volklgirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The Tester: 47 year old heavyweight, ex-instructor and ex-2x a week league and gold/platinum NASTAR racer turned free skier with a love of high speeds and cruddy snow conditions.
The Conditions: Shaggy Day - 24-28 degrees, firm groomers and softening crud with plenty of death cookies. Kastle Day - 28-32 degrees, brilliant blue skies and abundant sunshine, soft groomers turning to spring corn and slush.
The Boutique Skis: Shaggy's Copper Country Skis are hand made by a father & son pair in a small building in Boyne City, Michigan. They feature full wood cores hand picked and matched for desired flex characteristics, and standard sidewall laminate construction. Their graphics are odd but interesting.
The "Mass Produced" Ski: The Kastle MX83 is standard sidewall laminate construction with 2 layers of metal, an elliptical sidecut, and a "Hollowtech" cut out to reduce tip and swing weight.
The Conditions: Shaggy Day - 24-28 degrees, firm groomers and softening crud with plenty of death cookies. Kastle Day - 28-32 degrees, brilliant blue skies and abundant sunshine, soft groomers turning to spring corn and slush.
The Boutique Skis: Shaggy's Copper Country Skis are hand made by a father & son pair in a small building in Boyne City, Michigan. They feature full wood cores hand picked and matched for desired flex characteristics, and standard sidewall laminate construction. Their graphics are odd but interesting.
The "Mass Produced" Ski: The Kastle MX83 is standard sidewall laminate construction with 2 layers of metal, an elliptical sidecut, and a "Hollowtech" cut out to reduce tip and swing weight.
- Shaggy's Copper Country Skis "Tubby"
Specs: Size 178 (142-117-142, 21.5 m TR, tip and tail rocker, flat under foot). Also available in 168 and 188 with differing dimensions and turn radii for each size.
Impressions: The Tubby is one of SCC's "all mountain" offerings and on paper, it seemed like the perfect fit for my current taste in skis. On the hill, though, I was totally unimpressed. They felt heavy and sluggish and completely reluctant to make any size or shape of turn. They locked on edge and shot me across the hill on 2 occasions. Hubby tried them as well and found them equally unimpressive. In their defense.....while I was waiting to get on my next pair of demos, I ran my hand along the base of both skis and they both felt like they had concave bases right under the binding. This would likely be a product of uneven curing and is not an uncommon occurrence in hand made skis. I mentioned it to John (the builder) who said he would check them when he got back to the shop (I really wish I'd had my true bar in my pocket because he looked really skeptical). I'm hoping to try another pair (that's hopefully not railed) next weekend and will update my review if I get that chance.
- Shaggy's Copper Country Skis "Purder 2"
Specs: Size 184 (110-146-121-133-100, 25m TR, tip and tail rocker, full camber under foot). Also available in 174 and 194, with differing dimensions and turn radii for each size.
Impressions: The Purder 2 is a redesign of their original dedicated powder ski, the Purder. The new design ditches the original's true pintail making it a capable performer on the groomers. While it feels very heavy, I had no problem making long, medium, and even short turns on this speed-loving beast. Make no mistake - this ski needs to be driven hard and fast to really come alive, but skied aggressively it devours the cut up crud and frozen chop that makes other skis shimmy, chatter, and break loose. Skied slowly, you'll feel every bit of this ski's considerable weight, but it remains obedient and compliant regardless. Still, this is an awesome ski for a hard charging Divas that may encounter deep powder and serious crud in equal amounts. This monster doesn't disappoint.
- Kastle MX83
Specs: 173 (123-83-109, full camber, TR 15.5 at 163). Also available in 153, 163, and 183 with same dimensions for all sizes.
Impressions: WOW, just wow. This is the first non-Volkl ski I've been on in a loooong time that really, really impressed me. It is light but totally solid, unshakably calm without feeling dead, perfectly happy at any speed in any turn size, and completely without even the hint of a speed limit. Short skidded turns along the lift line? Yup. Bouncy turns through the bumps on the ridge line? Certainly. Two-turn screamers down the fall line? But of course, silly! It has the performance of a carver on the groomers and that of a fat ski in the slop and crud....The MX83 is "The Total Package"! For the one-ski-quiver Diva in search of outstanding performance with extra money to burn, this is the ski.
