fgor
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
5'3, 115-120lb cautious skier
Current skis: recently acquired 2020 Blizzard Black Pearl 88
I was at the ski field today and spotted Volkl flags - I've never seen their demo fleet while I've been here, so i went to have a look. At the time I was there most skis in my size were out (and i ended up being a bit fatigued in the afternoon to go back) but i tried the 2020 Kenja (88mm width) @ 156cm.
Conditions: 30cm of fresh snow yesterday, so even groomers/on-trail was pretty soft and choppy. Only a small amount of scraped off icy stuff at the top of one run. Photos (from the lift) show off trail conditions - terrible photo of the skis though, so much snow sticking to them!
I found these skis pretty nice - they can make nice small turns if you want or longer turns. I find them less bouncy (i think more "damp") going over small bumps and mounds of snow than my BP88, which is different and quite neat! They're definitely stiffer too. I found that I was able to power them adequately and have fun with them, especially on my second run when I was getting the hang of how to ski them, but to me they were slightly fatiguing to ski. I was happy to go back to my "easy to ski" BP88. I am not a very powerful skier though and know that I have a preference for less stiff skis - however despite all the titanal in this ski, I was surprised that I was able to have fun with it. I probably wouldn't pick this ski as a daily driver for myself but I'm also more of a mellow skier I also wouldn't have minded taking them on some hardpack but there wasn't really any today, the snow was so soft everywhere! I have a feeling that they'd perform really nicely on smooth hardpack. Maybe if Volkl is back another time...
Current skis: recently acquired 2020 Blizzard Black Pearl 88
I was at the ski field today and spotted Volkl flags - I've never seen their demo fleet while I've been here, so i went to have a look. At the time I was there most skis in my size were out (and i ended up being a bit fatigued in the afternoon to go back) but i tried the 2020 Kenja (88mm width) @ 156cm.
Conditions: 30cm of fresh snow yesterday, so even groomers/on-trail was pretty soft and choppy. Only a small amount of scraped off icy stuff at the top of one run. Photos (from the lift) show off trail conditions - terrible photo of the skis though, so much snow sticking to them!
I found these skis pretty nice - they can make nice small turns if you want or longer turns. I find them less bouncy (i think more "damp") going over small bumps and mounds of snow than my BP88, which is different and quite neat! They're definitely stiffer too. I found that I was able to power them adequately and have fun with them, especially on my second run when I was getting the hang of how to ski them, but to me they were slightly fatiguing to ski. I was happy to go back to my "easy to ski" BP88. I am not a very powerful skier though and know that I have a preference for less stiff skis - however despite all the titanal in this ski, I was surprised that I was able to have fun with it. I probably wouldn't pick this ski as a daily driver for myself but I'm also more of a mellow skier I also wouldn't have minded taking them on some hardpack but there wasn't really any today, the snow was so soft everywhere! I have a feeling that they'd perform really nicely on smooth hardpack. Maybe if Volkl is back another time...