Best Skis of the Century from Each Brand, Part 2 (Ep.365)

17 comments on “Best Skis of the Century from Each Brand, Part 2 (Ep.365)”

1. Moment I saw Sascha was on this episode, and before seeing the pic, I thought ‘of course Pandora’ which in turn also made me think Sick Day, surprised they did not come up in part 1

   • Yeah, the Sick Day 104 (and 114) are so good… I just think it’s a credit to LINE’s history that I don’t honestly think they’re even real contenders for the answer of best or most influential or most iconic or defining or most popular skis of this century. Just crowded out by too many other great skis.

     • Fair enough Jonathan, and as you say testament to just how many iconic skis a relatively small brand like Line have put out. Love the discussions around this

2. My top 10 ‘most iconic’ (most famous?) skis, irrespective of whether I personally like them or not:

   10. Moment Deathwish
   9. K2 Hellbent
   8. Armada JJ
   7. DPS Wailer 112
   6. Nordica Enforcer 100
   5. Atomic Bent Chetler 100
   4. Blizzard Black Pearl
   3. Volkl Mantra
   2. Salomon Pocket Rocket
   1. Rossignol S7/Soul 7

   • Good list.

3. On the 1 to 10 crush rating scale, an athletic lady with cool athletic equipment definitely gets +2 or +3 pts in my book.

   • 1000000000% agree. Is this stupid? Yes, of course. But is it true…. ?

4. This series and Bike Vs Ski Brands are for pure entertainment the best things on Blister.

5. The 100 is a distant third.

6. I’m confused as to why you always omit Praxis (says the guy who has owned Praxis Concepts, Protests, GPOs, and Yetis, and skied the Powerboards and BPS as well). Listening to the segment on the Moment Deathwish and how “the triple camber profile itself warrants a shout out just cause no one was doing it at the time, as far as I know”. I believe the Praxis Concepts and the Moment Deathwish were both introduced around the same time, since I recall choosing between the two in 2011. (I went with the Concept, loved it, and am sad they no longer offer it since I retired my pair a while ago, so I might have to buy a Deathwish as some point). I thought Praxis Powderboards were also pretty iconic. I’ll shut-up about Praxis now and agree that the following skis were amazing: the OG Volkl Katana (still have a pair), the Line Prophet 115, and the OG 190+ Moment Bibby Pros (a friend still has a pair). I also finally retired my well worn K2 Seth Pistols and have them mounted as wall art.

   • Nothing against Praxis at all — and the Protest would be my answer to the question. But they’ve been unresponsive to us for years, even back when we were simply asking whether there were any updates to the Protest, etc, that we should know about given that we were going to include their skis in our Buyer’s Guide. No reply. So that plus several years now leaving the public (and us) legitimately wondering whether they were still even in business, and / or were about to be going out of business… and selling very few skis per season… those are the main reasons.

     • That’s a bummer to hear. Surprised they don’t want the marketing. I’m on their email list, so I see info about ski sales all the time, and IMO they make fun and high quality skis. Thanks for the explanation.

7. Praxis – Protest

8. What was the ski that originated the now-ubiquitous rocker-camber-rocker profile? Was it the JJ, or was there something before? That would have to be a contender for the overall most influential ski of the century

9. A question for Jonathan. Fully understand why the Bibby/Wildcat would be THE Moment ski given the love for that (not just from you). That shape and flex pattern seems to have stood the test of time in terms of current competition, it still stands up in the way that most skis from that long ago likely don’t (am sure there are others I am not thinking of). The question then: of the Moment reviews that I have read on Blister, the Belafonte seems to be your second favourite Moment ski. If that was still being made in a similar set up today, and had endured in the same way as the Wildcat, do you think you would have had a harder time picking the Wildcat, or has the Belafonte anyway been overtaken by more modern ski designs in a way that the Wildcat has not? Hope that makes sense!

   • I did love the Belafonte, but (1) sadly, I haven’t skied a pair in years, and (2) more importantly, there are a number of skis in the 104-108mm wide category that I really like or love: Nordica Enforcer 104, OG Cochise, now-defunct Cochise 106, etc, etc, etc. Whereas for years, the Wildcat stood alone, and still only has the Black Ops / Sender Free 118 to compete against. So while I’d love to get back on a Belafonte, I think that category has had some options that I think are quite good.

     • Makes sense Jonathan, the Enforcer was one I had in mind that you might think of. I wonder if you could persuade Luke at Moment to do one of their limited runs for the Belafonte?!

       Also a pity that Kästle never got you a long term ZX115 to test as you seemed to like that as a contender for at least being in the conversation with the Wildcat?