DB 04/05 prototypes tested

[Glisseur]

Ran into Cyrille Boinay in Stryn, Norway a while ago and got the chance to take the latest DB protos (Surreal and Tabla Rasa) for a spin. The skis I tried were a lot beefier than last years with straight sidewalls and thicker dimensions but I’m not sure if this will be the case on the production models as well, the skis were still light as hell though. DB has promised to improve their topsheets for next year but couldn’t tell from looking at the protos what they have done as I don’t hold a Ph.D. in plastic analysis (or in something else for that matter… )

Tabla Rasa:
The dimensions are basically the same as last year (142-120-127) but the distribution of the sidecut is a whole lot different. The radius and mounting point have been moved back quite a lot (10 cm?) giving a shorter turning radius for that reason. The nose is longer and sports a new, cool shape and features a longer rocker. The ski I tried and saw was the stiff flex which is somewhere between last years stiff and moderate flexes. Finally, the swallow tail is wider and longer and the ski has almost no camber.

On the snow? Holy f%¤*#§g s**t!!! Nothing short of amazing. They’re stable as hell, I charged as hard as I could (which almost ended up crashing into the maker of the skis...) but the skis just stayed quiet through everything I threw at them. In fact, they almost felt more stable the faster I went. The new rocker allows for a more relaxed, neutral stance in soft snow and gives you the option to play around more with your balance. Lean back for high speed cruising then move forward on the skis for a more aggressive stance and carve the s**t out of the skis. Pretty cool.

If you make a comparison to cars then this would be like crossbreeding a Hummer 4x4 with a Ferrari formula 1 racer. I only tried them in (perfect) slush but I can’t see why they wouldn’t rule in deep powder thanks to the bigger rocker, moved back radius and mounting point. The boys have made all the changes I felt had to be done on last years Tabla, which was already a great ski, but the new one actually exceeded my expectations by far. This is hands down the best big mountain ski ever made, nothing else comes close.

Surreal:
The biggest visible change made to the proto was metal reinforcements on the top-edge of the ski, similar to the new Gotama. The flex seemed a to have been changed a little as the tail of the ski was stiffer than on last years giving the ski a nice, even flex. The nose is a little bit longer on the Surreal too with the addition of a small rocker. Dimensions are 126-95-113

After doing a couple of runs on the Tablas I was quite unwilling to let them go and I have to admit I wasn’t to fired up to try the new Surreals but those thoughts vanished as soon as I started skiing on them. This ski is also a big improvement over last years model thanks to the changes made. The old one had a tendency to wash out slightly at the end of the turn but the new model has a stiffer tail so that seems to be a thing of the past. It’s super stable at high speeds on hard pack with a great deal of pop to it. Soft snow performance have been improved as well thanks to the new shape of the nose and flex pattern. Overall a great ski: super light, super stable and lots of fun. The Surreal will definitely be a contender for best ski in the Legend/Explosive category of all mountain fats.

Pics coming soon.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Here's to another small company making some kick ass boards (apparently).

[hop]

it is becoming very very hard to not pony up and buy a pair of TR's, especially after reading this since Glisseur's originals were pretty much the shit right out of the box.

edit: check out Glisseur big-pimpin' at www.norrona.no photoslut modelboy extraordinaire.

[Glisseur]

Originally posted by hop
edit: check out Glisseur big-pimpin' at www.norrona.no photoslut modelboy extraordinaire.

Well, this was what I was doing when you were scoring first tracks in Valley X on my Tablas:

Photoslut extraordinaire indeed...