J Skis Discussion

[dufferdan]

Hey, this is the thread I need. I ski a Rossi S7 (the old original version, well multi colour graphics, not the latter version), in 188, which I do like for powder days, The camber underfoot and side cut allow me to rip out the long ski out from Taynton (Pano) without worrying about sliding off into trees. They grip and roll on edge well.

But I love the J Ski looks and the Friend looks like a decent replacement for my S7’s after 8 -10 years. My question is, at 5-10, 185 , age 59, but solid on everything, should I go 189 or the 183? Their guy I was chatting with suggested 183, but I don’t want to lose float. They will be only for 15cm+ days, but everything from open bowls to spaced trees. (I don’t do stupid tight tress, I am a coward).

Thoughts? On the skis and length! Thanks in advance.


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[mr_pretzel]

The 189 is pretty heavy so that would be my only concern for you. They are not hard to ski and pivot well. If you’re a strong 59 I’d say go 189 (buy mine hehe)

[margotron]

183. Have fun not work

[Quandary]

J skis run short. When I bought my first pair after talking with them (Masterblaster) they steered me to 181, which is really 179. I replaced them in the rotation this year with the Praxis 9D8s in 185. For my a substantial upgrade in ski capability. Last year I bought a pair of "the Metal". Again they steered me to the shorter length, I think 183s. Skied them 3 days and sent them back, too short particularly with all the rocker tip and tail.

So when in doubt with J Skis I'd go longer. Great thing about J Ski if you don't like the ski after skiing them 3 days and you don't abuse the ske you can send 'em back no problem. You just out the mount/dismount and shipping.

[DGamms]

I only own one pair, but I don’t think J skis measure much shorter in a straight pull than many other brands. My 186cm Vacations are 183.5cm on straight pull, so 2.5 cm shorter than advertised. Outside of ON3P and the old K2 measurements, it seems most brands have about a 2cm difference from stated length vs straight pull.

Whether or not you think they “ski” short is a whole different question. Almost all J Skis have reasonably long sections of tip/tail rocker and tip/tail taper. Most of their designs are also pretty soft at the tips/tails of the ski and have fairly progressive mount points. All those design attributes can certainly make it feel like you have less ski to stand on/lean forward into from the toe piece of the binding to the tip.

I have almost 35 days on my Vacations this year, mostly at Park City. I’ve really enjoyed them so far. Most of my inbounds riding the past few seasons has been either old man park laps or days with my two daughters. I had used the Rossignol Scimitar, Line Tom Wallisch, and Line Blend for those days in prior seasons, but I was looking for a ski that combined the elements I liked from the above skis to simplify the quiver.

The 186cm Vacation is probably closest to the Line TW 178cm as far as ski flex, taper, and feel, but it is about 10mm wider, 6.5cm longer, and consequently 320gm heavier (1780gm vs 2100gm). I mounted my Vacations +1cm from rec’d, making them about -2.7cm from true center.

The Vacations don’t quite have the edge hold or damping of the 185 Scimitars in bad snow, and they aren’t quite as easy to nose press as the 185 Blends, and they aren’t as light rotationally as the 178 TW for quick spins. But as a middle ground for me and where I ski mostly, they have been great.

[AKbruin]

FWIW, I'm 6' and 180 lbs. and have skied the longest version of any ski I've owned since my 203cm Salomon Force 9 mogul skis in high school. (I was also the only other person to ski skier666's 240cm ski-jumping skis at the legendary 2008 Kirkwood LBD.)

And now that I've established my long-ski bona fides, I'll confess that I've found the 187cm Masterblasters to ski longer than anticipated. Until you get over 25 mph or so, they want to make thin, long-radius GS turns. I like them and still probably prefer them to the shorter version. But if I were doing more bumps, park, or skiing with small kids, I'd prefer the shorter, presumably more nimble version. I haven't found that to be the case for similar skis (like the old Line Prophet 100s) or Praxis Freerides.

[Quandary]

There is no question the 181 Masterblaster is exceedingly nimble and is a fun ski for those days you just want to go out and fart around.

[ThreeRidges]

I have the first version Friend with tie dye top sheets, get lots of props from lifties. . I’m 6’2”, 185 and got the 186. Late 50s. They are heavy, I might consider the 183 if I were burying the new version. I mounted on the line. It took me a while to figure out that, not surprisingly, they work best for me when skied like how I assume Jason does, from the center, surfy, pop the tails, etc. I’d say they are versatile for a 114, I’ve taken them into moguls and survived, and you can lay them over and be ok on hard pack. I don’t like them in crud, despite their weight, but that may be the limitations of the operator. I will say that I got them in the early days of his company, and Jason himself ended up answering a lot of question I had via email, and was pretty cool about follow up questions. I think it’s a now more of a fully staffed with salespeople deal now.


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[DGamms]

Posted the backflip first in the old man park thread, but what the hell... here’s some more J Skis stoke.

This was the first day I committed to trying backflips again on the new ACL, it’s been a few years. I definitely over-rotated this attempt a bit, and you can see the soft tails of the Vacations wash out because of that.

However: I’ve also under-rotated a bunch of 540s this year. And when properly detuned, the Vacations blunt edges and tapered tips/tails let me get away with not properly landing spins as much (or maybe more so) as any of the other skis in my quiver.

[margotron]

so fucking sick!!! i wish, someday, maybe, prolly never for me. but wow!

[DGamms]

so fucking sick!!! i wish, someday, maybe, prolly never for me. but wow!

Nah man... come out to PC for one week this winter or next. Between Woodward tramps and WW and PC snow jumps, you’d have that if you want it.

[dufferdan]

Thanks for comments. With the rocker tip and tail, I figured on edge they’d ski somewhat shorter. The S7’s, on hardback, when up hard on edge, can throw a pretty short turn. The widest point of shovel and tail it is like a 150 CM ski. So I was wondering if the Friend had the same effect. From a recent review I watched, it looked pretty similar.

Not that I would use the S7 or Friend on an all mountain day. I have 96mm M5’s or a pure hard snow day in the Rossi P700’s.

Powder days here are reasonably spaced trees and pretty wide open bowl skiing. I tend to favour more open trees, survival skiing in tight woods I find to be no fun, so unless I have to jump turn a really vertical section, it is more open terrain. The guy I spoke to at J, Noah from Vermont rec’d shorter, but sounds like that is their mantra, so to speak.

More to cogitate on. Thanks guys.

[poleplant]

Does anyone have sometime on the hotshot that can add a short review? I have been seeing them more and more around the resort and they look like a nice blend of playful and supportive.
I have that spot in the quiver filled by the enforcer 110 which do everything well. Their biggest weakness though is hitting setup/heavy bumps at speed they tend to fold up a little in the shovels. I’m wondering if the hotshot retains enough of the E110 attributes, but handle heavy chunk better with the added weight?


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[margotron]

I want to hear about Hotshot too.

[toast2266]

I want to hear about Hotshot too.

me three.

[mr_pretzel]

The radius is way too short. I was not a fan. Good weight, flex and construction, but the ski does not feather large turns, pulls across the fall line at speed, I’d almost call it hooky.

This was the 189, I think the 183 would be a better fit for the ski design

[waxloaf]

That's interesting feedback; I've got the 186 metal and don't find it hooky at all, but I know they played with the sidecut a bit for the hot shot. I'm also a pretty aggressive detuner so that could play a part

[poleplant]

The radius is way too short. I was not a fan. Good weight, flex and construction, but the ski does not feather large turns, pulls across the fall line at speed, I’d almost call it hooky.

This was the 189, I think the 183 would be a better fit for the ski design

I’m on the 185 enforcer 110 which has a radius of 18.5m the 189 hotshot has a radius of 19m. The radius of 18.5 works for me.
So I guess my question is do you dislike all non groomer skis with a radius under 20 meters or was there something else specific to this ski? Any other similar skis you can compare too.
On paper the hotshot checks a lot of boxes for me twintip, forward mount, playful shape and flex, but solid weight and construction.


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[mr_pretzel]

I’m on the 185 enforcer 110 which has a radius of 18.5m the 189 hotshot has a radius of 19m. The radius of 18.5 works for me.
So I guess my question is do you dislike all non groomer skis with a radius under 20 meters or was there something else specific to this ski? Any other similar skis you can compare too.
On paper the hotshot checks a lot of boxes for me twintip, forward mount, playful shape and flex, but solid weight and construction.


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I always detune to contact points on every new ski so it wasn’t the tune.

I have a 187 masterblaster that I think skis better in large radius turns than the hotshot did. I am partial to larger radius skis, but have gotten along with a bunch of skis with short radii before like the enforcer line.

They just pull heavily across the fall line when you initiate a slarve which is really annoying when trying to control your speed in variable terrain. The weight, construction and flex encourage fast skiing, but the shape doesn’t as much IMO. I like playful and forward mounted skis, but the hotshot sort of didn’t fit in either category.

I think some of this would go away with the 183cm length which I think would be a better fit coming of the 186 enforcer, the 189cm feel similar in length to the 191cm enforcer.


Also this was my comment on blister : “ My issue with the ski is the sidecut, it’s just too short for how I like to ski. It’s really fun on groomers and can really pull you into a turn, but going fast in variable you either have to skid the ski or carve a “tight” radius, it doesn’t like the slow slarve that allows you to control speed and direction while flying through crap. I’m going to keep skiing them because they are really fun, but that’s my main critique. They are also fun in the air and the swingweight is great for how heavy they measure on the scale.”

[toast2266]

That's all good feedback. On paper the ski checks a lot of boxes, but the shorter radius has me wary. My experience with shorter radius skis is similar, and I end up going overboard on detuning to try to compensate, which is a shitty bandaid solution. But it's also increasingly hard to find skis with a longer radius...

[margotron]

Sounds like I’ll keep asking the metal

[AEV]

The radius is way too short. I was not a fan. Good weight, flex and construction, but the ski does not feather large turns, pulls across the fall line at speed, I’d almost call it hooky.

This was the 189, I think the 183 would be a better fit for the ski design

You have so much knowledge on all the skis! I swear, half of the info I get on here comes from you.

have you skied both the Friend and the Hotshot?

[Wetdog]

I have both the Metal in a 186 and the Master Blaster in a 187. I'm 6'3" 190lbs. I got the Metal first two years ago and they are great in anything other than the two extremes of very deep or very firm and icy. On any soft groomer where you can get an edge they are great, pretty damp and stable and skis crud and chop well. In in moderate fresh snow, especially West Coast heavier fresh, they are really fun, but in deep and bottomless light fresh, I found that the tips wanted to dive a bit probably due to the centre mount and I had to lean back which I didn't like. I have a pair of Marker Schizo bindings that I am tempted to try on them so I can slide back a couple of cm for skiing deeper snow which I think would help. Otherwise, I am quite happy with them. The more entered mount makes them easy to maneuver and more playful than more traditional mounts.

I got the Materblasters after a positive experience with the Metals. I was looking for a good mid 90's all mountain ski for shallow days when it hasn't snowed in a while. I demoed a bunch of the Magazine top picks like the Volkl Mantras and Blizzard Bonafide's which I appreciated, but found them more work than I really wanted to put in. I'm 57 years old and, up to 10 years ago, I liked heavier metal laminate skis like Head Monsters, Dynatar Legend Pros and Volkl Explosives etc, but I wanted something a bit less demanding, but still stable and most importantly, fun. The Master Blasters fit that bill. They hold a decent edge on firm snow, still not quite what I would like for ice, but OK and better than the Metal on really firm. They can be skied quite fast and aggressively but are also responsive if skied more mellow. Off piste on cruddy snow, I would prefer the Metal's slightly looser supportive feel, especially if it is deeper. The Masterblsters want to lock in a bit more and are a bit more work in deeper snow, but I haven't detuned them yet, so that might make a difference. I am reluctant to do that as I ski them primarily on firm snow and want the edge hold.

The Metals and Masterblasters compliment each other as a firm snow and all mountain moderately deep snow ski pair that cover 80 - 90% of my resort skiing needs. Really deep and I'm on a powder ski and really icy, I'm doing something else other than skiing.

[rfconroy]

Anyone ski a J skis Friend?

I actually picked up a pair of the first gens this weekend, and took some spring laps at Bachelor.

Overall - pretty cool ski, and my experience is in-line with what Blister has on those skis.

As a background - I've skied the following skis in the same width category: 2013 K2 Obsethed, 2017 4frnt KYE, Rossi BO 118, JJ 2.0, and Line Supernatural 115.

The Friends, have a sidecut profile which I really enjoyed - allows the ski to bit into firmer snow and get it on edge, while still allowing easy slashing or surfy feel if/when you break the tails loose. For flex pattern the tips are fairly soft, as are the tails - which allow easy buttering, and popping - but the mount point of the ski + the tails not being overly soft allow good suspension on hard landings after airing stuff out. In the air, I was a bit surprised that the skis felt heavier than I expected. This could be from two different factors - more traditional mount point compared to my BO118, or the fact that I've primarily been on touring skis over the past ~2 weeks or so.

While these skis are fairly heavy, which helps with the dampen out some variation in snow, they did get knocked around in less smooth conditions, more-so that I would have expected. This happened in a couple of different scenarios - softer suncuped snow, and pockets of corn snow forming up into moguled spots as the day progressed. I found myself compensating by changing my body position quite a bit to anticipate these changes, which forced me to reduce my speed quite a bit.

In comparison - The friend is somewhere between my old Obsethed and the BO118. Slightly more playful than the BO, but far less stable at speed. Based on the newer version of the Friend - I would be keen on trying that out to see if its more directly comparable.

Overall - Its a super playful ski that would be great for early laps on a storm day, or busting groomers in the spring. However once things get chopped up, anticipate dialing things back quite a bit, or stick to popping off of everything on the trail. In that regard, if you're a skier that doesn't mind heavier skis, doesn't charge all the time, and popps off of everything on the mountain, picking up a used pair of 1st gen Friends might be a really cool option for you.

[Quandary]

I have skied the old Friend as well. However it is quit a bit different than the new generation based upon everything J Lev has said and the Blister review.