Ski: 2015-2016 SCOTT Jib, 178cm
Dimensions (mm): 114-86-108
Turn Radius: 16 meters
Mount Location: -1 cm from true center
Test Locations: Stratton, Mount Snow, Park City Mountain Resort
Days Skied: 14
[Editor’s Note: Our review was conducted on the 12/13 Jib TW, which was not changed for 13/14, 14/15, or 15/16 except for the graphics. The ski’s name was also changed to “The Jib” (dropping Tom Wallisch’s initial’s) for the 2015-2016 season.]
Tom Wallisch has become one of the dominant slopestyle skiers in the sport. His doubles on park jumps are about as smooth as they come, and his rail ability is virtually unmatched. Versatility has propelled him to stardom, so one would expect that his first pro model ski, the SCOTT Jib TW, would be built with versatility in mind.
To me, that means it would be light, dexterous, and loaded with pop to match his rail game, while still remaining solid and stable for when he’s launching double corks over the 80-foot-plus tables at the X-Games each January.
(OK, well, I may have just described an unattainably perfect ski.)
Yet SCOTT uses somewhat vague language to describe the Jib TW (phrases like “quick, responsive, and snappy” or “its lightweight wood core gives it pop off jumps”), while highlighting in detail just three features of the ski: a “Twin-Tip Rocker,” a “3Dimension Sidecut,” and a Sandwich Sidewall Construction Laminate.
So I was curious to see just how versatile the Jib TW is (that is, how well it performs in different facets of park skiing), especially in regard to these three features.
Rails / Jibs
Unsurprisingly, the Jib TW excels on rails and jibs. The soft flex and low swing weight make it easy to toss the ski around and perform quick maneuvers on and off of jib features. While executing spins onto and off of rails, the Jib TW felt more like an extension of my body. Never cumbersome, the ski felt active and ready to do whatever I needed it to, and quickly.
Like the Bluehouse Antics, the light and snappy nature of the ski gave old tricks vibrance and gave me confidence to learn new tricks. I was able to learn switch 270s on to down rails to my unnatural spinning direction much more quickly than I expected to, and 450s out of rails felt less forced.
Simply put, skiing rail lines at Park City was a blast on this ski.
Spinning on to and off of rails and performing switch-ups are made effortless by the Jib TW’s light weight, and the soft flex pattern makes butters and presses feel just as easy. Still, I was hoping for more help with butters and surface switch-ups from the Jib TW’s “Twin-Tip Rocker.”
The early rise in the tips and tails of the “Twin-Tip Rocker” was so minimal I hardly even noticed it. The slight rocker brings the ski’s contact points only a few centimeters closer to the center of the ski, and, as a result, the Jib TW feels marginally shorter than its labeled 178cm length. Still, I felt as though the difference was negligible, especially compared to other rockered park skis with more significant early rise, like the Moment Vice or the Armada Halo. Again, this was particularly apparent when doing butters (which required a bit more effort than expected) and surface switch-ups, where I would catch my tips and tails more often than I anticipated with the twin-tip rocker.
You see Tom Wallish rocking AR7 is many new videos released in the past months. So in conclusion, he doesn’t seem to like his own ski as much one might think. This speaks for Tom. Do you think if the TW Jib Skis would have been wider in the waist it would have been more stable in the park? I’m asking because I can’t decide between a 80mm or 90mm underfoot TwinTip Ski at the moment. (Colby XX80 or James XX90). I noticed the Scott Jib TW is only 83mm underfoot, similar to the Colby’s 80mm, whereas the AR7 and Chronic have around 90mm in the longer lenghts. Cheers.
I’m not sure that Tom has been skiing the AR7 recently given his contract with Scott.
In terms of correlating waist width and stability, it isn’t as black and white as saying that a wider ski will guarantee greater stability. The Atomic Punx, which is even narrower at 82 mm underfoot, is one of the most stable par skis I’ve ever ridden, and it’s even narrower than the Jib TW (which is 86 mm underfoot, not 83 mm). I found the Jib TW to be unstable at faster speeds and on greater impacts because it is a very soft ski with very little rebound from the core.
I know very little about Colby West’s skis from Kastle, but I would look more into other aspects of the ski like the flex pattern than making a judgement about stability based on waist width. Width should come into consideration more when determining what you want to get out of your ski. If it’s just going to be a dedicated park ski, I’d probably recommend a narrower width, but if you plan to ski some bigger lines and get more float out of the ski on deep days, definitely go with the wider width.
Hope that answers your question.
Honestly stay away from these skis or any Scott jib. They are so fun but they last literally two weeks.
Where is centre of the ski in relation to the mounting point? There are marks for up to +3 of mounting point is it further forward still?