis up middle of the turn and kind of rebounding out towards the end into the next turn (think those epic powder skiing clips where the skier sorta bounds from turn to turn) - that really was awesome. It’s just a different style and sensation of floating when all the float is directly underfoot.
After that they were total hero sticks for me.
Not the best description of what I felt, but the summary of it was once I learned to trust the Skis they were awesome
Praxis Protest..just how cool is it?
The clarification I’ll give is that for me I found they skied best when I skied them sort of the way I’d ski a 100mm wide ski in lighter Pow - those can be real fun to ski in the snow, where you sort of bounce from turn to turn (rather than sitting on your heels all day)
With the protests I say ski “in the snow” in terms of style, and indeed you will get into the snow somewhat when you load your weight into a turn - however all that surface area does keep you aloft underfoot, and pops you out again with a lot of awesome energy. I was worried about getting pitched forward for a while until I learned to trust the skis with my weight more forward that the tips wouldn’t dive on me. After a while I ended up feeling like the more I pushed, the more float and pop back out of the snow I got from the Skis. This is more in cutout heavy deep snow, in untracked and lighter snow I could always do whatever I wanted on them.
Always super quick to slash and smear from directly underfoot too. On skis like the protest, having really well fitting boots and heel hold is key in my opinion, because you need to have a lot of lateral control and any play in your boots will kill that and cause a sense of “lag” when you try to pivot in tight colorado trees. Having my boots loose becomes outright dangerous and is pretty crazy how much less control I have with such big skis in deep/heavy snow.
I’m not a tall guy (5’9, when I was last on Protests about 180 lbs), but I enjoyed pivoting and billygoating around in the trees with my 192s
All that being said, I did remount my second pair of 192s back ~1.25 cm. If I was on 187s I’d maybe go back -1.5 to -2cm (which would be about 102.5-103cm from the tips.
Praxis Protest..just how cool is it?
I’m starting to wonder if R/R skis, and skis that kind of ski like them (float underfoot, not so much in the very tip)..Are better skied not too long? If all the float is underfoot, and the tips can dive a little, would a longer ski make that worse?? I’m talking about slower speeds in flatter trees and tight stuff, which is where I prefer skis like this.
I never had any tip dive from 185 ARGs, maybe because the tips werent too far from the floaty underfoot part. I havent skied a longer version of this design, but have heard some people have tip dive issues from long ones..
Muggy, I get what you mean though. You gotta ski them a bit different from other pow skis. There was definitely a distinct balance point and technique on ARGs, that wasnt like other skis..
Edit: Protests are not R/R, IDK why I keep comparing them.
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Praxis Protest..just how cool is it?
What 2018 or 2019 ski, outside of the Praxis line up, is most comparable to the Protest? Bubbas have been gone since 2016, and are not as close as I’m talking, with significantly more sidecut and tail rocker. Maybe they ski similarly, idk.. Is there anything closer?
Blister Gear review seems to say the performance in deep snow is comparable to Armada JJ/AKJJ, except better with less negatives in chop and crud. Which is great honestly. I absolutely love Armada skis in deeper, less tracked snow, but hated them (except thought Bubba and ARG were versatile for their widths, funny enough) anywhere else. They all float like a dream, and pivot amazingly for their lack for true R/R, but I’ve always considered them beefier Backcountry soft snow skis, rather than lighter resort skis.
If the ProTests take that ability to maneuver so easily like that in soft snow, but have more versatility and higher performance, as Blister says, then they could be a game changer for me
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