fgor
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hi! I've been enjoying posting here about all the skis I demoed for free at my local skifield last season. It looks like I might get a few more demos this season, but I also might as well chat about a ski that I bought overseas, which I probably wouldn't have been able to demo in NZ anyway.
Me: 5'3/160cm, 115lb
Cautious intermediate (NZ blues/some reds)
Daily driver: Black Pearl 88 @ 159cm
Skis bought and reviewed: Line Pandora 104 @ 165cm
tl;dr: i like the skis
BORING PREAMBLE TO BUYING THESE SKIS (skip down to actual ski review)
Me and my skiing background - I live in New Zealand. I previously lived a long way from the mountains and was a once-every-few-years skier until last season. I moved city, found myself only 1.5-2 hours from a commercial ski field, and proceeded to sink 30 days (well, some half-days in there ) over the season. Demoed a ton of skis, bought some, booked a trip to Canada for my off-season to visit friends and do some more skiing. Brought one pair of skis over to Canada and came home with two pairs.
My daily driver ski is the Black Pearl 88, in 159cm (I am 5'3 or 160cm). I had thought that this ski would be wide enough for any snow I'd ever see. I'm sure for a capable skier, it would be able to handle any snow conditions. To be honest though, I struggled with it in powder. The first time I ever experienced powder snow, it was after a dump of around 30cm/12". I followed someone off the side of a trail into some ungroomed stuff, tried to do a turn, and immediately dug my tips in and went flying over the handlebars. Pretty much every single attempt at turning in powder after that was like this. On another 12-14" day, I was trying so hard not to tip dive that I was sitting way back on my skis. I found myself unable to turn and managed to dig my tips anyway in while twisting, resulting in losing both my skis and a mild knee sprain. I started getting frustrated with powder. I did have one successful 3" 'powder' day where I managed to do a some turns without losing any skis
My overseas friends spent a long time telling me that it would all be easier on wider skis. I laughed at them at first but slowly their words grew on me. I started to research wider skis "just for interest" and one of the skis that kept coming up in my research was the Line Pandora 104. This is a ski that one of my North American friends owned as a daily all-mountain ski for PNW conditions. She loved it, I kept seeing good reviews on it, and then I spotted a great deal on the ski+bindings and picked it up. It appealed to me because it (and its male equivalent, the Sick Day 104) seem to be widely thought of it as being easy and forgiving to ski, while also being fun and versatile. In a Blister review they made the comment, "I think the Pandora 104 would be a great pow ski for an intermediate skier because of its maneuverability and low weight", while its male counterpart is described as "easy to ski but can still be pushed hard". My friend who owns the ski echoed those comments, and said she is not a hard charger but finds it a confidence inspiring and surprisingly stable ski. Sounds great for my style of skiing..
THE ACTUAL REVIEW
I bought the Line Pandora 104 in 165cm so they are a little taller than me. I was apprehensive about this but they are noticeably more rockered and tapered than my existing skis.
So far I've had a grand total of four days on this ski and it's been quite a journey! My first three days on it were skiing with friends in Whistler-Blackcomb in Canada. (the previous two days of skiing in WB there wasn't any new snow and I'd happily used my Black Pearls.) Day 1 was pretty much a wash because the snow conditions were very sticky, "mashed potatoes" sort of snow. The snow was so grabby that I found my poles being yanked out of my hands a couple of times. I initially thought that I was having trouble because of the wider skis but my friends assured me that it was the snow, and after seeing a couple of them fall in the sticky snow (they're all much better than me!) I was convinced I did notice that I wanted to be slightly further forward than on my BP88 but I adjusted quickly.
Day 2 and 3 were awesome. There was more fresh snow, but a lot more powdery in texture. I got to try a couple of nervous turns in real untouched powder and found that I planed easily through the snow with my tips above the surface. I skied through a lot of soft chop and found the skis to be very light and maneuverable as described. There were even some bumps to navigate in the soft snow and although I did so quite slowly, the skis felt very stable under me as I was trying to hop around them and get through some pretty uneven snow.
[whistler-blackcomb]
Back in NZ, I was lucky enough to take a day off work yesterday to find some fresh (if slightly wind-affected) powder at my local skifield. There was a lot of opportunities for off-piste/ungroomed skiing, and i wanted to get better and more confident at that! I brought both sets of skis to the mountain - thought I might use the Pandoras in the morning until any powder was gone then swap to the BP88. I did a couple of runs on the Pandoras to see how they performed in NZ - loved em! I again found that they like me to be slightly further forward than the Black Pearls do (which I mostly noticed getting off the lift...) but I adjusted within a minute then completely forgot about that for the rest of the day. I then booked a lesson with an instructor I already know from previous lessons, to try to upskill my off-piste skills and improve my confidence. I showed them both sets of skis and said I wanted to get off the groomers, and they selected the Pandoras for me to use for the lesson. I actually didn't clip into the BP88 all day - was having too much fun on the Pandoras.
Again, I found them great. The wider platform makes them feel more stable in variable snow (which we have plenty of...) and powder, but they're actually perfectly maneuverable on groomers too. In fact, they were great on the groomers. Even the groomers ranged from "slightly soft" to "piles of snow" (the mountain was making the most of the sub-freezing temps and going hard with the snowmaking) so it was really ideal conditions for a wider ski. My instructor even started getting into some short turn techniques with me on the groomers in between the off-piste stuff, and I made some great improvements there. I totally forgot that I was on skis which I had previously considered both wide and long. They felt perfect!
They have a lot of taper in the tips and tails compared to my other skis, and I found them easy to both get on edge and break free when I wanted. Overall intuitive to control.
As you can see, despite being longer, the widest point on the Pandoras is no further forward than on the BPs. The Pandoras might even have a shorter effective edge. (and yes, my quiver has actually grown alarmingly - I also scored an ex-demo deal on a skinny carving ski I demoed and enjoyed a lot last season!)
So overall - can't make any comparisons to other skis in this width category, as I've never been on any others, and at any rate it's less common to find wider skis available at demo days here (and we get plenty of hardpack days where I wouldn't want to be on this ski anyway). Would I personally use this ski as my everyday ski? Hell naw, not where I live. We can go weeks between any fresh snowfall and I think hardpack is more easily skied on a narrower ski plus, the BP88 can hold its own off the groomers as well, it's a versatile ski for the majority of NZ snow conditions! (which frequently consists of a mix of hardpack, ice and slush, often in the same day :P ) But for pow days, soft snow days or days where I venture out to some of the smaller, 100% ungroomed (but still inbound) ski areas near me... the Pandoras are a super fun and surfy ski that can do just fine on the groomers too. I'm really happy that I bought them and look forward to more fun days on them when the snow is fresh and falling!
Me: 5'3/160cm, 115lb
Cautious intermediate (NZ blues/some reds)
Daily driver: Black Pearl 88 @ 159cm
Skis bought and reviewed: Line Pandora 104 @ 165cm
tl;dr: i like the skis
BORING PREAMBLE TO BUYING THESE SKIS (skip down to actual ski review)
Me and my skiing background - I live in New Zealand. I previously lived a long way from the mountains and was a once-every-few-years skier until last season. I moved city, found myself only 1.5-2 hours from a commercial ski field, and proceeded to sink 30 days (well, some half-days in there ) over the season. Demoed a ton of skis, bought some, booked a trip to Canada for my off-season to visit friends and do some more skiing. Brought one pair of skis over to Canada and came home with two pairs.
My daily driver ski is the Black Pearl 88, in 159cm (I am 5'3 or 160cm). I had thought that this ski would be wide enough for any snow I'd ever see. I'm sure for a capable skier, it would be able to handle any snow conditions. To be honest though, I struggled with it in powder. The first time I ever experienced powder snow, it was after a dump of around 30cm/12". I followed someone off the side of a trail into some ungroomed stuff, tried to do a turn, and immediately dug my tips in and went flying over the handlebars. Pretty much every single attempt at turning in powder after that was like this. On another 12-14" day, I was trying so hard not to tip dive that I was sitting way back on my skis. I found myself unable to turn and managed to dig my tips anyway in while twisting, resulting in losing both my skis and a mild knee sprain. I started getting frustrated with powder. I did have one successful 3" 'powder' day where I managed to do a some turns without losing any skis
My overseas friends spent a long time telling me that it would all be easier on wider skis. I laughed at them at first but slowly their words grew on me. I started to research wider skis "just for interest" and one of the skis that kept coming up in my research was the Line Pandora 104. This is a ski that one of my North American friends owned as a daily all-mountain ski for PNW conditions. She loved it, I kept seeing good reviews on it, and then I spotted a great deal on the ski+bindings and picked it up. It appealed to me because it (and its male equivalent, the Sick Day 104) seem to be widely thought of it as being easy and forgiving to ski, while also being fun and versatile. In a Blister review they made the comment, "I think the Pandora 104 would be a great pow ski for an intermediate skier because of its maneuverability and low weight", while its male counterpart is described as "easy to ski but can still be pushed hard". My friend who owns the ski echoed those comments, and said she is not a hard charger but finds it a confidence inspiring and surprisingly stable ski. Sounds great for my style of skiing..
THE ACTUAL REVIEW
I bought the Line Pandora 104 in 165cm so they are a little taller than me. I was apprehensive about this but they are noticeably more rockered and tapered than my existing skis.
So far I've had a grand total of four days on this ski and it's been quite a journey! My first three days on it were skiing with friends in Whistler-Blackcomb in Canada. (the previous two days of skiing in WB there wasn't any new snow and I'd happily used my Black Pearls.) Day 1 was pretty much a wash because the snow conditions were very sticky, "mashed potatoes" sort of snow. The snow was so grabby that I found my poles being yanked out of my hands a couple of times. I initially thought that I was having trouble because of the wider skis but my friends assured me that it was the snow, and after seeing a couple of them fall in the sticky snow (they're all much better than me!) I was convinced I did notice that I wanted to be slightly further forward than on my BP88 but I adjusted quickly.
Day 2 and 3 were awesome. There was more fresh snow, but a lot more powdery in texture. I got to try a couple of nervous turns in real untouched powder and found that I planed easily through the snow with my tips above the surface. I skied through a lot of soft chop and found the skis to be very light and maneuverable as described. There were even some bumps to navigate in the soft snow and although I did so quite slowly, the skis felt very stable under me as I was trying to hop around them and get through some pretty uneven snow.
[whistler-blackcomb]
Back in NZ, I was lucky enough to take a day off work yesterday to find some fresh (if slightly wind-affected) powder at my local skifield. There was a lot of opportunities for off-piste/ungroomed skiing, and i wanted to get better and more confident at that! I brought both sets of skis to the mountain - thought I might use the Pandoras in the morning until any powder was gone then swap to the BP88. I did a couple of runs on the Pandoras to see how they performed in NZ - loved em! I again found that they like me to be slightly further forward than the Black Pearls do (which I mostly noticed getting off the lift...) but I adjusted within a minute then completely forgot about that for the rest of the day. I then booked a lesson with an instructor I already know from previous lessons, to try to upskill my off-piste skills and improve my confidence. I showed them both sets of skis and said I wanted to get off the groomers, and they selected the Pandoras for me to use for the lesson. I actually didn't clip into the BP88 all day - was having too much fun on the Pandoras.
Again, I found them great. The wider platform makes them feel more stable in variable snow (which we have plenty of...) and powder, but they're actually perfectly maneuverable on groomers too. In fact, they were great on the groomers. Even the groomers ranged from "slightly soft" to "piles of snow" (the mountain was making the most of the sub-freezing temps and going hard with the snowmaking) so it was really ideal conditions for a wider ski. My instructor even started getting into some short turn techniques with me on the groomers in between the off-piste stuff, and I made some great improvements there. I totally forgot that I was on skis which I had previously considered both wide and long. They felt perfect!
They have a lot of taper in the tips and tails compared to my other skis, and I found them easy to both get on edge and break free when I wanted. Overall intuitive to control.
As you can see, despite being longer, the widest point on the Pandoras is no further forward than on the BPs. The Pandoras might even have a shorter effective edge. (and yes, my quiver has actually grown alarmingly - I also scored an ex-demo deal on a skinny carving ski I demoed and enjoyed a lot last season!)
So overall - can't make any comparisons to other skis in this width category, as I've never been on any others, and at any rate it's less common to find wider skis available at demo days here (and we get plenty of hardpack days where I wouldn't want to be on this ski anyway). Would I personally use this ski as my everyday ski? Hell naw, not where I live. We can go weeks between any fresh snowfall and I think hardpack is more easily skied on a narrower ski plus, the BP88 can hold its own off the groomers as well, it's a versatile ski for the majority of NZ snow conditions! (which frequently consists of a mix of hardpack, ice and slush, often in the same day :P ) But for pow days, soft snow days or days where I venture out to some of the smaller, 100% ungroomed (but still inbound) ski areas near me... the Pandoras are a super fun and surfy ski that can do just fine on the groomers too. I'm really happy that I bought them and look forward to more fun days on them when the snow is fresh and falling!