Skis you HATED.. Recent edition, 2010 or newer.

[cmsummit]

DPS Rontele Pro 112

Add me to the list that hated the Pure Wailer 112 RP.

4FRNT Cody

[Cladragon04]

I hated the Volkl Mantra M5s i demoed a couple days ago...they could not hold an edge and I was sliding everywhere. It was probably a bad tune but...

[tenB]

I have 184's. Which of course are really like 187 compared to the way most brands measure. Which also means the 189's are like 192 and maybe that's just a ton of ski to bring to life? Your theory could explain the varied reactions.

I'm 5'11" / 185 pounds FWIW. My Noctas are 190. I tour on 188mm skis. And I think the 189 W108's would be too much for me to handle.

My daily drivers are typically 188-194. Cochise, devastators, Commander. I’m 6’2, 220 and can bend a ski.

I’d be interested to try the newer W108 version with metal.

[Grizz]

Everybody has a style...but good technique doesn't vary.

QFT, sig worthy.

Not that it's possible but I'd find it interesting as hell to see people skiing the hated skis.

For what it's worth I have hated skis I loved, after a poor tune.

[reckless toboggan]

I tour on 188mm skis.

Well there's your problem.

[TahoeJ]

Well there's your problem.

Why? And what problem? 188 Anima Freebirds...

[Mofro261]

Why? And what problem? 188 Anima Freebirds...

Carry the zero problems.

mm....cm.

[carlh]

Armada JJs, I skied 185 and thought they were about as stable as a pair of snowblades.

[ACH]

I hated the Volkl Mantra M5s i demoed a couple days ago...they could not hold an edge and I was sliding everywhere. It was probably a bad tune but...

Given your post history this is a throw away.
Very out of character for that ski.

[roQer]

I can't really tell I hated a particular ski. As somebody stated above, any ski is better than no ski.
I had some skis thou which I never clicked with and sold after one or very few days of use:
Salomon Quest 115 188 cm - good carvers on groomers but elsewhere too unstable and squirrelly
4frnt Devastator 194 cm - great ski but just too heavy, fucked up my legs at 2 pm. Could be 2-3 cm shorter as well
BlackCrows Nocta 2.0 190 cm - nice in powder but sucks everywhere else. Couldn't keep up with buddies on skied out groomers on it
Faction Dictator 4.0 192 cm - too stiff, too locked in turn, floats really bad in powder for it's width, think OG Blizzard Cochise like

[TahoeJ]

Hmm. For a 122mm underfoot, I think the Noctas are surprisingly good on groomers... not that I give a shit since that's not what they're for. I'm not sure what version number the latest ones are though.

Carry the zero problems.

mm....cm.

Oh, haha... missed that. Yeah, I'm touring on mini snowblades!

[ACH]

Oh, haha... missed that. Yeah, I'm touring on mini snowblades!

See installment #3 of 50.

[TahoeJ]

See installment #3 of 50.

Technically that was a boot pack. Yeah I’ve seen it.

[RootSkier]

What length? Kinda interested.

185........

[toast2266]

185........

shit. I was really hoping you were going to say any other length.

I definitely don't need another pair of skis. I'm going to keep telling myself that for a bit here. If my suppression techniques don't pan out, I'll be in touch.

[SB]

Praxis 98s

Mounted them on the line and they were horrible. Had to remount 1 3/4" back and they became a decent ski although still not great on the bullet proof ice we get here in the mid A.

[theetruscan]

Interested if those that love the W108 are on the 184? I know three other skiers, all strong rippers, who didn’t love their 189s. I’m not trying to beat a dead horse here, but it’s likely the 184 is a more balanced ski.

I felt reluctant to even bring this up as my family and I have other ON3P skis that we ride daily, but I also owned the first gen BG, and I think our honest criticism helped shape the legacy of future versions.

I quite like my 189 108s. I'm 6'2", 230#+, fairly strong, clearly also fat, which could be a factor. I'm a so-so skier, and find the wrens great when I really drive them, and not great when I try to ride them more centered, or with only slight shin pressure. Had initial issues trying to run bases flat on groomed, one of my boot cuff angles was off. Wrens were unforgiving to that.

[nyskirat]

Don't hate em, but didn't click with em as much as others here.

Pre-Asym BGs in a 189. They weren't awful but I didn't really get all the hype.

[RootSkier]

shit. I was really hoping you were going to say any other length.

I definitely don't need another pair of skis. I'm going to keep telling myself that for a bit here. If my suppression techniques don't pan out, I'll be in touch.

Ok I lied. They are 186s. You are off the hook. But if you want to try them out I am happy to send them north for a visit.

[motopsycha]

A bad tune can really mess with a ski. For me it was a pair of Fischer Ranger 108ti. They were railed out of the wrapper with sharp edges tip to tail. They were squirrelly bases flat, hooky and the tails would not break free.

Mount point always felt off as well. After a base grind, aggressive detuning and moving the mount point back 2.5 I finally got comfortable on them.

I’m riding some Wren 98’s now and love them. They feel so intuitive and do everything I ask of them. Rangers were sold off with no regrets

[snojones]

pretty sure you can still get new tele boots and bindings. Hell, they're even coming out with new binding models.

I think you missed the part about getting backcounty boots to fit "W-I-D-E" feet. If you try, you will find that there are almost NO BOOTS. Trust me, I just went through this last year. I did find some boots that hurt my feet, but that was the best offer available. At boots are even worse, since they don't even feign the pretense of fitting WIDE FEET.

[snojones]

pretty sure you can still get new tele boots and bindings. Hell, they're even coming out with new binding models.

I just got back to see your post. I think you missed the part about getting Tele boots to fit "W-I-D-E" feet. If you try, you will find that there are almost NO BOOTS. Trust me, I just went through this last year. I did find some boots that hurt my feet and were too heavy for the BC, but that was the best offer available. AT boots are even worse, since they don't even feign the pretense of fitting WIDE FEET.

[Vitamin I]

I don't recall hating any ski I've tried since 2010. I really enjoy trying to adjust my style to any ski design that is foreign to me, looking for the ski's performance strengths, and skiing to those strengths.

Rossi Phantom SC 108. Planky just more work than fun.

Of all my skis, my 195cm SC108 is the ski that can most expose my weaknesses as a skier. On ice, I'm pretty awkward on that ski without a super-sharp edge tune as a crutch to help me make that mad-camber and long effective edge work as intended. Still, I don't HATE that ski when the edges are dull on ice.

...50+ years skiing gives a person a kinesthetic awareness and proprioception that can work for any ski. Everybody has a style...but good technique doesn't vary.

I'm confused about what you mean by "good technique doesn't vary". The way I see it, "good technique" for R/R Spatulas & Liberty Mutants is different from "good technique" for modern race skis; and "good technique" for a Carpathian ski must also be different (perfectly straight sidecut with perfectly straight camber); and "good technique" for a +0cm center mount is different from "good technique" for a -15cm mount; and "good technique" for landing switch in powder with a soft exaggerated rocker-tail is a bit different from "good technique" for landing switch in powder with a stiff, non-rockered tail, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Also, I don't think "50+ years" is the variable that makes a skier quicker or slower at adjusting to a foreign ski design. I think it's more about: 1) has the skier already skied with a technique that is close to this not-yet-learned technique, and 2) how many times has a skier gone through the exercise of adapting/adjusting to any foreign techniques. As an extreme example, I'd guess that a 17-year-old newschool jibby park kid could adjust to switch pow landings on a pair of Olympic Ski Jumping skis faster than a 50+ year-old 1-dimensional downhill racer could. It's not the "50+ years".

You should track down some OG Billygoats and post some video of how your kinespathetic euthenasia (or whatever nickname it is you've given your smug sense of superiority) holds up to a truly bad pair of skis..

I skied the O.G. Billygoat 186cm only 2 full days this winter so far. I didn't HATE it, but yeah, it performed poorly. First day, I had zero complaints skiing it down slow-ish moguls into high-speed smooth groomer runouts all day. It performed fine, but yeah, I felt the need to detune the tips mid-day. Fun day.

On the 2nd day, I had complaints that 1) way too many impact forces transmitted straight into my boots/body on non-smooth snow at speed, and 2) even after some detuning, the widest point of the tips would catch or not catch unpredictably on non-smooth snow at speed --- and every time it did catch, then it would either hold or release unpredictably on non-smooth snow at speed (like ON & OFF at high frequencies), which kept bucking me and killed my confidence in those situations. So, I just adjusted my style to clench my body in "balance recovery mode" every time, and also turned the speed down a notch. Exhausting to keep holding it stable all day, not as exhilarating when I limited my speeds, and uneasy feeling that I might eventually blow up on a runout---but a fun day.

.

[californiagrown]

I just got back from chamonix and rented "freeride skis" while there so i didnt have to lug around a ski bag on the planes/trains/automobiles. they gave me Rossignol Sin 7s. The red ones. Holy shit those are terrible. Its like they took all the attributes of super jibby, super powder specific ski, knocked 20mm off the waist and decided to call it good. that skis was far too soft, had way too much rocker and had way too much tip taper to be decent anywhere but untouched snow... except that the ski was too narrow to be able to shine in soft snow.

In anycase, the snow was complete shit while i was there so i really had to dial it back. You had to ski them very neutrally on groomers, if you ever tried to drive the ski it would just washout or fold up. they would hold an edge at slow speeds if you had balance juuuuuust right, but if you tried to laydown some aggressive GS carves the ski would just fold and chatter out. On the offpiste variable snow they were plain terrifying as they would fold up, get deflected, hook and dart etc. Just awful. Even in the one good powder snow area i found in a chute, they wouldnt slarve or be playful... they only wanted to do slow speed, skinny ski, small turn, deep carves. Threw me off balance on my first turn badly. They also had ZERO support in the tail despite their crazy forward mount. I washed out backseat a couple times on sketchy traverses when trying to absorb bumps or little drops through the tails.

My GF and her father both come from racing backgrounds and her father still masters races all over, and they could not stop talking about how awful the ski was.


As for the OG Billygoat hate above... if you thought you the OG 186s were bad at speed, you should try the OG 191 Billygoats, they are the exact opposite. Really not fun at slow speed or in moguls and a ton of work, but if you have the balls to get them up to speed they will smooth everything out and charge as good as anything ive ever been on... especially in variable or chop.

[Chugachjed]

I just got back to see your post. I think you missed the part about getting Tele boots to fit "W-I-D-E" feet. If you try, you will find that there are almost NO BOOTS. Trust me, I just went through this last year. I did find some boots that hurt my feet and were too heavy for the BC, but that was the best offer available. AT boots are even worse, since they don't even feign the pretense of fitting WIDE FEET.

Fool I got wide feet. That’s what bootfitters are for.