Review: 188 Praxis Protest (Hybrid) with CCR
I'm going to steal Mitch's template...
Length: 188 cm
Sidecut Profile/Width: 132/137/130/131/124
Flex: A "six" on the Praxis flex scale, whatever that means. They felt solid, but not so stiff that most people couldn't handle them. I'm not a great skier, and I had no trouble.
Weight in this length: Not posted, and I don't have a decent scale, but not a *long* touring day ski in my opinion... feel lighter on your feet
Boots used: Black Diamond Pushs
Bindings used: Hammerheads mounted tele boot center at 101 CM from the tip
How many days on the skis: 1 (so far)
Resort or backcountry: Resort (and likely future sidecountry, but not more than a few laps, I think... TBD)
Geographical region: Tahoe (with occasional forays to Mammoth and elsewhere)
Tell us about the terrain you ski: Trees/Bowls Chutes/Steeper Stuff/Meadowskipping (when I'm tired or in the mood)
Do you know how the skis were tuned (bevel): Factory
How long have you been skiing: Five, with not much before that besides snowboarding and XC
How many days a year: 30-50
Previous ski that you liked: BD Verdicts, Explosivs
Previous ski you did not like: Jak BCs
How big are you: 6'1" 165
Mostly tele or parallel: 50/50
Day 1 Comments:
Had them out for a couple hours at Sugarbowl this morning before getting a coreshot and not wanting to push my luck. They pretty much blew my mind in terms of powder performance. (For full disclosure, the fattest ski I've been on at this point is 100 at the waist...) Jumping off the cat track I felt like a cork when you try to submerge it... it pops back up and rights itself. I could land off balance and not fall. Sweet. I even took an accidental 8-10 footer on a blind rollover. No sweat, despite not being prepared for it. Fun. That's pretty much a product of the camber.
As for the sidecut and performance on chopped up, soft groomers... I'll basically echo what sfotex said in the Praxis thread: they could be the perfect powder day ski. At least I feel that way in my relatively limited experience. They were totally manageable on the groomers in parallel turns. I wasn't going as fast as I would on Explosivs or something narrower, but I could hold them on edge with minimal wandering at moderate rates of speed. If you were hurrying to beat things getting tracked out, I doubt you'd be frustrated.
I was having a bit of trouble with tele turns, but I have new boots too so I definitely think that is a large part of the problem. I'm vaguely concerned that with the short sidecut and my mount being right in the middle of the recommended alpine range, that my ball of foot is too forward in tele turns for the short sidecut. I'll ski them some more and try to feel it out.
Bottom Line: I still think they're not an everyday ski unlike some of the other hot new skis out their (Lhasas, JJs, S7s, Megawatts, etc.) that people are saying would make great Western everyday skis. That said, with the full reverse and the little bit of sidecut, they sacrifice just a tiny bit of powder performance to make the groomers manageable.
I'll update this as time goes on. If anybody else has things to add, feel free.
