2014-2015 Whitedot Director, 191cm
Stated Dimensions (mm): 136-107-126
Blister’s Measured Dimensions (mm): 135.5-106.5-125
Actual Tip-to-Tail Length (straight tape pull): 189.8cm
Stated Sidecut Radius: 25 meters
Manufacturer’s Stated Weight per Ski: 2,125 grams
Blister’s Measured Weight per Ski: 2,160 & 2,190 grams
Mount Location: Factory Recommended “FR” line (89.3cm from tail; – 5cm from center)
Days Skied: 6 Total
Test Locations: Toas Ski Valley, NM; Telluride, CO
If you haven’t done so already, you should read Jonathan’s preview of the Whitedot Director before moving on to what I have to say here, since his writeup lays out our main questions about the ski prior to getting it on snow.
I haven’t skied the Director in a wide enough range of conditions to have a complete sense of it yet, but I’ve found some answers to a few of our initial questions; it’s been an interesting, fun, and somewhat surprising couple of days.
As you’ll see from our preview, we weren’t sure what to expect of the Director, since we really haven’t been on a ski like it. (The closest thing might have been the 12/13 Down Skis Countdown3, but that was a 115mm underfoot pow ski.) So getting on the lift for the first time with the Director, I wasn’t sure whether I should head for steep, open, off-piste terrain, or seek out side-of-the-run kickers and lips to go play around on.
I started with the Director on the “FR” or “Freeride” recommended mount line (5cm behind true center), where Whitedot suggests mounting the ski for all-mountain use. With that in mind, and given the ski’s stout flex and pretty straight shape, I decided to start with a more directional, fall-line-focused approach to the mountain for these first few days.
But before speaking to its performance in variable, off-piste conditions, I’ll start with perhaps some of the least surprising things I’ve learned about the Director: how it handles very firm groomers.
Predominantly Firm Groomers
So far, most of the on-piste skiing I’ve done on the Director has been in pretty tricky, inconsistent conditions—a funny mix of firm, wind-polished man-made snow with a little bit of loose, natural snow dusted on top. Grip and stability might feel good on one turn, but you might hit a slippery, scoured spot on the next and find yourself sliding.
In any case, the point is, I haven’t felt confident enough in the Director’s edge hold to get much of a sense of its carving abilities, in part because it feels pretty slow to respond and arc across the hill once put on edge—not a big surprise, given that the ski is flat underfoot with a 25m sidecut radius. It feels as though the Director needs a good amount of speed before its sidecut is likely to show some signs of life.
And given how unpredictable on-piste conditions have been, I haven’t been tempted to mach down a steep groomer and lay the ski over hard into a carve, for fear of not finding an edge and careening off into the woods.
So far, instead of trying to make many big, fast carves on the Director on groomers, I’ve been making all sorts of smeared, scrubbed turns. Whether those turns were short and slow or long and fast, the Director felt well balanced from tip to tail, with a nice predictable feel. (Some detuning of the factory edge was needed initially, as I’ll talk about below.)
Even though conditions were too firm to let me arc a clean turn on the ski, the Director still felt pretty well planted, and I was able to carry a lot of speed through long, sustained, skidded turns, able to increase edge pressure and slow down into some shorter scrubbed turns as I wished. The Director reminds me a little of the Salomon Rocker2 108 in this way, but it feels a bit heavier, more stable, and less reactive in those long, skidded turns than the Rocker2.
And on the sides / shoulders of groomed runs, where I found a consistent ~ ½” thick blanket of loose, collected snow to ski on, the Director felt noticeably more stable, with better edge grip through both long and short turns. There, on just that little bit of soft snow, the Director’s reduced effective edge was considerably less noticeable. (Keep that in mind, as I think it helps explain some of the ski’s surprising performance off piste.)
I’m already pretty sure that the Director won’t be a ski I’ll be recommending for its groomer performance, if a nice, clean carve is what you’re looking for. But again, the on-piste conditions I’ve been skiing on it haven’t been favorable for any ski with a short effective edge, so the jury is still out.
I’m not prepared to say the Director can’t be worked through some fast, stable carved turns, I just think I’ll need to find some pretty soft, buttery groomers in order to do that. And assuming that’s true, I still don’t think the Director is going to have a very energetic feel while carving, given it’s longer sidecut radius and flat underfoot profile. (Neither does the Blizzard Cochise, for similar reasons.)
But if you don’t care so much about carving your skis on edge, and you’re ok with the sound of stable, smeary, skidded turns, then I think you’ll be fine with the Director on groomers. And the good news is, the ski gets much more interesting when it comes to skiing variable, bumpy conditions off of groomed runs.
Soft, Chalky Snow over a Bumped-Up, Firm Base (Big Turns)
In his preview, Jonathan wrote: “I would be willing to wager that, for its width, the Director will be quite good in pow. I am also willing to wager that it will perform well in tracked up pow / soft chop, given that it isn’t terribly light and it doesn’t have heavily tapered tips. The bigger question for us is how well this ski will handle more firm, variable conditions, especially in uneven, bumped-up terrain or firm steeps.”
I haven’t been able to get the Director in fresh pow or soft chop yet, but I have skied it in a lot of mixed, variable conditions, and I’ve been pretty impressed.
As Jonathan notes, the Director’s flex profile is pretty stout and quite even, similar to that of the Cochise. To me, at ~ 160 lbs, any of the Director’s stability limitations in variable conditions have to do with it’s reduced effective edge, not with it’s flex or swing weight. And even then, so far the ski’s rocker profile hasn’t limited its stability in variable conditions nearly as much as I thought it was going to.
While making pretty aggressive, fast turns through bumped up, semi-soft conditions (little piles of soft snow sitting on top of a firm base) the Director was surprisingly stable and predictable, with a pretty larger sweet spot. The Director’s tips tracked true and chattered relatively little through longer turns over roughed up snow; the ski felt comfortable, not out of its element at all. Here’s a look at a run on the Director in the conditions I’m describing:
We were curious to find out how tolerant the Director is of a more forward / drive-the-shovels style of skiing, and mounted on the factory “Freeride” (“FR”) line, I’d say it’s pretty damn tolerant.
At that mount point, while making larger turns in these conditions, the Director’s tail was certainly willing to slide out, but on the whole the ski felt like it had less tail rocker than it does, and felt more stable than I thought it would.
To be clear, I wasn’t driving the shovels of the Director super hard as if I was on a ski like the 14/15 Moment Belafonte (which has traditional camber underfoot and through the tail) – I was skiing with a slightly upright stance and being a little light on my feet – but I was comfortably approaching terrain as I would on a “big-mountain” ski, not a decidedly playful, jibby one.
While skiing, I wasn’t thinking about how the Director compared to the Blizzard Peacemaker or Moment PB&J, for example; I was wondering how more directional / stable skis would have fared on the same run, like the Line Supernatural 108 and Blizzard Cochise (especially the 108, which I’ll compare it to the Director below).
Like the Supernatural 108 and Cochise, while I’ve been able to ski the Director pretty hard, there is a quick, smeary, pivot-y side to the ski, too. Skied on the “FR” line, the Director was pretty darn willing to go fast and was quite stable (I never felt like I was forcing it through those longer turns), but I could access a slarvy, surfy mode with some quick, foot-steered turns, too. This was especially nice when I needed to make some check-turns before a little air, or bleed off speed, and it also helps make the Director more manageable in tighter terrain and moguls.
Really excited about what you at Blister have to say about these skis! Awesome that you are adding more brands to your encyclopedia of ski reviews. I’m also curious if your going to review any G3 skis this year, as there seem to be a lack of good reviews elsewhere, for G3 and Whitedot.
Thanks!
Really looking forward to seeing your review of these skis, I skied a pair earlier this year and loved them so interested to see your comparisons to other skis I haven’t been able to try yet.
I dig the White Dots. I’ve been on the Preacher, and it is badass.
The Directors sound pretty similar to the Praxis MVP, a comp ski that prefers to play, slash, or huck, and not much in between. In the 187 MVP, there is 48 cm of tip rocker and 40 cm of tail rocker, 7 cm of tip splay and 5 cm of tail splay, 110 underfoot, 26m radius, and no metal (unlike the Cochise). Any thoughts on that comparison?
Hmmm, there certainly do seem to be a number of similarities on paper, Metres. I’m still not prepared to assume that the MVP & Director will feel similar on snow, but is interesting that the Director has even more tip and tail splay than the MVP.
But long and short, I think you’re right to bring up the MVP. We shall see…
Have spent some time fondling the Ranger is a store. Is that one of the 4 you have to take a look at?
We have some test pairs of the Carbonlite versions of the White Dot Director, Redeemer, Ranger and Preacher this season and will let people know what they’re like…Since riding many production and proto White Dots since they started out back in 2009, we get the impression they want a ski with a wide range of terrain capabilities…not really excelling at any one particular situation, but being friendly and capable all over the mountain. Really nice bunch of guys behind White Dot. They want to make skis people enjoy and aren’t afraid to tinker with designs to make them do what people want. The new Carbonlites with carbon and flax fabric layers are very, very light. Stay tuned. Looking forward to Blister’s comments after spending more time on the Directors in more kinds of snow…Thanks for the preview and initial observations!
Am I the only one thinking that it sort of seems like a mini Blister pro? And from the review has at least some of the same attributes? Maybe it’s just the forward non-tapered, squared off tips, rocker profile and off-piste chops that makes me think that, dunno, but…..
Hey Pat,
The Moment PB&J is really more of a mini Blister / Bibby Pro, I’d say. And the biggest difference between the PB&J and the Director (that I’ve noticed so far), is that the PB&J feels a lot more conventional on groomers. It has a noticeably shortened effective edge, but a good amount of traditional camber underfoot and a sidecut radius that feels a little tighter to me than the Director’s; the PB&J hooks up and carves more readily than the Director. The Director is also a bit wider than the PB&J, but you’re not wrong to see a resemblance between the two, by any means.
Best,
Will
How about Ragnarok?
We finished up a review of the Carbonlite C3 version of the Whitedot Directors in short lengths (171cm and 151cm for the vertically-challenged…awesome kid ski in that length). Last season we tested a set of “standard” and “Carbonlite” versions of the Redeemers side-by-side and found the CarbonLites to be much more responsive, agile and sporty than the standard layup, but at the cost of some higher speed crud-cutting and stability. The standard layup also has the ability to absorb a higher level of input pressure from the skier before it gives-way. In essence, the Carbonlite versions are more backcountry-oriented or for lighter, less muscle-heavy resort skiers.
I usually agree with Blister’s descriptions of ski handling nearly 100%, and it feels like the Carbonlite version of the Director has some definite differences from its standard layup version tested here. It is definitely not a hard-charging ski, but more playful and fun, with excellent vibration control and balanced feel in powder and cut-up treelines. If anyone is interested in seeing the review of the CarbonLite Director, it can be found at:
http://exoticskis.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=362
As an intermediate skier, who still has lots to learn, but would like something in the 105-110 range, would this be a good choice or should I look at the Helix and Sick Day 110 as well as the Director and Supernatural 108? How would those all compare?
First of all, this was a phenomenal review by Will. It’s not that often I see a 6 page review on this site, so that immediately caught my attention and I have since purchased the 191 Directors this fall for use as my mid-fat in Colorado. I picked the ski to fit in between the Moment PBJ and the OG Bibby.
Quick overview of me for ref:
* 6’3″, 190#
* Look Pivot, 140 @ 11.5 DIN
* Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper
After 43 days on the mountain (mostly Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper), I have ridden the Director 37 times. It is by far my favorite ski, even more than the critically acclaimed Bibby. I have avoided full reverse cambered skis in the past because they typically came with inconsistent flex patterns and/or soft flex patterns, early taper, and a short turning radius. This ski is damp, quick, and rages in pow. As Will mentioned, as long as there is a little bit of the soft stuff to push around this ski excels… esp. for my style, which is defined by an appreciation for drifty turns and blowing up pow stashes at high speeds. The combination of dampness, late taper, and the camber profile gives me tremendous confidence because I know I can shut the ski down relatively quickly without it folding on me. Moreover, it allows for a huge variety of turn shapes (moguls to GS). I ski a lot of side-country and trees, so quickness is critical, but I also do not want to compromise too much in the way of stability for straightlining after an air or nuking it through chop. The Director is the perfect combination, especially for resort pow days where by the afternoon its a little too tracked out for me to be really stoked on muscling the 190 OG Bibby through tight trees (the Bibbs still dominate the chop though). I am convinced there is nothing quite like reverse camber and hope to see more chargy skis with this design concept. I wish they made it in 118-120mm underfoot for those truly deep days! My guess is the 128mm Redeemer is excessively fat and will be cumbersome in the air. So, do you have any other recommendations? Are there any other skis are out there around 120mm with reverse camber, stout flex profiles, large turning radii, late taper and progressive mounting points (-3 to -5cm from TC)? Thank you.
Best,
Andrew
Hey Will, Great review on the Director, I have been skiing the 182 Belafonte as a daily driver in Tahoe, and also switching up with the PB@J and 184 Bibby. I picked up the 181 Director to replace the PB@J’s since I found them good but not great in most conditions. WOW – I was blown away by this ski, first off the build quality is unreal, top notch.
Secondly they ski insane, I found just like Andrew above mentioned, in just a tiny bit of soft snow they come alive, carves, drifts, slashes, super super fun ski, even in the thickest Sierra cement they blow right thru it, 2′-3′ chop it dont matter. you can drive the tips or ski light and neutral, their like the Bibby in that sense, they just dont care. They turned out to be just what I was looking for a playful Belafonte, that can still charge.
Are you going to review the new Moment Meridian? which seams VERY similar to the Director in shape, and rocker profile, and after talking to Luke, the Moment sounds even stiffer. Thanks Again for the great reviews.
Andrew, to address your point on the Redeemer, I ski the 180cm length as a tight tree/ small area powder ski. im only 5′-6″ and 160lbs, but I would say it’s not cumbersome at all, its actually pretty quick and playful, and has a TON of float, since the wide point is pulled back from the tip and really carries its width behind your foot, and its plenty stiff enough to charge thru the chop later in the day, if you like the Director, you will like the Redeemer, they have a VERY common feel.