The Official Great Pacific Octopus Thread

[concretejungle]

You're talking 182 GPO, I assume. Women's mounts run forward typically (by +1 cm).
I have the same ski (length and flex) and am thinking -2 cm or -2.5 cm.
I'll mount with marker tours, and use them mainly for resort based skiing.

I'd likely recommend mounting at -1 cm for her.

How tall is she?

182. She's 5'11 and not a stick. Probably Mounted with Barons.

[Daikon]

The 274 cm GPO.

[chaka]

Daikon- very interesting article.

And yes Praxis- will you be making a 274cm GPO?

[coldfeet]

The 274 cm GPO.

This thread has 16 pages and no recipes??!


Seeing your username: A friend of mine did some translation work in Japan and the publishing company took him out to a fancy many course private room dinner. One of the courses was octopus garnished with daikon radish. After the course they came out and asked,
- Did you like this course?
- He said, yes it was very good.
- Would you like to know how it was made?
- Yes I would like to. (They were clearly in impress/shock the Westerner mode, but he's an adventurous eater. Also naturally he was playing up this story to impress us.)
- Well, first we take the octopus, and a large daikon radish, and then we beat the octopus to death with the daikon, and that tenderizes it. Slice them both up and serve.

[DJ2]

I'd like to take a Praxis GPO and beat some Niseko powder to death with it!

[andybrnr]

UPS man just dropped off my GPOs, hybrid carbon med/stiff in 187! Beautiful craftsmanship. Now I need to sort out that mount point... my inclination is -1.5, perhaps -2. Keith said in an e-mail he wouldn't suggest going back more than -4, as he thought that would compromise performance. Anybody else finalize their mounts yet?

[stuckathuntermtn]

Just read through this thread.
Thanks for all the info.
Ski looks bonerific!
Anyone want some Rubies?

[D(C)]

I will probably own a pair of these at some point. These could be the ski when my Garbones die. I haven't paid a ton of attention since I've been quite pleased with my quiver, but these look pretty perfect. Traditional-ish design with tip rocker a tad of tail splay.

I'd be interested in a showdown between GPOs, current ON3P Wrenegades and 2014 Moment Governors with the narrower tip.

[stuckathuntermtn]

I would think Jag Sharks/Governors and maybe the Influence(115) would be the obvious comparison. Wrens at the longest and shortest lengths.
No 186 Wren coming, huh? Sorry, off topic.

[adrenalated]

I will probably own a pair of these at some point. These could be the ski when my Garbones die. I haven't paid a ton of attention since I've been quite pleased with my quiver, but these look pretty perfect. Traditional-ish design with tip rocker a tad of tail splay.

I'd be interested in a showdown between GPOs, current ON3P Wrenegades and 2014 Moment Governors with the narrower tip.

I own older Praxis RXs, current Praxis GPOs, first gen ON3P Wren, and current ON3P BillyGoat. I've also skied the current ON3P Wren. I can definitely say that the ON3P ski that is most comparable to the GPO is the BillyGoat. Likewise, the Praxis RX is the most similar to the Wren.

GPO has much more rocker, much more taper, much more sidecut, and a much shorter running length than the Wren. Two totally different skis IMO.

[Shu Shu]

Finally got em mounted. Right on the dimple. GPO and Concept quiver for the year. Honestly Its hard for me to imagine liking a ski more than my Concepts but I'm keeping an open mind. Will report back after some snow time. btw D(C) will be able to give some opinions compared to the skinny garbones and the Jag Shark 11/12.

[powder fiend]

Those are 187s, right?
I've been looking at my GPOs beside my automatics the last couple days, and I'm really starting to think mounting on the dimple is the way to go. Maybe -.5, not that I'd really notice it.
To me, the mount looks just right in that picture.

[Shu Shu]

Yep 187. Now that they are mounted I got to click in and stand on them. I mean what can you really tell from standing on your basement floor, but for me if felt great. There is a decent amount of tail, but the long gradual rocker should make it super smooth and easy to slarve around, while still giving lots of support for landing all my gnarly 10 footers.

[steveski]

UPS man just dropped off my GPOs, hybrid carbon med/stiff in 187! Beautiful craftsmanship. Now I need to sort out that mount point... my inclination is -1.5, perhaps -2. Keith said in an e-mail he wouldn't suggest going back more than -4, as he thought that would compromise performance. Anybody else finalize their mounts yet?

I'm working on mount points for both touring and in bounds binders. I am thinking of a -1 mount for radicals and + 1 mount for sollys. I think having a slightly more centered mount for inbounds skiing will be good. I bounced this idea off Drew, and he seemed to agree with a slightly rearward mount for touring. He did caution against mounting to far back. Obviously everything is personal preference, but that is my $0.02.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Hm, those do look like very elliptical tips. Can you really get on them on edge on harder stuff?

[powder fiend]

Awesome comparison to the Automatic fiend. Just what I was looking to confirm about the tail stiffness. By my calculations, mount should be 1.5 to 2-cm forward on GPO compared to Automatic but that includes some small assumptions on my part and other people's measurements that have been published on here and blister. Order placed for Flex 7.

I only now got around to pulling out the measuring tape. The recommended line on the automatics is 81.5 from the tail, and the dimple on the GPO is 86cm from the tail.
My auto's are mounted at 83cm (+1.5) but I think +2.5-3 would be perfect, which would be -1.5-2cm on the GPO, although the GPO's tail looks much more supportive and has way less rocker than the autos.
I keep talking myself in circles and changing my mind. I ski pretty centered most of the time, driving the tips occasionally, but I'm thinking there's going to be way too much tail back there if I mount on the dimple. Damn first world problems...

[andybrnr]

Mounted Dynafits on my GPOs today. Used a 9mm delrin block under the toe piece to neutralize most of the binding-induced ramp angle, boot center at -1.5cm of the dimple. I'm almost willing to haul them up to Camp Muir this weekend just to try them out, though waiting for a powder day would probably be smarter.

[givethepigeye]

the dimple on the GPO is 86cm from the tail.

^187? Assume that we are talking about the mark on the sidewall that looks like it was done with a hot compass point or similar, right?

[Dry]

I'm almost willing to haul them up to Camp Muir this weekend just to try them out, though waiting for a powder day would probably be smarter.

I took some skinny PDGs up earlier in the week. Pretty hard till things warm up. Nice corn on the way down mid morning. GPO might be fun later in the day. Haven't found the energy yet to haul mine up yet. Waiting for that next big storm. FWIW I mounted Speed Superlights @ -2.5. No toe blocks required thankfully.

[powder fiend]

^187? Assume that we are talking about the mark on the sidewall that looks like it was done with a hot compass point or similar, right?

yes and yes

[wwwllw]

Mounted Dynafits on my GPOs today. Used a 9mm delrin block under the toe piece to neutralize most of the binding-induced ramp angle, boot center at -1.5cm of the dimple. I'm almost willing to haul them up to Camp Muir this weekend just to try them out, though waiting for a powder day would probably be smarter.

Can you enlighten me on the riser you used? I'm also wondering if it is feasible to use a riser with sollyfit plates? Thanks!

[andybrnr]

DIY with help from a friend at MMW in Bellevue. Bought a chunk of 9mm black delrin from TAP Plastics, penciled down a pattern, jigsawed out. Used an old G3 tele binding jig to reference hole pattern, used the 3 pin line as the toe pin line. Clamped cut plastic to jig, drilled holes, marked reference line. Used Dynafit jig to transfer toe pin line to ski, then used G3 jig to drill holes in ski. Mounted toe block to ski. Used Dynafit mounting jig to mark hole positions on assembled ski+toe block, drill, mount bindings. Tape measure verified accuracy to within +/- 1mm. Many thanks to Eric for the help (and the always excellent boot work).

One could imagine doing something similar with Solyfit plates (drill DIY block with solly hole pattern and mount to plate, then drill block with dynafit hole pattern and mount toe piece). Just remember, measure-measure-cut, not measure-cut-measure is the appropriate work flow...

[andybrnr]

Just logged my first turns since July on the Muir snowfield with GPO 187/Vulcan setup. The 2.5 mile hike to skinnable snow was a little bit of a downer, but the corn harvest around 3:45 was damn good. Observations: 1) I need a little more boot work, Vulcans put my feet in a death grip around the edges. Think some shims to raise a bit into the wider region of the shell will do it, had the same issue initially with the TLT-5P. 2) GPOs are a blast in corn. Seem fast edge to edge, especially given the 115mm waist; very poppy with the carbon layup, could really load them up in GS turns. They want to haul ass, quite stable with minimal chatter at speed when transitioning from good corn to refrozen with aspect changes, held a nice edge. Not the intended design point for the ski, but it handled it beautifully and put a smile on my face. This is the first really beefy ski I've owned after a collection of mostly lighter stuff for skimo and light touring; while there is a weight penalty for the up, the down is a blast.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Nobody really answered my specific weird question, so I'll ask a more general one:
On skis like this, the Billy Goat, Automatic, some Rossignol offerings, etc, does the edge engage in the reverse/reverse section of the tip (or tail) when you get it up on edge?

[whyturn]

Can only speak to squad and GPO. Squad does not engage as well as GPO. But both will carve. Squad is more loose but still carves surprisingly well for a pow ski. GPO rails groomers and engages completely