fgor
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Today my mountain had C6, Blizzard and Nordica onsite and doing demos. I didn't get around to demoing any Nordica skis as after lunch they'd packed up and gone - I thought the demo people were staying later, however I got some solid testing done in the morning. The weather may have been a factor in them leaving - aside from the first hour or so of the morning, visibility was almost nil and I was being snowed on half the time.
About me - 5'3/160cm, 115-120lb intermediate or low intermediate skier. I ski in New Zealand - often icy conditions, apparently comparable to US East Coast. Current skis - Salomon Origins Crystal 151cm.
C6 Apollo
C6 is a New Zealand manufacturer of skis. The ski I tried was the Apollo: https://www.c6skiing.com/skis/apollo . I didn't pay attention to what lengths I was given - I was initially handed a 162cm ski to try, which I found fine, then swapped to a 155cm which I found to be A TON OF FUN. This is a super turny ski and it grabs and holds an edge really well in turns. It's also incredibly lightweight! I found it fun and stable. It gave me the confidence to go and try out a red run that I'd been nervously avoiding since I fell down it my first day of the season. I wish I'd had an opportunity to try this ski again in the afternoon (different conditions) - but C6 vanished rather earlier in the day than I was expecting.
Blizzard Black Pearl 88
I tried this in a 159cm. After the C6 Apollo I wasn't sure if I'd like this ski. It's very well rated which made me suspicious that maybe I wouldn't like it? Partially because people got very excited about the K2 Mindbender skis but they didn't do anything much for me. It's also a light ski, I believe it's got some commonalities with the C6 in that both have carbon in their construction. It's also the widest ski I'd tried up to this point by 2mm. However, this ski also turned out to be a ton of fun! I could do some great turns with it but also throw it around where the snow had piled up/fallen/got a bit lumpy. This was an awesome ski and I felt like I could tackle anything on it. I ended up heading down my newly-conquered red run a couple of times on this ski and also the below Sheeva 9 - all these skis gave me the confidence to tackle new areas of the mountain.
Blizzard Sheeva 9
I tried this in a 157cm. It's also very light, the demo guy suggested it was lighter than the BP88, and it's definitely the widest ski underfoot that I've tried at 92mm. I did a few runs on the BP88, then a few runs on the Sheeva 9, then immediately another run on the BP88 down the same run as I'd just taken the Sheeva 9, to compare as directly as possible. The Sheeva 9 (I'm repeating myself here... today was just a really good day for demoing) was ALSO a ton of fun (how many times can I say that phrase, seriously). I could throw it around incredibly easily and I just bounced over lumps of snow. I found the BP88 a little easier to hold an edge on and I was a little more confident weighting the front of the skis on the BP88, so after I went back and forth between the two skis, I had to say that for me, the BP88 very narrowly edges out the Sheeva 9. However if New Zealand was more prone to thick powdery snowfall or I was maybe doing only 50% piste and 50% or more backcountry/sidecountry, I'd say the Sheeva 9 would be the winner. I found both skis very easy to handle as well as being forgiving (to my style of skiing anyway).
Also I am a big fan of the fluorescent underside of the Sheeva 9. I've attached photos to show how it glows and colours the snow beneath it
I haven't liked all the skis I've demoed - maybe only about half of them - but today was just a lucky day for demoing, and these three skis immediately jumped to the top of my list. (other favourites - Head Total Joy, which I still think is a seriously fun ski and REALLY rewards the tips being weighted, and Dynastar Legend 84 which is super forgiving and fun and the sidecut makes it crazy easy to turn. I demoed these a few weeks ago. I also recently enjoyed the Line Pandora 84.) If I were to own any one of these three skis I'd be absolutely over the moon. I'm seriously tempted to get one of these. Today had fairly marginal conditions - frequently nil visibility (seriously, I didn't see the edge of a cat track until I was 2 metres away from it, and I got vertigo a couple of times from being in a complete white out and having no visual points of reference, and had to sit down) so I often couldn't really see what I was getting into. The snow was fairly decent but had random bumps from built up/skied-around patches of snow, and the occasional scraped-smooth slightly icy patch. I'm still new to my local mountain (moved to this city only last year) and I got lost during a couple of runs because I didn't see a turn off point, and I had the confidence to just keep going onto new terrain that I couldn't see at all with these skis. Skiing is already so much fun but they made it A TON OF FUN :P
About me - 5'3/160cm, 115-120lb intermediate or low intermediate skier. I ski in New Zealand - often icy conditions, apparently comparable to US East Coast. Current skis - Salomon Origins Crystal 151cm.
C6 Apollo
C6 is a New Zealand manufacturer of skis. The ski I tried was the Apollo: https://www.c6skiing.com/skis/apollo . I didn't pay attention to what lengths I was given - I was initially handed a 162cm ski to try, which I found fine, then swapped to a 155cm which I found to be A TON OF FUN. This is a super turny ski and it grabs and holds an edge really well in turns. It's also incredibly lightweight! I found it fun and stable. It gave me the confidence to go and try out a red run that I'd been nervously avoiding since I fell down it my first day of the season. I wish I'd had an opportunity to try this ski again in the afternoon (different conditions) - but C6 vanished rather earlier in the day than I was expecting.
Blizzard Black Pearl 88
I tried this in a 159cm. After the C6 Apollo I wasn't sure if I'd like this ski. It's very well rated which made me suspicious that maybe I wouldn't like it? Partially because people got very excited about the K2 Mindbender skis but they didn't do anything much for me. It's also a light ski, I believe it's got some commonalities with the C6 in that both have carbon in their construction. It's also the widest ski I'd tried up to this point by 2mm. However, this ski also turned out to be a ton of fun! I could do some great turns with it but also throw it around where the snow had piled up/fallen/got a bit lumpy. This was an awesome ski and I felt like I could tackle anything on it. I ended up heading down my newly-conquered red run a couple of times on this ski and also the below Sheeva 9 - all these skis gave me the confidence to tackle new areas of the mountain.
Blizzard Sheeva 9
I tried this in a 157cm. It's also very light, the demo guy suggested it was lighter than the BP88, and it's definitely the widest ski underfoot that I've tried at 92mm. I did a few runs on the BP88, then a few runs on the Sheeva 9, then immediately another run on the BP88 down the same run as I'd just taken the Sheeva 9, to compare as directly as possible. The Sheeva 9 (I'm repeating myself here... today was just a really good day for demoing) was ALSO a ton of fun (how many times can I say that phrase, seriously). I could throw it around incredibly easily and I just bounced over lumps of snow. I found the BP88 a little easier to hold an edge on and I was a little more confident weighting the front of the skis on the BP88, so after I went back and forth between the two skis, I had to say that for me, the BP88 very narrowly edges out the Sheeva 9. However if New Zealand was more prone to thick powdery snowfall or I was maybe doing only 50% piste and 50% or more backcountry/sidecountry, I'd say the Sheeva 9 would be the winner. I found both skis very easy to handle as well as being forgiving (to my style of skiing anyway).
Also I am a big fan of the fluorescent underside of the Sheeva 9. I've attached photos to show how it glows and colours the snow beneath it
I haven't liked all the skis I've demoed - maybe only about half of them - but today was just a lucky day for demoing, and these three skis immediately jumped to the top of my list. (other favourites - Head Total Joy, which I still think is a seriously fun ski and REALLY rewards the tips being weighted, and Dynastar Legend 84 which is super forgiving and fun and the sidecut makes it crazy easy to turn. I demoed these a few weeks ago. I also recently enjoyed the Line Pandora 84.) If I were to own any one of these three skis I'd be absolutely over the moon. I'm seriously tempted to get one of these. Today had fairly marginal conditions - frequently nil visibility (seriously, I didn't see the edge of a cat track until I was 2 metres away from it, and I got vertigo a couple of times from being in a complete white out and having no visual points of reference, and had to sit down) so I often couldn't really see what I was getting into. The snow was fairly decent but had random bumps from built up/skied-around patches of snow, and the occasional scraped-smooth slightly icy patch. I'm still new to my local mountain (moved to this city only last year) and I got lost during a couple of runs because I didn't see a turn off point, and I had the confidence to just keep going onto new terrain that I couldn't see at all with these skis. Skiing is already so much fun but they made it A TON OF FUN :P