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Demoing 2020 Augment, Fischer sub-80mm (low intermediate)

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yes it's that time again already, where I demo skis (because seriously my mountain hosts SO many free demos) and ramble inexpertly about them. Was lucky enough to steal a weekday off from work to enjoy a bluebird day at my local mountain today!

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The conditions were firm but very nice. I actually had it in mind to demo some Head skis today as I believe the mountain has some to demo, and I want to try out their sub-80mm offerings. However to my surprise when I got there, there were a couple of free demo companies set up with their flags waving - Fischer and a company I'd not heard of, Augment.

About me: 5'3/160cm, 115-120lb, low intermediate, blues/reds. Daily driver Blizzard Black Pearl 88 (159cm). NZ conditions are apparently comparable to US East.

Augment All Mountain 77 Ti (@159cm)

So when I went up to the Augment demo station and told the demo tech I'd never heard of the company and didn't know what to offer, he immediately laid out a brief overview of the company's history and commented that their roots lie in racing. I raised my eyebrows and commented that at my level these skis are probably not for me, but he was keen to get me on some skis anyway. First up was the AM77Ti. When I looked at Augment's website on the chairlift, it appears most of their skis are fully customisable down to stiffness - I don't know what stiffness these ones were. As I've been starting to work on tipping over onto my edges lately, I expected to find these skis notably easier to do so than my 88mm daily drivers, but to me they weren't (or if they were I wasn't noticing ;) ). They might have been too stiff - I didn't really gel with them but they were adequate to ski. I actually can't think of much to say about these, which I think says something in itself. They weren't bad, or overly hard to ski, or great, I just skied a couple of runs with them and handed them back.

While I was standing in the lift line having just clipped into these, a guy behind me asked me how I was liking them. He then went on to say that he'd demoed some Augment skis recently and *loved* them! They're apparently a popular instructor ski brand here as well.

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Augment SC ONPISTE 70 (@156cm, @148cm) 2020

At 70mm underfoot these skis are hilariously narrow. They have a turning radius of 12m @156 and 11m @148 (but I didn't know this until after I was done demoing - putting the info here as this ski isn't currently on Augment's website). I was given these in a 156cm first and the very first thing I did was take them to the top of the mountain, get surprised by how much they turned at the scraped icy top of my usual red run, lose my balance and fall on my hip because suddenly my skis were facing uphill, then slide down the top of the run because with my skis to the side of me and facing uphill I wasn't doing a great job of slowing my descent. :"D I got them back under me and unhappily wanted off them, but had the rest of the run to do. I ended up having a couple of runs on these and toward the end of the second run, felt like I was starting to get the hang of them. The demo tech then suggested I try a smaller size, and I ended up on the 148cm - I didn't realise quite how SHORT it was until after my next run. I feel like this should be much too short for me but boy that turned out to be a fun ski, and by far my preferred length in this model. I took a break for lunch and other demos and went back at 2:30pm and ended up on this ski @148cm for two more runs.

The narrowness underfoot somehow makes the ski feel a little less stable - not in the fore-aft sense but laterally. I suppose that makes sense, as the platform is smaller :smile: It took a couple of runs to get used to. However, by losing a little stability you gain truly epic edge-to-edge quickness. While I couldn't feel a huge difference between getting edge-to-edge on the 77mm skis compared to my 88mm skis, these 70mm skis were a HUGE difference. When I tilted my ankles in I could feel the ski grab. These skis WANT to carve. I amused myself doing some railroad tracks on a shallow part of an uncrowded run (on a weekday, nothing was crowded) and then set about making a whole bunch of short turns. The tails aren't really smeary at all (you only need to make that mistake once - tried to smear them doing a lazy turn in some softer snow off the side of a trail and the ski told me no, I corrected and turned "properly"). The demo tech described this ski as "accurate" when I was discussing it afterwards, and I'd agree with that - slightly challenging but rewarding. Overall after a less-than-promising start, this ski ended up being a a bunch of fun and I think I did more runs on this ski than my own skis today. As a bonus when I jumped back on my BP88 afterwards I felt like my legs were more in the mood to really feel out the ski edges, having been on such a narrow and responsive ski.

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Fischer My Pro MT 80 2020 (@159cm)

This was Fischer's offering today in my size for a sub-80mm-ish ski - the demo tech had another he would have liked to offer me but none in my size (all too long) :( Again I didn't feel like these were particularly quicker edge-to-edge than my existing skis but this was still a reasonably fun ski. I took them down the side of a run in some choppy snow and they handled really nicely! I found them the most fun in the softer snow, and more ordinary on the piste but perfectly adequate, I think they'd make a pretty nice all rounder type ski. They have some tip rocker and tail rocker which I guess helps throw them into that all-mountain type category. For some reason I really did not get along with these skis in the first half of my first run with them - teething troubles! - I felt oddly off-balance in the fore-aft plane and I couldn't work out why. I kept finding myself too far back. At any rate I adjusted to that eventually haha - I don't know if it's a ski thing, or a mount thing, or simply that my legs were in a mood :tongue: for some reason the whole fore-aft balance thing was really tiring on my knees and I took a break after this demo.

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Additional thoughts: I've been really impressed by a lot of the 2020 graphics in a LOT of the skis that I've demoed. I like the shift away from delicate flowery designs in ladies skis to more bold colours and simpler designs - I think the Fischer ladies ski I tried is a great looking ski and I like that green colour a lot. The Augment skis are unisex but again I like how they're sharp without being garish - the simple graphic design works well, I think. Green seemed to be the overall colour theme for today!
 
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marzNC

Angel Diva
and a company I'd not heard of, Augment.
So neat to hear about indy companies. Looks like Augment also makes mountain bikes.

Fischer My Pro MT 80 2020 (@159cm)
I tried the Fischer MT84 at the Alta Demo Day in April 2019. Didn't like it but not exactly sure why. At 124-85-112, R13.5, it's got very similar specs to the all-mountain skis I bought a few years ago. There is an woman instructor at Taos who is a Fischer rep. Not surprisingly, she loves them for bumps. Just another example of why demo'ing is worthwhile when it's possible.

Augment SC ONPISTE 70 (@156cm, @148cm) 2020

At 70mm underfoot these skis are hilariously narrow. They have a turning radius of 12m @156 and 11m @148..
. . .
these 70mm skis were a HUGE difference. When I tilted my ankles in I could feel the ski grab. These skis WANT to carve.
Agree that 70mm feels very different when used to 80+ widths. I've only demo'd that narrow a ski once. The comment I wrote down was "turny."

Looking forward to future reviews!
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
....
Augment SC ONPISTE 70 (@156cm, @148cm) 2020
....the very first thing I did was take them to the top of the mountain, get surprised by how much they turned at the scraped icy top of my usual red run
....toward the end of the second run, felt like I was starting to get the hang of them.
....I ended up on the 148cm - ....but boy that turned out to be a fun ski, and by far my preferred length in this model. I took a break for lunch and other demos and went back at 2:30pm and ended up on this ski @148cm for two more runs....

Welcome to the frontside ski lover's club! Get yourself on a narrow waisted carving ski (70 or less underfoot), shorten that downhill leg to start a turn, and/or tip the downhill ski onto its little toe edge with your foot/ankle, or do both together, and let those skis do their thing. They will turn, and if you succeed in not pivoting them, they will grip like a sharp knife on ice and take you for a ride. Practice on green trails at first, not on reds.

Icy trails beware, here she comes!
 
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Magnatude

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Nice review, fgor! Funny, I was just Googling Augment skis and your review popped up, which is vaguely Karmic or something, since I just demoed one of those skis (the Augment SC On Piste) also at Mt Hutt, today. I've tried out 3 different Augment (boutiquey Austrian brand) skis over the last year, with fairly different results. Today's demo was the SC On Piste in 164, with turning radius of 13m. I normally ski a Head iRally in 170, which has a similar radius (quite a bit wider underfoot at 78mm), but the Augments (70 waist) definitely didn't feel too short. I took them for two short blasts down Fascination/Hubers and side of Johnny Doles, and while they took a run to get used to, was quite reluctant to hand them back. Conditions today were fast and firm, with a solid ice crust underneath a mix of natural and man-made groomed snow. Off-piste was still moderately locked up (though we left early at 2pm, so it may have softened further afterwards). Like the other Augment skis I've demoed, you need to be mentally in the game, with a solid forward stance, because it's easy to get backseat and kicked around. Initially I found they really wanted to complete their turns (finishing uphill) if you didn't tip early enough. Once you're concentrating though, these skis were good fun, and those icy patches definitely became less intimidating. Even the looser granular snow at the side of the pistes was fun. For such a short radius ski, they seemed happy to be pushed into faster, longer turns too, which might make them a good proposition for Level 3 training.
 

racetiger

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I believe Augment used to be Croc skis...one of the reasons they changed the name was confusion with the footwear. Haha. I think this is their 2nd season ? as Augment.
 

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
Welcome to the frontside ski lover's club! Get yourself on a narrow waisted carving ski (70 or less underfoot), shorten that downhill leg to start a turn, and/or tip the downhill ski onto its little toe edge with your foot/ankle, or do both together, and let those skis do their thing. They will turn, and if you succeed in not pivoting them, they will grip like a sharp knife on ice and take you for a ride. Practice on green trails at first, not on reds.

Icy trails beware, here she comes!

Second this comment! Narrow skis of this width will help your skills...a lot. But it’s best to do so with instruction. I ski a SL that is 66mm underfoot, and another ski that is 64mm underfoot! After a bit, they feel perfectly normal. :smile:

I think the important thing with Augment is to get the flex right. It goes from 1 (racer stiff) to 10 (soft). I *think* a lot of their demo skis are around 5-8. But it is relative to the skier.
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It's been just over a year since I demoed these skis! I thought I'd update because I ended up getting an ex-demo deal and buying the 148cm SC ONPISTE 70, which I'd enjoyed a lot. I ended up owning the exact ski that I'd demoed!

This season has been fairly low in snowfall with mostly just firm, hardpack groomers to ski. To my surprise, the Augments have ended up narrowly being my most used ski this season, simply because the groomers have largely stayed hard all day as they were sitting on a pretty solid base of ice. Plus, once my instructor this season found out I had these skis, he commented that I should use them for any lessons unless we're doing off-piste stuff, so I've got really used to them.

When I got them, they felt like a bit of an aspirational ski - I could handle them but they weren't as easy to ski as my friendly BP88. Over this season though, I've become completely comfortable on them, and I'm absolutely loving them on the groomers and in lessons. They are so quick edge to edge, and I still have a long way to go before I catch up to this ski's capability. So far this might be the most fun thing I've tried in lessons on these skinny Augment skis - early attempts at short turns. This wasn't my best run but it was still one that I was stoked to get on camera!


I've found the skis stable even in less firm conditions - I accidentally ended up skiing these on a very warm and slushy morning at a different ski area, and while they certainly wouldn't have been my choice for slush skiing, they did ok slicing through the slush and I even took them off piste. On another day, they were still fine after 2cm of snowfall where the sides of the trails got nice and churned up.

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Regarding Augment's flex ratings of their skis: as mentioned in the thread, their skis come in a flex from 1-10. I was told by the NZ reseller that the "5" hand written on this ski denotes that this ski flex is 5 (medium).

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I was a little intimidated by this as I'd heard that even Augment "medium" can be very stiff, but in practice I've found this ski just fine. I'm guessing the range of stiffness depends on the model of ski. I took them in for a wax and edge tune at my usual ski shop (a different place to where I bought them) and the guy there hand flexed the skis out of interest and described them as "accessible". He didn't think they were wildly stiff by any means and said they were probably about right for me (given I am quite lightweight).

So overall - they've been a great ski. Even though they're on the shorter side for me I guess (148cm vs my height 160cm), because they're fully cambered and quite stable, they ski absolutely fine for me. I've put 16 days on them so far, and I'm a very happy member of the frontside ski lover's club :smile:
 

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