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2017 ski review - Armada Victa 87ti vs K2 OohLaLuv vs Volkl Kenja

Ratbrothers

Diva in Training
Hi lovely divas, am a little nervous cos this is my first ever post But I've been following the gear posts for a while, and have gleaned some great info to help narrow down my choices for new skis. Thank you all! After a week of demo-ing a few 2017 skis thought I would offer my thoughts on the ones I tried. Hopefully it will be useful to someone else!

As background I'm 49 years old from New Zealand and have skied since I was 19, some years lots, others a little, and others none. I'm 5ft7, athletic build and 75kg. Have skied NZ, Canada, Japan and US resorts. In the good old days I skied 2 metre straight skis (Rossignol 4S were my favourites). For the past four years I've been totally addicted to my Volkl Kenjas. Most of my skiing is on piste and fairly fast (60-90kph according to the Ski Tracks app). But after spending one month per year skiing the northern hemisphere for the past four years I'm becoming more adventurous and interested in venturing off piste.

Hoping this frames up where I'm coming from in my quest for new skis!

I'm at Snowmass for 3 weeks and after doing some pre-trip research I decided to try the latest Volkl Kenja (which I was pretty convinced I would end up with), the K2 OohLaLuv (my husband and his cousin are both K2 lovers), and the Armada Victa 87ti.

The K2s were great skis, super quick into a turn and an easy ski which you could put onto an edge and handled speed no problem. A drawback for me was that the front of the skis were too soft for my liking, and I think this had them turning a little quicker than I wanted, especially on faster steeper runs.

I was excited to try the latest release of my beloved Volkls! Weirdly I found them quite heavy and not so easy and fun as previous seasons. This left me puzzled and interested to try something else.

Not having too much hope that the Armadas would be serious contenders I was super excited that they were sooo fun to ski! Lightweight, held an edge super well at speed and travelled confidently over pretty much everything I threw at them. I decided these were my favourites so tried them over 2 days - in fresh snow, chop/crud and harder pack/groomers.

So no prizes for guessing that I'm now the proud owner of a pair of Armada Victa 87ti skis. Love them!
 

vickie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Welcome! Enjoy your new skis. I've read some good stuff about the Victas.

What length did you try in each of the skis?

How deep was the fresh snow? Wondering if the Victas are good in, say, a foot or more of snow or just a few inches.

How were the Victas at low speed, or do they need to be skied fast?

The Victa has tip/tail rocker and camber, doesn't it? How well does it initiate and release turns?

Skiing chop/crud, were you dealing with a lot of small mounds of snow? If so, did the Victas plow through it, ride over it, or divert around it?

Though I've read some reviews of the Victa, I haven't been able to pin a label on its personality or nature yet.
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I demoed the Victas last week and yes, they can be skied slowly (I'm not a speedster at all) and yes they tend to be more of a crud buster than a crud bouncer. They have two sheets of metal in them, same as the Kenjas, but are much more "compliant" IMO. They were super easy to turn, and turn in any shape turn on any terrain. I liked them a lot. They also seemed to do well with a centered stance vs. more forward.

Armada is producing some REALLY great skis! Glad you loved them, Ratbrothers!
 

Ratbrothers

Diva in Training
Hi everyone and thanks for the welcome and your feedback!

@vickie I tried all skis in 163cm. There was only around 2-4 inches of fresh snow, haven't tried them in anything deeper yet. I found the Victas are really versatile at most speeds, and pretty consistent in terms of initiate/release, though not as powerful out of the turn as my old Kenjas. To test in chop/crud I chose a well skied-out run towards the end of the day and the Victas easily charged right through it, no problem.

@contesstant glad you enjoyed them too! I agree with your thoughts about stance. I tended to want to drive forward a lot on the Kenjas particularly at higher speed but the Victas (presumably cos they're less stiff?) seem to just hum along easily at any speed encouraging a more relaxed centred position for me.

Thanks again! Will report back further when the honeymoon period has worn off :wink:
 

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