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I think a lot of this has to do with preference/style- I know a lot of friends with a racing background cant STAND soft skis or skis that do better with a centered stance- even if it isnt a bad ski. My least favorite skis ive ridden are the Armada Tracer 108 and the 2021 Line SFB. Not saying the SFB is a bad ski, i just needed something with more backbone as a daily- meaning i have a bad relationship with it since 9/10 days that season i wished i was on something else. I would happily have it in my quiver for niche fun days. The Tracer 108 sucked. Too Light to ski in bounds at all, very chattery, very one dimensional, and just ok to tour on. Better options for every category.
Every spring Trollhaugen has a demo weekend. Three skis I couldn't wait to get off of me were Volkl revolt 95 (The one with the purple scorpion topsheet) , Volkl Blaze 96 and BDog Edgeless. ( I like the regular Bdog- I just like having edges. )
hamsauceI think a lot of this has to do with preference/style
The line blade is a stupid concept. If you want to do slalom turns just get a slalom ski. If you want to ski pow get a fat ski. The line blade is just a really wide slalom ski, it only wants to do slalom turns and isn’t surfy or playful like a pow ski but isn’t quick edge to edge like a real carving ski
Surface one lifes were really bad. I bought a pair thinking I’d be like Meeks in 2012, nope turns out they’re board stiff and have like no effective edge, pretty much the worst combo in a ski lol
verynormalguySurface one lifes were really bad. I bought a pair thinking I’d be like Meeks in 2012, nope turns out they’re board stiff and have like no effective edge, pretty much the worst combo in a ski lol
I had surface balances in like 2019 for like the same reason. same complaints there, literally no give and impossible to maneuver
Never rode a ski that I actually hated riding tbh. Some fell short in some areas of skiing I liked but I had fun doing other things more of what the ski was meant to do.
However, I have never ridden surface blanks but my friend had a pair and they looked miserable. Nothing fun about them. Little to no profile, flex, camber, anything…
+1 for it preference/style is often more important than if a ski is "good" or "bad".
But that being said, the ski I tried recently that I thought was just awful was the Head Kore 111. Its the harshest ski I've ever tried by a mile, and it basically did nothing well. It had the stability and smoothness of a lightweight touring ski, the float of an narrower all-mountain ski, and the playfulness of a german bureaucrat
hi_vis360The line blade is a stupid concept. If you want to do slalom turns just get a slalom ski. If you want to ski pow get a fat ski. The line blade is just a really wide slalom ski, it only wants to do slalom turns and isn’t surfy or playful like a pow ski but isn’t quick edge to edge like a real carving ski
can totally relate my homie got a pair and was meat riding them so hard and then i took a run in them just to realize the are a soft carving ski that have no playfulness
Agree with guys saying that riding style and place is so important when choosing "worst ski". Personally I have not find ski that I could really highlight as worse but maybe Armada ARV 86 was one that I was bit disapointed in. Just was not my type of ski.
And my Faction Prodigy 1.0 lasted me 15 days and despite being ski that lastest me the least amount of time I really enjoyed skiing them.
1st Gen Faction Prodigy 2.0, the first and last Factions I ever rode. The Prodigy had such a weird shape, almost a pin-tail compared to how wide the shovel was so they could not track on edge. It was also a freestyle oriented ski but had a mount point that was way too far back, if you mounted forward you ended up way in front of the sidecut on a weirdly shaped ski. Also, I got the biggest core-shot I’ve ever seen on my second run.
Worst skis out of the box for me were 189 wets. Even after multiple full length detunes, the skis were extremely hooky and grabby. Hard to explain but I feel like I would get locked into an edge and the ski would not break free until I fell
Eventually after breaking them in enough, they have gotten better but still randomly catch every once in a while and take me for a wild ride
hamsauceI think a lot of this has to do with preference/style- I know a lot of friends with a racing background cant STAND soft skis or skis that do better with a centered stance- even if it isnt a bad ski.
dwt802Never rode a ski that I actually hated riding tbh. Some fell short in some areas of skiing I liked but I had fun doing other things more of what the ski was meant to do.
zulisAgree with guys saying that riding style and place is so important when choosing "worst ski".
yeah there really aren't many objectively bad skis out there these days. but there are so many different types of skis these days that there are def skis that you won't click with at all. i fucking H A T E riding JJs for instance, 5 point skis can get fucked as far as i'm concerned, but it's a super popular ski
durability, or just straight up stupid shit like the afterbang's skateboard construction, are likely the only objective bad characteristics on some skis these days
Rocker 2’s, 4frnt YLE, and liberty joe schuster. None of them were actually terrible, there were just much better options out there for pow skis that performed really well all mountain
These weren't that bad in the moment, like I remember kids didn't even care that they sucked it was just a cool thing, but in hindsight probably the worst ski of all time easily
SofaKingSickyeah there really aren't many objectively bad skis out there these days. but there are so many different types of skis these days that there are def skis that you won't click with at all. i fucking H A T E riding JJs for instance, 5 point skis can get fucked as far as i'm concerned, but it's a super popular ski
Yeah I have JJs and don't love them. I really wanted to but every other similar width ski I've used has had a better feel. They are super fun for lower speed pow skiing and they're pretty playful for such a wide ski. They seem like they would be easy to butter, but the tips and tails are super floppy while being really stiff under foot which just males it weird. I got them super cheap though which I'm thankful for.
skietedavidsonWorst skis out of the box for me were 189 wets. Even after multiple full length detunes, the skis were extremely hooky and grabby. Hard to explain but I feel like I would get locked into an edge and the ski would not break free until I fell
Eventually after breaking them in enough, they have gotten better but still randomly catch every once in a while and take me for a wild ride
This sounds like a tuning issue, I bet those skis are "edge high" you can check with a good straight edge and a flashlight or just take em down to your local shop and get a fresh base grind.
Surface Watch Lifes, they had 0 give and no rocker which was pretty behind the times even in 2011. They worked as a park ski and floated ok but weren't fun anywhere. I bought some RMU Diams right after which had a similar shape but a good amount of flex to them and loved them even though they were way too long for me lol.
I don't love riding my ARV96s either but they perform really well and let me land some tricks I would probably miss on my (way more fun) Edollos.
HugobrgmnMine must be the atomic infamous, they broke after 2 days. The whole base just shattered in the nose and tail.
They pushed this ski like crazy as a softer alternative to the Punx and I convinced one of my friends to get a pair because LSM and Jossi made them look sick. He snapped them in 2 weeks and I felt like an asshole but at least I didn't buy them myself lol. Learned not to trust marketing after that
skiP.E.I.Yeah I have JJs and don't love them. I really wanted to but every other similar width ski I've used has had a better feel. They are super fun for lower speed pow skiing and they're pretty playful for such a wide ski. They seem like they would be easy to butter, but the tips and tails are super floppy while being really stiff under foot which just males it weird. I got them super cheap though which I'm thankful for.
yeah their design/style is just fundamentally at odds with how i ski. that was a real shock when i demoed some on a pow day assuming i'd love them after years and years of buying almost nothing but armadas haha
Non_State_ActorThis sounds like a tuning issue, I bet those skis are "edge high" you can check with a good straight edge and a flashlight or just take em down to your local shop and get a fresh base grind.
After 2 or 3 full length detunes on the edges, I figured I may have had something else weird going on. Would "edge high" be the same as a concave base tune? I started to wonder if this was the issue I had, a bad factory base tune
Had a pair of the faction idioms and the edges blew out after just a couple days in the park. Not sure why I thought they were gonna be good skis this was during peak shitty faction ski construction days. Got them warrantied though for Candides I still use
skietedavidsonAfter 2 or 3 full length detunes on the edges, I figured I may have had something else weird going on. Would "edge high" be the same as a concave base tune? I started to wonder if this was the issue I had, a bad factory base tune
Exactly. Edges are contacting the snow first and kind of acting like rails giving a weird locked in, hooky feeling particularly when trying to release a turn.
Quite possibly the heaviest, stiffest skis ever made. They were an absolute riot for blasting through crud and straightlining, I have never gone faster on skis in my life, but the second you decided to go into the trees they became terrifyingly difficult to drive.
Maybe someone stronger than me would have enjoyed them. I let a friend borrow them for a day and he felt the same way, actually too much speed. They were basically 2x4's
Hahahahaha these were the first skis I ever bought. Thought I was cool getting twin tips. Rode them all over the mountain like a dingus. Absolutely shit especially in any level of fresh snow. Heavy af.
Then I got actual skis and well damn skiing became so much easier.
Farmville420Any edgeless ski when you aren't actively sliding wood or concrete
Facts, I thought I would love the Bdog edgeless because I like soft skis and detune heavily anyways. Down right scary on the east coast, never realized how much dull edges still help
Some Gilsons they were demoing at a local resort a couple of years ago. I was laying tracks and then got on the Gilsons. No one told be about the “soft edge” so my experience was just slipping when trying to lay the ski on edge. Felt lifeless, stiff and loose.
Maybe my experience would be different now knowing about the base shape.
Quite possibly the heaviest, stiffest skis ever made. They were an absolute riot for blasting through crud and straightlining, I have never gone faster on skis in my life, but the second you decided to go into the trees they became terrifyingly difficult to drive.
Maybe someone stronger than me would have enjoyed them. I let a friend borrow them for a day and he felt the same way, actually too much speed. They were basically 2x4's
yeah those were made for blastin', no ifs ands or buts. i enjoyed the day i spent on a pair but yeah i was literally only straightlining chutes and dropping cliffs that day so they were totally in their element
Had a pair of no name k2 park skis out of a demo fleet as my fist pair of twin tips. Had a metal sheet tip to tail no flex and super heavy. There were no redeeming qualities for these skis
