Review: 2014/2015 Moment 186 Belafonte

[Aus George]

So here is my review of the 2014/15 Moment Belafonte.

BINDINGS: Rossi pivot FKS 140's mounted on the line.



THE SKI: Not a good finish. Nothing like ON3P quality, the bases were hairy as, really rough. I know some makers don’t finish their bases but these were really bad, as if they had a go on a belt sander or something. After a good structure and lots of wax later, got round to skiing.

Spent the month of August skiing on these in Australia.

First thing I noticed was how hard they were to turn at slower speeds. They will turn but you have to really direct them at what you want to do. At slow speed if you did get them turning they felt really washy. Problem being top of most of the lifts from the car park need either a traverse or bunny hill runs to get to the goods. As soon as I opened them up It was like the words from the videos and reviews were playing in my head. It seemed the harder I pushed them and the faster I went the more stable they became. Thanks to that triple camber hey! Can I say confidence inspiring? These are not beginner/intermediate skis don’t get me wrong. I would not buy these if you wanted (or need) confidence skiing round resorts. But if you want to really let er rip without fear of hitting a speed limit (and have only limited pow days), buy the Belafontes NOW.

Things get really chopped up fast over here after a big storm and then normally re-freezes overnight so all the people with their 85mm skis stick to the groomers, you can really have some fun literally just off the main trails. That is definitely where these excel. Crud, chop and more crud, I was hunting down the rough stuff just for fun, even with the quads burning, begging me to stop. Kept pushing and trying to find some form of speed limit, but never really happened.

Of course I hit up some groomed runs, and they do feel just like a race ski.

Straight-lining YES, do it! Super fun, super stable. Stiff and damp.

Few issues with really steep/moguly sections. Having to slow these down to turn on the massive mogul runs we get late in the season seems reallt counter-productive... Jump turns take a decent amount of effort, the no rocker tail (why I love the Bela over the Deathwish) made the tails a bitch to get around in the real technical stuff… Much better idea to pop a mogul and land one or two down then throw a slash in and repeat. That seemed to work really well, the less you turn in the bumps the happier they were to cooperate. They will turn, even in tight trees but you need speed and lots of muscle to get them going where you want.

Over the month, had a few over-knee deep days. In the real deep stuff I experienced a fair amount of hooking from the tails. Not as bad as the Candie Faction 3.0's but skis like Black Crows Atris and ON3P Wrens are heaps less hooky in the deeper stuff. These are crud skis, not pow skis. They will float, but you need to carry more speed than the incline of Australian mountains will provide. Basically when it really dumps here you loose the steep and the speed. Without the speed these skis aren't your friend.

These skis are made for a purpose, one that I find has a very small range of usefulness. They are amazing crud and chop skis, lots of fun on the firm days, big turns and confidence at speed late in the arvo when everything is chopped up... But I find skis like ON3P Wrenegade have more versatility which makes me not pick the Moments more and more of late. Hope this short review is helpful!

[Mustonen]

Compared to... What?