review: 185 armada JJ

[verbier61]

this review will be different from the others I read that conviced me to try these JJs....

me: 47, 189 x 80, old and lazy fart.
I love DPS lotus 138, DPS wailers 105, stockli stormrider DP pro, BRO188...
I do not like seth, scratches, park skis...

skied the JJ all day in verb: powder, tracked powder, crust, crud, steep traverses, groomed, ice..

I thought these JJ should have been perfect skis for a full yurp day in which one faces powder, tracker powder, crust, crud, groomed and ice...

surprise, surprise, JJ have soft rockered tips, but the central (positive cambered) part of he ski is actually quite stiff. IMVHO, the two souls of the ski are poorly matched, so that there is a sort of on-off effect depending on when only the central (stiff) part is engaged vs when the full ski is engaged and the soft tips are working. Also, the tails were too long for me, and I had trouble to find a decent central position in soft or tracked snow. I had demo bindings so I played a bit, but at -1.5 still couldn't find a sweet spot. Maybe at -3, but I couldn't go that far. JJ are good on groomed (where they rail very well) and in traverses, but elsewhere this on-of effect gave me a lot of trouble, with an overall feeling of skis too heavy, lazy and "deaf".

I was seriously interested in buying them, but this demo was useful: these are not my sticks.

[h2d]

Nice to have a different perspective, Thanks.

[single]

I got my first day on mine two days ago, and I can totally see where you are coming from. They are very different aspects that dont really blend well all of the time. On hard snow with just like 3 inches, I would have much rather had my tankers. Having ridden last seasons hellbents though, I am really glad I was on the JJ's in these conditions. I think I just need to ski some real pow. I dont feel like one day is anywhere near enough to tell if the ski is great or not, but I think you can definitely tell if you are not going to like it.

[Mani_UT]

me: 47, 189 x 80, old and lazy fart.
I love DPS lotus 138, DPS wailers 105, stockli stormrider DP pro, BRO188...
I do not like seth, scratches, park skis....

On the topic of the JJ, I find your like / dislike quite interesting:
You pretty much dislike what I like and I hate stiff skis (like a DP) probably because my technique simply doesn't allow me to ski them well! Interestingly I absolutely adore my JJs (185s mounted right on the line) so the type of ski people like might give some insight on how they'll like this ski it seems.

I have now about 7 days on the JJ most of them last week at the Bird so it went from super good to pretty bad in spots. Also I started skiing only 7/8 years so I always used skis mounted fairly forward.
I am only 164lbs, 5'7" and not too aggressive with a limited skill set and for me the JJ have been outstanding. The most stunning feature is how sharply they can turn or be redirected in dense trees even with deep fluff. They are quickly pushing out the Scratch BCs from the top spot in my ski list.

[skibumnh]

this review will be different from the others I read that conviced me to try these JJs....

me: 47, 189 x 80, old and lazy fart.
I love DPS lotus 138, DPS wailers 105, stockli stormrider DP pro, BRO188...
I do not like seth, scratches, park skis...

skied the JJ all day in verb: powder, tracked powder, crust, crud, steep traverses, groomed, ice..

I thought these JJ should have been perfect skis for a full yurp day in which one faces powder, tracker powder, crust, crud, groomed and ice...

surprise, surprise, JJ have soft rockered tips, but the central (positive cambered) part of he ski is actually quite stiff. IMVHO, the two souls of the ski are poorly matched, so that there is a sort of on-off effect depending on when only the central (stiff) part is engaged vs when the full ski is engaged and the soft tips are working. Also, the tails were too long for me, and I had trouble to find a decent central position in soft or tracked snow. I had demo bindings so I played a bit, but at -1.5 still couldn't find a sweet spot. Maybe at -3, but I couldn't go that far. JJ are good on groomed (where they rail very well) and in traverses, but elsewhere this on-of effect gave me a lot of trouble, with an overall feeling of skis too heavy, lazy and "deaf".

I was seriously interested in buying them, but this demo was useful: these are not my sticks.

I agree with your comment about the tail, there is a lot of it. These are the tailgunner's nemesis - they almost force you back over the tips of the skis any time you find yourself in the back seat, which I found to be good thing in general, but it was a different feeling than I am used to - forgiving but in a correctional way. Ive heard of the wheelie effect on skis like the hellbent, and I cant see how you could ever induce that on a landing on these things. This ski is better suited for skiing pow in a more aggressive manner, when I resorted to the traditional more balanced technique I found them kinda sluggish. They just prefer full bore hip to the snow GS pow turns whenever possible.