Thread: opinions on rock ski for meeee

I'm hot on the tail of two options here:

first one is Volant Power, 163 cm, 110-75-99 with salomon 500 bindings. 1" ding in the tail of one, starting to delam, he says it's not too bad though. Rated bases 4/5.

second is rossi cut 160, 104-67-94, no visible bad marks in bases.
This one doesn't have the 'buy now' option so I would have to track it for a few days (might be kinda hard with traveling) and the price might go up. both are cheap right now.

I guess my question is, I"m not at all familiar with Volants, how are they? I like that the volant is a bit fatter but I don't want anythign real stiff, need somethign versatile for mtn. maintenance at AB. they're rock skis anyways, would the delam be a problem? I've never bought rock skis before, always made my own but find myself with a lack of them this year.

cheers maggots

Go with the Volants. It's a nice midfat, whic will make it nice for those early season storms where ther's lots of pow, but not enough base to cover up all the rocks and tree stumps.

snowfire,

I have a pair of those volants and they have treated me pretty well for early/late season conditions. They have taken a good beating but have held up really well. They are not a stiff ski either. Go with the volants.

my good friend H skis volant powercarves. they are FREIGHT TRAINS! she is very small so she loves them because the weight helps her bust through the heavy stuff.

H's are from a few seasons ago, so they are steel/wood.

from what i know from H, they are a pretty specialized ski, so its prolly worth a demo -- its not like picking up a pair of XXX's that everyone basically likes. but girls who do like them seem to love them!

Your auctions are probably over, but i would stay away from the volants that are delamming. The steel topsheet goes right down to the steel edge, and since the topsheets are loadbearing (moreso than fiberglass or plastic topsheets) there is a lot of pressure there. The guy is probably unloading them knowing they will go soon. I had a pair of volants from just before the company sold that went from barely delaminating to unskiable in 2 days. This was in the shovel though.

The newer volants have a different material in the sidewall that may make them not delam so quickly, but if they are from before 02/03, i would be careful.

I've seen brand new 2002 Head Super Cross skis go for as little as $30 on ebay in the past week. I don't know anything about these skis, but for $30 I'd take 'em out and abuse 'em for early/late season skiing. If they suck, hey, its only $30!