Great review yet again, Jason! It was only made more thorough by the video clip; any chance of these showing up in future reviews?
They absolutely will be showing up in more and more reviews, and I promise they will be of even better quality. Thanks for your comment!
I have 2015 Praxis 165 custom GPO skis with Soloman sth12 bindings for sale. Skied once, perfect condition
I agree with much of what you say. I skied the 182 cm GPO on a few days of deep powder and sold them right after. It just seemed peculiar that I had to work so hard to get good float on such a big ski. And it wasn’t as playful as I hoped. Not sure if its from the med/stiff flex or the forward mount. I know they have a big following so I just assumed I was doing something wrong.
I have this ski in a medium + flex and think it is pretty awesome for my height and weight (6’2″, 180lbs) as a powder ski. I don’t take it out unless I am expecting 8″ of new snow although I have skied it on refrozen, rained out groomers a couple of times and it was liveable. I personally think the stock layup is a big mountain flex on a shape that most people should consider only as a powder ski. I am mounted -1.5 cm on griffin demos and that feels right so I have not played with the mount.
I thought this about the MVP review as well, and from the reviews you probably agree – you guys are skiing the wrong flexes (probably). I don’t know how Praxis measures flex but their comparative chart doesn’t align with what I have felt in the skis on their list or with fri flyt flex numbers, they just don’t seem to match. Hand flex also doesn’t seem to match flex when skiing, with the med+ hand flexing very soft but skiing like a much stiffer ski. Just my opinion.
Thanks for your comment, Andrew. I couldn’t agree more regarding the flex of the skis we’ve been on from Praxis. I hope I emphasized in this review, as well as in the MVP review, that I loved the shape and many of the characteristics of both models, but didn’t really feel the flex and rebound allowed me (at 160-165lbs) to get comfortable enough to realize the full potential of what I believe these playful and sleek shapes are capable of. Hopefully future tests will be better coordinated!
I have the GPO 187 in a medium+ flex (less than stock) and with a lightweight MAP core. I am not nearly as strong a skier as the Blister crew and generally prefer much lower speeds in consequential terrain, but I am 6’1 208lbs. I got the skis toward the end of last season so only have a few days on them so far. I got these because I wanted a more versatile travel powder ski for everyday soft use to compliment my mind 90s hard snow ski,(was an old school mantra, now a hell and back)
I demoed the Soul 7 and the new Super 7 on a few deep days in Utah and thought the Supers were a great tree powder ski and bump ski but folded up on me at any speed and were way too soft on groomers. Looking at the shape I though these would be similar while being more stout and with better construction quality so I took a shot.
I only have a few days on these in March at Alta and telluride and was pretty happy so far. Got a solid 8 or so inches untracked slightly denser than blower at Alta and had a blast. In 4 inches of nice fresh hero snow the skis were amazing and super quick for me in tight trees and bumps. Spring refrozen coral reef was manageable and soft groomers were good.
The only real issue I had was real Styrofoam like wind jacked snow. The tips despite me detuning a lot were super grabby, making it difficult to ski with any speed. This surprised me, I thought the tapered tips would be much less grabby. I still haven’t gotten these in truly deep powder so the jury is still out on if the mount point being so forward on the line will adequately float my size.
I think the issue with a lot of Praxis skis is that they are very funshaped with a good amount of tip and tail taper and rocker paired with a fairly stiff powerful flex pattern. Especially for a light skier, this disconnect between playful shape and directional charger flex can cause problems, with me being larger and on a softer and lighter than stock version this is much less noticeable.
Ben,
Great, well-said information there. Thanks a bunch for your input.
If you continue to run into the “grabby tip” problem, I would suggest dropping the skis off at a highly reputable shop to have them put on a tune like the one I used during the end of my testing: 1deg base and side, hand fade in a 2deg base bevel through the tip and tail, detune from the contact points.
Honestly this review is incomplete without a comparison to the current ON3P Billygoat.
I am 6′ 3″ and 240 lbs, ski in the Sierra’s. I have a stock flex 192 mounted on the factory line. Due to prevailing conditions the past two seasons I have only had them out twice. The best test for me was last season at Alpine Meadows on a storm day with 8″ to 12″. As luck would have it I was able to AB test my boards against the Atomic Bent Chetler, Nordica Patron, Blizzard Bodacious and Volkl One.
I took two runs on the GPO then two runs on one of the listed skis, then two runs on the GPO and two runs on another test ski until I had skied them all. At the end of the day I prefered the GPO, I did like the Patron and Bodacious also but like the GPO best for its balance overall. I really felt I was fair, skied the same lift and same route. I realize I am out of the normal range due to my size and take advice at the ski shop from sales folks who are like size to me. That has made a big difference, I used to believe skis were skis and they worked the same for everyone, size does matter!
I bought these not as a storm day ski but move as a day or two after a storm, after the snow gets packed out in the trees a bit. My every day ski is a Ski Logik Ullr’s Chariot twin tip in 188. Due to my size I have other wider boards for true powder days.
Many of the things you said in your review I have not experienced on the GPO, I appreciate you realizing that your size does may be a factor
Great review yet again, Jason! It was only made more thorough by the video clip; any chance of these showing up in future reviews?
They absolutely will be showing up in more and more reviews, and I promise they will be of even better quality. Thanks for your comment!
I have 2015 Praxis 165 custom GPO skis with Soloman sth12 bindings for sale. Skied once, perfect condition
I agree with much of what you say. I skied the 182 cm GPO on a few days of deep powder and sold them right after. It just seemed peculiar that I had to work so hard to get good float on such a big ski. And it wasn’t as playful as I hoped. Not sure if its from the med/stiff flex or the forward mount. I know they have a big following so I just assumed I was doing something wrong.
I have this ski in a medium + flex and think it is pretty awesome for my height and weight (6’2″, 180lbs) as a powder ski. I don’t take it out unless I am expecting 8″ of new snow although I have skied it on refrozen, rained out groomers a couple of times and it was liveable. I personally think the stock layup is a big mountain flex on a shape that most people should consider only as a powder ski. I am mounted -1.5 cm on griffin demos and that feels right so I have not played with the mount.
I thought this about the MVP review as well, and from the reviews you probably agree – you guys are skiing the wrong flexes (probably). I don’t know how Praxis measures flex but their comparative chart doesn’t align with what I have felt in the skis on their list or with fri flyt flex numbers, they just don’t seem to match. Hand flex also doesn’t seem to match flex when skiing, with the med+ hand flexing very soft but skiing like a much stiffer ski. Just my opinion.
Thanks for your comment, Andrew. I couldn’t agree more regarding the flex of the skis we’ve been on from Praxis. I hope I emphasized in this review, as well as in the MVP review, that I loved the shape and many of the characteristics of both models, but didn’t really feel the flex and rebound allowed me (at 160-165lbs) to get comfortable enough to realize the full potential of what I believe these playful and sleek shapes are capable of. Hopefully future tests will be better coordinated!
I have the GPO 187 in a medium+ flex (less than stock) and with a lightweight MAP core. I am not nearly as strong a skier as the Blister crew and generally prefer much lower speeds in consequential terrain, but I am 6’1 208lbs. I got the skis toward the end of last season so only have a few days on them so far. I got these because I wanted a more versatile travel powder ski for everyday soft use to compliment my mind 90s hard snow ski,(was an old school mantra, now a hell and back)
I demoed the Soul 7 and the new Super 7 on a few deep days in Utah and thought the Supers were a great tree powder ski and bump ski but folded up on me at any speed and were way too soft on groomers. Looking at the shape I though these would be similar while being more stout and with better construction quality so I took a shot.
I only have a few days on these in March at Alta and telluride and was pretty happy so far. Got a solid 8 or so inches untracked slightly denser than blower at Alta and had a blast. In 4 inches of nice fresh hero snow the skis were amazing and super quick for me in tight trees and bumps. Spring refrozen coral reef was manageable and soft groomers were good.
The only real issue I had was real Styrofoam like wind jacked snow. The tips despite me detuning a lot were super grabby, making it difficult to ski with any speed. This surprised me, I thought the tapered tips would be much less grabby. I still haven’t gotten these in truly deep powder so the jury is still out on if the mount point being so forward on the line will adequately float my size.
I think the issue with a lot of Praxis skis is that they are very funshaped with a good amount of tip and tail taper and rocker paired with a fairly stiff powerful flex pattern. Especially for a light skier, this disconnect between playful shape and directional charger flex can cause problems, with me being larger and on a softer and lighter than stock version this is much less noticeable.
Ben,
Great, well-said information there. Thanks a bunch for your input.
If you continue to run into the “grabby tip” problem, I would suggest dropping the skis off at a highly reputable shop to have them put on a tune like the one I used during the end of my testing: 1deg base and side, hand fade in a 2deg base bevel through the tip and tail, detune from the contact points.
Honestly this review is incomplete without a comparison to the current ON3P Billygoat.
I am 6′ 3″ and 240 lbs, ski in the Sierra’s. I have a stock flex 192 mounted on the factory line. Due to prevailing conditions the past two seasons I have only had them out twice. The best test for me was last season at Alpine Meadows on a storm day with 8″ to 12″. As luck would have it I was able to AB test my boards against the Atomic Bent Chetler, Nordica Patron, Blizzard Bodacious and Volkl One.
I took two runs on the GPO then two runs on one of the listed skis, then two runs on the GPO and two runs on another test ski until I had skied them all. At the end of the day I prefered the GPO, I did like the Patron and Bodacious also but like the GPO best for its balance overall. I really felt I was fair, skied the same lift and same route. I realize I am out of the normal range due to my size and take advice at the ski shop from sales folks who are like size to me. That has made a big difference, I used to believe skis were skis and they worked the same for everyone, size does matter!
I bought these not as a storm day ski but move as a day or two after a storm, after the snow gets packed out in the trees a bit. My every day ski is a Ski Logik Ullr’s Chariot twin tip in 188. Due to my size I have other wider boards for true powder days.
Many of the things you said in your review I have not experienced on the GPO, I appreciate you realizing that your size does may be a factor