DPS Lotus 120 Spoon

[shroom]

So, I had the opportunity to spend the last weekend on a pair of the 189 cm Pure3 Lotus 120 Spoons. The skis were ridden at what I have been told will likely be the final recommended mount point for the ski. I am far from an engineer, but will try to make this worthwhile for those of you who read deeper into ski design/construction than myself. I believe Auvgeek and Suprechicken got some time on them today, and will be able to chime in shortly. I have no connection to DPS and have never owned a pair of their skis. I also view skis pretty objectively and have ski'd/enjoyed all flavors of length/width/profile etc. Some are obviously better than others at certain things based on their design.

About me:
23 years old
6'2" 185lbs naked
19 years on snow
decent skier when the snow is soft
current quiver: 187 Hoji, 185 JJ, 185 ARG, 190 Atomic Betacarv

Background:
I have spent the last ~5 years on softer skis. I was skiing trees almost exclusively, and going from a 191 ANT I could hardly flex, to a JJ I could spin on a dime, really upped my ability to ski trees at speed. Fast-forward to this year- relocation to Seattle; bigger, more open lines become available, and I get my ass handed to me. Nothing about the JJ likes speed/large radius turns/heavy chop. I've been scouring reviews, looking for that perfect combination of poppiness in soft snow, and dampness/stability at speed in the chop. Theoretically, the search culminated this last weekend.

Experiences:
Stevens Pass: Saturday began with something near rain, and ended with maybe 3" of heavier snow on most aspects. The wind was blowing, and we found an aspect that was holding snow well. I was impressed and optimistic with the 5-6 turns I could get in within this zone, but it wasn't enough to make any conclusions, there are a lot of skis that can make a slash in the soft stuff.


Sunday's dump came a little unexpected, and if I remember right they were reporting something around 17" overnight (maybe last 24? idk). Anyway, this was what I was waiting for. Right out of the gun I started skiing faster than I should have (read: ~2 month powder drought, way too excited) and found myself in some variable. I distinctly remember thinking to myself: "...and this is when I tomahawk". 'Cause that's kinda been the theme for me on the JJ's this year- if I push it in open terrain, I'm going to over-flex the tip, and pay for it. Anyway, no tomahawk action occurred- the length/tip flex was enough to allow me to recover enough to get some weight on the tails. The tails. I fucking love the tail on this ski. The stiff tail is perfect for a recovery such as I experienced- you weight 'em a little bit, and you don't reel out, you get pushed on at full speed. It's like a pat on the but from your baseball coach: "Hey, go get 'em slugger." The only other ski I've been on that I can relate this feeling to is the 202 Lotus 138 R2 (black/bamboo sidewalls). I think this aspect of these two skis is really what separates the strong from the weak. If your skills aren't there (I'm no "expert") you'll probably get bucked, or end up scaring yourself; if they are there you're going to have a huge shit-eating grin on your face (I was thoroughly complimented on mine Sunday. My shit-eating grin, that is.) My only real decent sized hit of the day was also on the first run- maybe 15' good landing but in an area that gets pretty scraped out. The tails were there for me. Suuuper solid landing platform, and possibly more importantly- the ability to handle the run-out with speed. This ski has thrives with speed. The next run is known as Wildcat(s) and is probably steepest inbounds run at Stevens. It is at least the steepest inbounds run I've skied. If I had to put a number on it, my iphone clinometer puts it somewhere between 45-49, obviously that's relative to where you're skiing it. No idea if those things are accurate. Anyway, I had no issues on steeper terrain edge hold was stellar on 3D snow. The bottom of Wildcats really mellows out, and you have decently spaced oldgrowth with an awesome amount of stumps/trees/rocks to play with. This was the first time I could test how the Spoon's pivot and are generally playful enough to let me do what I really enjoy- bouncing off whatever I can in soft snow. I was not disappointed. This ski was just as playful and manageable in trees as my JJ's or Hoji's (reverse camber) are. I was blown away. Interesting that this is the case w/ the longer radius and lack of reverse camber. I'd like to attribute this to the spoon, though I'd have to probably ski the exact ski sans-spoon to really make that claim. Whatever- phenomenon exists on these skis.

The majority of our day was spent traversing out East of the Stevens boundary, out past the Polaris Bowl. What we were skiing is old growth, starting out in what I think are trees of the coniferous variety (?). Anyway, tightly spaced, lacking limbs on the lower portion. I noticed throughout the day I was skiing this way faster than I normally do. The ski's love speed, but the flex/layup/profile was allowing me to flick my ankles and scrub speed or slarve/slash as I pleased. The runout back to the chair gets cut up pretty pretty bad. I generally get owned in this section on what I normally ride. I was floored. I could sit comfortably, centered on the ski and ride straight over the top of the chop. I could also arc huge radius turns at full speed through the chop like it was nonexistent. You can drive the tips hard, or you can engage the stiffer center and tail of the ski and they will shoot you out your turn. They lock in pretty well when you ski them in a centered manor that way.

I was absolutely blown away, having a ski that is extremely playful in lower angle terrain and trees- that can destroy the leftovers on the way back to the chair. The flex/sidecut/layup of this ski is truly dialed. I've never never been on a ski and had that thought cross my mind. I could see possibly stiffening the tip up a little bit without losing that playfulness, but I think if left as is, all but the heaviest/hardest chargers will have enough there.

All in all I would be perfectly happy skiing this ski any day it snowed, in-bounds or out. I think at this point I think the dream quiver would be this ski and something ~90-105 with the ability to ride both inbounds and out. If I could afford only one ski, this would be the one worth having. My skiing instantly progressed as I became comfortable on the ski. I've really only got that feeling once on skis- when I transitioned from a stiff, unrockered ski, that I could hardly flex nor turn in tight spaces- to something that was rockered in the tip and tail. I think the flex throughout the ski is just that on-point. At 189cm, it's not the longest ski out there, but I did not once think to myself that I needed anything more. No tip dive, no lack of stability at speed (whether in deep snow or variable). I really hope I can get my hands on these or something comparable in the future- I'll have an empty feeling until I do.

tl;dr If you're a pretty good skier looking for a powerful yet playful ski that will do what you want and not hold you back, try to get your hands on a pair. I think this ski will make a lot of people better.

[pfluffenmeister]

^^^ you guys suck.

very jealous.



auvgeek or suprechicken: any time on a non-spooned 120?
I love me my 120 and this spoon thing has me salivating.
but, is it worth going in on the pre-order if one already has a 120?



PS nice review.

[shafty85]

^^^ you guys suck.

very jealous.



auvgeek or suprechicken: any time on a non-spooned 120?
I love me my 120 and this spoon thing has me salivating.
but, is it worth going in on the pre-order if one already has a 120?



PS nice review.

Seconded, on both the question and the review.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using TGR Forums

[kevino]

was auvgeek skiing his kasula's? if not, tell him to send them out here so i can give them so use in MT for a week

edit to add: good review

[auvgeek]

was auvgeek skiing his kasula's? if not, tell him to send them out here so i can give them so use in MT for a week

edit to add: good review

Kusalas needed a tune. I may still join you in MT...but the snow here has been rocking my world these past few days. Sadly, they're mounted with demo binders, so no touring on them. I'll be putting some serious time on them this weekend.

More on the L120 later. Spent a few runs on it today and gonna get some more tomorrow. It's a damn fine landing platform, though -- better than the Renegades, on par with GPO, and almost as good as 191 BG.

[marshalolson]

thanks for the words shroom!



pfluffer, clean your inbox, jong just sent an email to your hotmail acct.

[pfluffenmeister]

box is douched.







edit: HOLY CRAP!!!

[SupreChicken]

I pretty much agree with what Shroom said. Except the skiing faster part. I skied HORRENDOUSLY the day I had them out . It wasn't helped by having my airbag deploy when the handle caught a branch . Def need another day on them.

I've never actually spent time on the non-spooned 120. I love pintail designs (Gambit and GPO, sheeeeeyyyeeet), but 45m seems a completely unnecessarily long radius. REALLY wanted some for touring, but every time I saw some 190s for sale up here, they were more costly than I was willing to pay. So I said eff it and put sollyfits on my 138s.

In my RPC review, I asked for a longer radius and more tip rocker...That's what these are. Charge as hard as the RPC. Surf/Slash like a 138. And shit, dude. I feel like it's worth repeating that there is a FUCKING SPOON IN THE TIP. Spooning is different. As wordy as I get, it's hard to describe. Slarving becomes effortless. Landing platform is sweet. Tail flex is MONEY. In 3D snow, choose a radius.

Seriously amazing ride. I need to ski better.

[vailcat]

Gotta love the dps boys. All the talk all year centered on the 150 spoon and rpc and the. They drop this shit!!!! Sorta an Applesque way of under promising over delivering
I can't wait to try a pair. The quiver be complete.

[XavierD]

Skied these all day yesterday, conditik a ranged from boot top powder, to cut up, skied out sun affected crud. Fantastic ski, that can rip.
really impressed/surprised in the cut up chop. Very stable if you keep your weight forward (I am 5'10" 190lb). Would not have expected it from a ski this light. I had little issue keeping up with avugeek on his 191 Billy Goats (which is my standard ski). Tracked up snow is best handled with long open turns, as opposed to shorter ones.

In powder this ski is obviously very capable. It felt comfortable and natural with both shorter medow skipping turns, as well as more open aggressive skiing.

Hardback runs: you can get back to the chair, with acceptable levels of control.

If you are one of this who resents light touring skis for being soft, and lacking stability, the 120 spoon is worth looking at.

[frorider]

http://www.earlyups.com/videos/gear-...-initial-test/

However, for one reason or another, I’ve never completely fallen in love with any of DPS’s offerings. The Wasatch designed skis have been akin to that girl who seems to make so much sense on paper but never works out in reality. ....

One of my biggest complaints with DPS stuff of the past was how little damping the skis had in harder conditions. The skis would be great while touring or in powder but once on more conventional 2D surfaces the ski had a tough time tracking due to their incredibly light weight and “high frequency” carbon layup structure. Now, those with more finesse than myself might disagree, but for me, snow imperfections that heavier skis would run over would deflect previous gen DPS stuff causing an unnerving ride.

Enter Pure 3. They boys at DPS have completely revised their carbon layup to help keep things quieter than ever. Of the major changes they made include the addition of strategic weighting to the tip and tail of the ski much like utilizing toe/heel weights in golf to keep ball strike straighter and keep the club from deflecting. Guess what? Their idea works.

I haven't skied the 120 spoon (yet) but the above comments about the pure 3 construction vs older pures directly reflect my views on my RPCs vs older pure L120s and W105s. The additional 150 g or so per ski is well-worth the quantum jump in performance on less-than-ideal snow.

[auvgeek]

I wanted shroom to write this review because I noticed a distinct difference in how fast he was skiing the L120 compared to his JJs...in EVERY condition, including tight trees. I used to write long reviews trying to compare the subtle points of ski design, but now I ski more and write less. Frankly, you need to ski these to understand why they're awesome. For me personally, I kind of expected to like these and the GPO about the same, but I ended up liking the L120 more -- for reasons I can't quite explain. If I HAD to describe this ski in terms of other skis, I would say it's basically a lighter, easier-to-ski Billy Goat. I think pairing this ski with the Dynafit Beast and some Vulcans would be an absolutely fantastic pow ski for touring or lift-served.

If you are one of this who resents light touring skis for being soft, and lacking stability, the 120 spoon is worth looking at.

This pretty much sums it up for me. The new Pure3 L120 is the best light ski I have ever skied. Period. Last time XavierD talked, we seemed to agree that carbon skis have no use in the resort for how we ski. The L120 seems to have changed both of our minds -- at least mine. I'm not saying I'd mount them with FKS and sell my 191 Billy Goats and Renegades, but I wouldn't feel "out-gunned" on them while others were on BGs, Rens, Katanas, etc.

I spent a very-limited amount of time on the previous-generation L120. Many people disliked my negative review of that ski, so I think this lends even more credence to my saying this new Pure3 version is damper and stiffer, eliminating many issues I had with the old version. Additionally, I believe the production version will have a bit stiffer tip [edit: than the pre-production version we skied], which should be pretty perfect. I doubt I'll have the coin to purchase one myself for next season (quitting my job and starting grad school next fall), but I would sure love to own one -- and probably will after my (hopefully brief) stint in grad school on the east coast is over.

I promised Marshal I wouldn't talk about the hard-snow performance of the ski because DPS is changing the amount and location of the "spoon;" he assures me the changes will fix the few issues I had with them (primarily on icy traverses). But I would like to ski the non-spooned version of the L120 (if they're still making one in the Pure3 construction) back-to-back with the spooned version to see if there's a difference in powder. I'm still not 100% sure I can actually notice any effects of the spooning in powder for my style. I'm sure others will disagree, but it's hard for me to isolate that feeling -- they just feel very similar to the Billy Goat to me. For me personally, it's quite possible the disadvantages on the spooned tip on hard snow outweight the advantages of the spoon in soft snow. But as it stands, this ski rules.

[Mofro261]

thanks for the reviews- damn color me jealous you guys got some pnw snow time on these, I'd also love to try these back to back with my current older L120's.

[auvgeek]

^^PM sent. We should be able to make that happen. Not sure if Alpy will hold N-facing pow for the next week, but one can hope...

[marshalolson]

I'm still not 100% sure I can actually notice any effects of the spooning. For me personally, it's quite possible the disadvantages on the spooned tip on hard snow outweight the advantages of the spoon in soft snow. But as it stands, this ski rules.

thanks for the words man! auvgeek, just a quick mention:

the final production version of the lotus 120, the spoon shaping will not interplay with the sidecut at all. it will only be in the taper zone in the tip, rather than beyond the wide point of the shovel where the sidecut starts.

you will not be able to feel the spoonage in any way on firm snow - it will basically feel as if the ski base is flat on firm snow, skiing or traversing, or whatever.


(not directed at auvgeek, just in general)
of course the function of the spoon, and if it does anything at all, is open to debate....

i personally have skied the exact same p3 l120 with and without it, and do feel a cleaner lateral pivot in the tip, and increased tip buoyancy when the ski is on edge, but not fully on plane, in deep snow. that of course does not mean that everyone, or even anyone, else will.




<<required caveat>>
feel free to discount some or all of my opinion due to me being DPS sales manager

[auvgeek]

you will not be able to feel the spoonage in any way on firm snow.

This would be awesome, if true. Unfortunately, the pain in my knee doesn't lie...if I can ski the production version without knee pain from trying to keep the ski torsionally stable, I wouldn't see any need for a non-spooned version.

If you don't have knee pain (specifically, knee pain related to torsional stability), I wouldn't be at all concerned about the skiability of the spooned tip, even in this pre-production version. I just wanted to add the above sentence because, for me, this is a bigger deal than just "Oh, I don't like the way it skis groomers." [Frankly, I thought it skied groomers just fine as is.] It's a matter of whether I can ski all day without pain in my knee. I get a similar feeling when a ski is improperly tuned. In fact, SupreChicken is awesome and swapped skis with me throughout the day so I could ski the L120 in soft snow while he took them for the traverses/groomers. It's the only way I was able to get more than a run or two on them.

Just full disclosure, and again apologies to Marshal/DPS for bringing up a known pre-production issue that will not be there in the final version.

[pfluffenmeister]

Every time I hear a diesel truck drive by I look outside hopefully.

DHL and UPS both drove by my house this morning; my only hope is that the package is being delivered via FedEx.




I'm heading to Silverton next week and will post up a Lotus 120 Spoon review.
Plus a few head to head comparisions between the Lotus 120 Pure Flex 3 / Lotus 120 Spoon / PM Gear Lhasa Fat 191.
+ maybe a bit of the 138 Pure Flex 2 in a 202.
And depending on how many skis I can fit in my Honda Civic Si, perhaps some comparisions with the Movement Goliath 191 / 4FRNT EHP 193.

oh boy, oh boy, oh boy !!!

[marshalolson]

Just full disclosure, and again apologies to Marshal/DPS for bringing up a known pre-production issue that will not be there in the final version.

Dude no worries!

my point was that there was no reason to belabor a design point that has already been modified.

But it turned into a more interesting discussion than I would have thought.

Radicals.

[marshalolson]

Every time I hear a diesel truck drive by I look outside hopefully.

DHL and UPS both drove by my house this morning...

FedEx yo!

[hop]

Can you put skins on the spoon section??! CAN YOU PUT SKINS ON THE SPOON SECTION!!?!?!??!!! HARD CHINE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH douchebags! all of you.

lulz

[SupreChicken]

Atrocious skiing, but there are some good shots of the ski interacting with the snow. The opening clip is my first run on them. Deep soft snow. Boom.

[SupreChicken]

And by that I mean that I was skiing atrociously. The conditions were phenomenal.

[neck beard]

Well, they seem to handle traversing powder really good.

[Andyski]

Well, they seem to handle traversing powder really good.

Hehehe. I skied a couple springy runs on these last weekend. Given that it was entirely the wrong day to be on a big pow ski, it doesn't make sense to get all technical about the shaping, but I definitely noticed a much damper feel in the layup vs. my pure2 or whateverthefuck it is 112s. Very smooth, even on some harder stuff.

[neck beard]

SupreSidehill aint biting. Damn.

I handled a Spoon this week - so incredibly light(!!!) and beautiful. Stiff tail. I have a very strong desire to ski a spooned 120 and even a lightly spooned RPC, should it ever exist.