Thread: Review: DPS Wailer 112RP Pure, 190cm

Last week Marshal invited me - check that: coerced me - to come up to Denver to checkout the 112RPs by dropping some vague remarks about how Colorado was supposed to be getting a foot or two of snow, etc., etc. And even though forecasts for A-Basin showed no such storms, the slightest chance of skiing some fresh on the new 112RPs was too tempting for me to pass up (or to pay any attention to actual forecasts.) So I drove up to Denver, grabbed the skis, met up with a friend from grad school, and headed to A-Basin Saturday morning.

Of course, there was no fresh foot or two. The conditions were pure spring: lots of rocks, dirt, and shrubs surrounded by beautiful slush, some smooth hardpack, and plenty of refrozen softball-sized ice chunks.

About me: I recently started a little operation in Santa Fe, NM, called White Room Skis. Basically, my friends and I got tired of the fact that nobody in the state was carrying or providing demos for some of the really excellent independent ski manufacturers, so I decided to do it myself. (If you’re bored at work, you can check out www.whiteroomskis.com, and if you are hitting up Taos or Santa Fe next season, you’re now going to be able to demo some pretty nice skis.)

The Review:
Days skied: 2
Skis: DPS Wailer 112RP Pure, 190cm
Boots / Clamps: Lange Banshee Pros / Marker Jesters, set at 10
Mount: by the second day, settled on +1 of the current proto line
Tune: 1/1
Me: 5’10, 180 lbs.
(Somewhat) Similar Skis: Armada JJ, Rossignol Super 7, Rossignol S3.

Clicked in and headed over to the Pallavicini lift. First run was The Spine, basically a slush and ice bump field. I put a lot of days this past season on the Armada JJ, and imagined that the 112RPs would ski similarly. But looking down, I was more reminded of the Rossi Super 7s, a ski that just didn’t do it for me due to its weight and swing weight: the Super 7s were just a chore in tight trees and steep frozen bumps (and we get plenty of both at Taos.)

Halfway down The Spine, however, I realized that I was overturning the 112RPs. The shovels look big (maybe it’s just all that blaring yellow), like they'll require a good bit of effort to throw them around. But this is deceiving. Thanks to the weight of the ski, or lack there of, you do not work to turn these things. Others on the board have discussed this fact (see agent j’s remarks), but I would say that DPS has managed to build a ski that turns as ridiculously quick as the JJs but offers more stability than the JJ when arcing larger turns at speed. In short, it just doesn’t seem that a ski this big should turn this fast. This Shape + This Weight = Money.

Montezuma Bowl allowed for some nice, fast, big turns. A number of people here have wondered about the PURE vs. HYBRID construction in chop. I have never skied the HYBRID version of the 112RP, but there was nothing about the PURE that left me dissatisfied over two days in these conditions. If you drive and carve the skis, they lock in. The tips do not hook. The only time I ever found myself getting bounced off line was when I got lazy and got on my heels. But I can’t think of a ski (that I enjoy) that doesn’t bounce you around in chop if you aren’t piloting it like you’re supposed to. I am confident that the HYBRID version will allow you to lock in a turn too, but now my only reservation about the HYBRID is that it might give up the swing weight that I love about the PURE….Having said that, if there isn’t much difference between the swing weights of the PURE and HYBRID, then hell, there are going to be a lot very stoked HYBRID owners out there next season.

This past month I have had a lot of days on a pair of skis that I’ve been using for my spring AT set up, and I have been reminded how much it sucks to be on equipment that you don’t trust. The skis - which I won’t bother to name - are hooky, the tips dive, they are completely unpredictable. In variable conditions, the 112RPs were the opposite of this, and it felt good to be back on skis that I could trust. Size up a line, then execute. Tricky snow and sketchy lines give less pause because you KNOW that the skis will allow you to do what you need to do. Can I make these three tight turns in this no fall zone? Yes. Do I need to worry about catching an edge or holding an edge? No. And just like that, skiing is fun again.

In assessing the 112RPs, the primary questions for me were: when do these skis fail to do what I want them to do? When would a different ski clearly perform better, make the conditions more fun? Over two days, I straightlined, made big turns, small turns, skied some trees, skied lots of ice bumps and slush bumps - even snuck a few laps down a freestyle bumps course that had been built up for a Mogul camp at A-basin. (Please don't tell the idiot assistant coach of the camp who told me that I would never make it down the course on those water skis.)

I can now say that the other people on the board who have offered up their reviews and impressions of the 112RPs have, collectively, created a very accurate picture of what this ski is about and how it performs. Do a search, go back over the reviews and comments from the people who have actually been on them, and you get a pretty clear consensus regarding this ski’s versatility, stability, and fun factor.

My two test days on the 112RPs were spent in conditions far from Resort Powder, and I still had a blast. In 3-4” or more of new snow, I am confident that these skis will get a lot of people very stoked. And I know for certain that these skis will even make you happy skiing dirty snow and chunked up ice, you know, for those days when Marshal lies to you about the weather.




(Thanks to Dave Gregory for the photographs, including the last one of me tailgunning a zipperline down that bumps course in light so flat that the moguls were pretty much invisible.)

Great review...now I´m even more stoked on getting my 2 pairs for next season.

Originally Posted by snej

Great review...now I´m even more stoked on getting my 2 pairs for next season.

+1 It's going to be a long summer.

Long summer, yes, but at least you know it'll be worth the wait. I'm skinning tomorrow, and it's now going to be an even bigger downer going back to my current, hated AT setup.

Oh well, still glad to be skiing.

Originally Posted by JFE24

for those days when Marshal lies to you about the weather.

sorry.

Now, more stoked for mine.

Wish I had money...

These sound like the ski equivalent of sex.
If only i weren't broke.

When do the 112RP's start shipping?

depends on when you order them and when you need them.

a limited amount are being sent to customers for south america ski action, and the rest will be delivered in the fall.

I wounder if I should go for the Wailer 112 pure or hybrid?
Like to go fast both in powder and more difficult snow.
The most of the time I'm doing touring and "walks up to get a nice line down again".
Snow conditions are most of the time new snow in the mid winter but in the north of Norway it change a lot. Could be a lot of windpacked and very seldom more than 50cm deep powder.
May be the hybrid is better if you don't look at the weight?
I checked the weight today and the difference is 0,4 kg each ski.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ht=hybrid+pure


this thread will help ^^^ hybrid vs. pure comparison.

Thanks for bumping this.

Excellent write up.

Stoked for Dec. 15th (the day my bananas fall off the DPS tree)

I bought the hybrid and mounted them with Dynafit ST 10.
My first try this evening on variable snow was a positive trip.
It works well both on hard pack, wind blown and soft snow which was tracked.
In powder everything works well so it's not so surprising
They were very easy to turn in the wood and felt stable when it was a lot of bumps.
I am looking forward to the next trip!
The only negative thing today was a damage on the sole after hard stone..
I was surprised when a saw the damage because it was only a "light touch" on the stone. I hope the sole isn't very soft...
Well I will get some more answers afterwards