here you :
Following the success of the rocker2s premier season (2011-2012) Salomon have decided to release an entire range of rocker2 skis able to handle park to blower pow. My friend managed to get his hands on a pair of next year's 122 rocker2s in a 184, the original model. As both of us had the same boot size I suggested we swapped skis as I wanted to try these out, he obliged.
I am 5'10"/5'11", 80kgs, 15 years old and a fairly aggressive skier I like hucking and charging but also enjoying powder at a mellower pace and jibbing around a bit is also one of my favorite things to do. I currently ride 191 ON3P Caylor's mounted right at reccommended. The first day I managed to slap these on it was the day after a night of heavy snow fall; it was a pow day perfect test conditions for a ski like this.
My first impressions were good, Salomon have really out done themselves this year with the graphic for this ski, they're some of the prettiest ski graphics I've seen in a long while, second only to those of moment. My friend had been on this for about 2-3 weeks and there were no visible signs of any durability issues.
Let's start with what they're meant for, ripping around in the deep stuff. To be honest they were amazing they were so smooth and felt really surfy, the low rocker style really plained the snow nicely allowing me to make pivoty turns no problem at all; however for charging I would want something stiffer. Hitting cliffs and drops was so fun, they didn't have as much pop as my caylor's but they felt forgiving in the landing's which is always nice.
Toward the mid afternoon some of the pow spots I had been poaching all morning were getting used up and into little clumps of crud. The softer flex meant they weren't as great at driving through the piles and bouncing over patched of crud but they were alright, in this respect they had nothing on my Caylors. Once these crud patches metamorphosised into mogul I was struggling and wishing the experiences would end, but I would rather be in pow than moguls and no powder ski is phenomenal in moguls so that's not a big issue.
Although skis like these are designed for ripping around in the deep stuff groomer performance is always an good asset for a powder ski to have as you want to make it back to the lift in style. I could lay down some nice carve turns of varying lengths on the corduroy but they were a little slow edge to edge. Chatter was minimal however, the classic test of straight lining a red run had promising results. On icey poatches they grip was good and confidence inspiring for a ski with such copious amounts of rocker and a wide waist.
In conclusion these skis are for the connoisseur somebody who isn't going to be charging more finessing and working what the next feature for them to jib with style before riding off laying down a nice tapestry of turns. The softer flex made this ski intuitive and forgiving butters were easy and lazy rotations off any natural feature were a dream. Overall I would give these skis a 8.5/10 they were awesome in powder but lacked in versatility compared with my Caylors, I would like to someday own a pair of these as the would give a different feel to my Caylors.
If these skis sound like you, buy a pair go out and have fun
