The Ski: PM Gear Bro Model
183cm Stiff Flex (125-99-114)
Mounted with Tyrolia Demo bindings
Borrowed from the Powderhorn Rental/Tuning at Solitude courtesy of skifishbum
The Skier:
6', 170lbs with the clothes and whatnot
Aggressive, advanced by most standards. Lagging the pack by maggot standards.
Dalbello Krypton Cross boots
Similar skis used: 186 Mojo 90s, 188 Stiff Bros (courtesy of same place/mag)
Conditions: Day old shin-deep pow, cut-up crud, groomers, bumps
I ventured over to the newly formed Bro demo center at Solitude to ski with some maggots, hang out with the man himself (skifishbum), and give the new 183 Bros a whirl. I skied the 188 Stiffs last year and had fun on them, but felt that they were a bit much for me. In situations where I really needed to throw the ski around and control exactly where I was going (namely the dreaded bumps) I was getting worked by the bigger ski. I was falling back on the ski and really moving them around by the tails. In hindsight, I think this was also due to my old overly-stiff boots. I need to ski the 188's again to verify this. Anyway, on to the 183's:
First, and most important, the looks: I wasn't high on the new topsheets from interweb pictures, but in person they look good. I've got a softspot for the baby blue airplane look, but the new topsheets are matte and that helps keep them from being too busy. The construction on the 183's seems absolutely money. AK Skis really knows what they're doing. The bases are strong as all heck, as I was playing around in untracked and inevitably hitting a few submerged rocks (sorry demo center!) and came out of the day with a small scratch on the tail of one ski.
I've been skiing 185 Praxis recently in powder, so I was looking forward to seeing how these did. As soon as I started moving, the tips planed up and I was able to weight the front of the ski without tip dive. I made some big and fast (for me) turns and the ski just kept on surfing. When I got below the untracked and into some cut up stuff I felt confident in the ski to just keep running through it. The Mojo 90's have been my primary ski for the last few years, and this was a feeling that I was not at all used to. It may be the smaller radius of the Mojo's that keeps them from being less confident, or something else entirely. Either way, the Bros went right through it. They felt similar to the 188s in pow and crud. I didn't feel like they were ever too short.
I hit some small to medium sized bumps throughout the day and was really impressed at the Bros ability to keep making big turns and basically ignore the bumps. While I tried not to go right over the top of them, I was able to vary the radius of my turns to hit the smaller sides of the bumps and just absorb the hits. There was a confidence to the skis that, again, I haven't felt with the Mojos. I don't think there is much difference in the flex between the Bros and Mojo 90s, if anything the Bros are a smidge stiffer. This was the place that I felt the biggest difference between the 188s and the 183s and the reason I would choose the 183s at the moment. When I skied the 188s in similar conditions the bumps and variations put me in the backseat and I couldn't keep the tips pressured enough to drive the ski through. I never felt that with the 183s. I do want to ski the 188s again with the new boots to rule that out as a factor though.
On groomers they rip, as do the 188s. That was something that really surprised me about the 188s when I skied them. As long as you're moving fast and making big turns, they just rail on the soft groomers. I haven't encountered ice on either so can't speak to that.
The only thing that didn't do it for me was "hucking", as I double ejected twice on 8-10' drops in Honeycomb. I blame the bindings and my stupidity more than the skis though. Not surprisingly, jumping to flat deep pow resulted in the skis staying in the place they landed and me cartwheeling a few times. It speaks to the skis though that I was confident enough to try that stuff, as that's about my limit these days and I was trying it within 3 hours of being on the skis.