Review: ON3P Pillowfight 196

Spent 8 days on these over the last couple of weeks.

Me- 6'2 190lbs

Mounted with Axls -2cm from recommended line.

Summary-
They obviously ski well in powder. Never thought a ski this big could be so playful and easy to maneuver. Real poppy and lively while making short turns, but quiet and stable on long turns at speed. As long as the snow is deep.

The more 2 dimensional the snow, the more squirrelly these get. On windblown they seemed to get hooky. Groomers are survivable but sketchy, lots of tip flap at speed. Didn't get into any crud, but I would imagine they would get knocked around.

Super fun quiver ski, when a storm drops a foot or more the PF's get the nod.

More words here

YES! thank you. Still drooling. Snow's getting heavy here...but the temptation remains. Cheers Trapp. By the way, what kind of skins did you throw on there? BD splits?

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Originally Posted by Flotsam

YES! thank you. Still drooling. Snow's getting heavy here...but the temptation remains. Cheers Trapp. By the way, what kind of skins did you throw on there? BD splits?

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These skis are a blast. I used G3 Alpinists with a tapered cut, little write up here

I thought hard about the splits. I use BD Ascensions for the Caylors but had to make a custom tip loop for the big ass shovel, so I went with G3 just to be done with it. Can't complain though, they've been working out great.

From what i understand these are pure untracked skis, right?

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Originally Posted by IvanLipko

From what i understand these are pure untracked skis, right?

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They guys did a lot of testing in the resort. So while their bread and butter is most certainly fresh pow. They are not death machines when it's not so fresh.

I haven't spent much time in the pow on my 186s since CO has had no snow, but the times I have had them in the deep they are truly an amazing ski, so I'll post some initial thoughts. Very quick and maneuverable. As long as the snow is soft they make any turn you want, super surfy feel because of the straight tip. They really pop out of turns because of how big and light they are, very playful but maintain a chargy feel . Impossible to make the tip dive due to the tremendous amount of rocker, very confidence inspiring. They really are not that bad on the groom because of the amount of sidecut underfoot, lots of tip flap but its not to noticeable. No one is buying these to ski groomers anyway, but they certainly can get you back to the lift. In sun baked pow and crust I found them to be fairly predictable and smooth due to the taper in the tail and the straight tip. Once things get tracked out they start to get a little squirrley and get bounced around quite a bit . For being such a wide and soft ski, they become a lot to handle in cut up/tracked out snow ( but that's what other skis are for right?). They have the perfect flex for a deep pow ski but are to soft to make em a good crud ski. These really make an awesome tree ski when its deep or soft because of how quick they are. These sticks are what you dream of skiing when its deep and untracked, but do a fairly good job when its not. Definitely a ski to fit a certain quiver but i'll take them when its 8in. or more over night.

How soft are these really? Hellbent soft? Anything they compare to? Inquiring minds want to know...

Iv'e never fondled hellbents but I would imagine these to be stiffer. They have a very balanced soft flex to them. Softer than most skis I could compare them to though, s7s, czars, praxis pows... Not a noodle I would say. Softer in the tip and stiffer underfoot, stiffer in the tail, but like I said they have a pretty even soft flex to them. I think it is the perfect flex for skiing deeper soft snow, which is what they are made for. Oh and the bases on these are ridiculously bomber, hit some nasty stuff and never put a scratch on them. Stoked!

Well Trapp. Just pulled the trigger, looks like that grad school thing worked out after all :biggrin:
Once I get them mounted and skiing I'll put my thoughts up as well. Thanks for the great detailed tele write up. Definitely helped me make the call.

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Originally Posted by Flotsam

Well Trapp. Just pulled the trigger, looks like that grad school thing worked out after all :biggrin:
Once I get them mounted and skiing I'll put my thoughts up as well. Thanks for the great detailed tele write up. Definitely helped me make the call.

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Looking forward to it. I'm confident you won't be disappointed