Salomon Shoguns

A snowHead

Hey folks.
I've set myself on a pair of Shoguns for this season but my problem is what size to get.
I'm moving from a pair of crossmax 170 but intend to spend a lot more time off the groomers.
I was thinking about the 182s but am worried the extra 12 will catch me out on steeps and bumps.
I'm 5'8" but weigh in at 90kgs so my other thought is better to go longer for better float on powder days.
Any help or thoughts you guys can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Will

A snowHead

I think I skied the 192s at Hemel. See sticky thread above. They skied plenty short. At 90kgs you could handle a 182 I'd have thought.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Note: I DO SOME WORK FOR SALOMON

183 no bother to you as the first 350 mm are rockered meaning that on piste they dont touch the ground so on piste they will be more responsive and in the pow the will float like a dream I really Loved them when I tried them. If you are 70% or more off piste they are incredible.

Althought they do not suffer pussy skiers you have to ski them like a loon to get the best out of them but the rewards are awsome mine wiht the st16 are on the way Smile

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Dimensions look good similar to a lot of freeride skis out there at the moment time will tell if Salomon have got it right.
Yes, I would like a rockered ski of this size but have enough skis for this season!

Its a very different ski to the crossmax

You might also want to checkout (with my on paper comparison to the shogun).
Faction Alias similar dims and rockered tip. Parlor, who posts here a quite bit has skied them and rates them very highly.
From Whitedot freeride The Preacher fatter, no rocker, big wide tips, a bit more sidecut. www.whitedotfreeride.com
I bought the Preacher but still have to try them. By all accounts the Preacher is useable everywhere. I'm really looking forward to trying it in the trees.
HighSociety freeride FR which Spyderjon ( www.jonsskituning.co.uk/ ) has this years model at a very good price. Light, well made ski,similar dims no rocker, useable every where. I have skied a shorter HighSociety FR and it was very light lively and loads of fun. The 187cm is highly rated on and off piste it will be my touring ski this year.

I have no affiliation to any of the above other than being a happy customer of Spyderjon and Whitedot freeride.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Thanks for the comments! Put my mind at rest.
It is a big change from a crossmax but this will be my 3rd season since moving to Geneva and my ability and style has changed almost completely. I used to love hooning down a groomer as fast as but now I just want to stay well away.
Will be sure to check the Faction Alias and Whitedot Preacher but they'll have to be good to change my mindset

wink

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Will S, Just my opinion but if you are buying them untested I wouldn't be suckered in by the fact that they are made by Salomon therefore must be better than anything else. Lots of indie cos make good stuff but have nowhere near the marketing clout of Salomon. Having skied them my concern wouldn't be about the ski being any good but more durability focused as this is somewhere that Salomon have fallen short in the past.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

It is difficult to tell what sort of skiing you have done in terms of weeks and terrain. Forgive me if I am wrong but I have you down as an agressive fit guy with maybe a handful of weeks on snow..??? handful being upto 15 weeks ?

So, your trade will be in manageable skis in varying snow with easy quickish edging..?

A big fat platform comes into its own, IMV, when you let the skis run faster in deeper snow... but this is not always an easy thing to commit to . Still, it isn't going to kill you there, by any means..
If the rocker makes it a more manageable ski for you on-piste, then you might be on the right track, ie, it skis shorter, but you still need to be able to edge it.

If you can do this, it sounds like a good choice..

I would add that the only Sall ski, I have skied recently was the Fury which was on the right lines for what you appear to be after..so if in any way comparable, thern it is worth a look..

not sure that was any help.. Laughing

After all it is free

Just a general comment guys I was wondering about whitedot freeride now please correct me if I am wrong.

But this is the first maybe second year these skis have been on the market they have been made in realitvley small numbers by a totally new start up company and everytime I log on someone is recommending them?

Am I missing somthing in relation to this or is it just me that wonders about the fact that very few people will have tested these in a proper mountain setting and it is hard to know what their build quality etc will be like till they get a proper trashing for a season

Ordhan, I might not be the best person to post, but AFAIK the Whitedot Preachers are into their 2nd season, it is the other models that are newer.

I have used the Preachers in the fridge but would like to try them on the mounatin.... I found them very usable in the fridge and I don't think the width of them was an issue at all. I can't recall what lenght I was on..maybe 178 or so..which was kind of fair enough on a 200 mtr run or so..

As per build quality over a period of time, I don't know, but I have been VERY impressed with what else comes/came out of the UK stable, ie Vist and Icelantic skis, so if that is the benchmark, then have no worries, IMO.

If the Preacher was available to demo in the resort, I'd bite their hand-off

I do recall some comments about old skool/new skool stuff and since I tend to place the ski on edge rather than roll it, this wasn't so much an issue for me..
I like them..just want to try them out in context..

just my 2p...

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

JT, Thanks JT, Just want to know how so many people can reccomend them when only a handfull have had them in proper conditions and how people can comment on build quality when in reality it is an unknown right now.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Ordhan, Its a fair point. I handled some Whitedots in the flesh and build and finish quality looked pretty good to me as do the Storms. But you're right there is no real consumer data to stand behind on durability. This is why Andrew (& Storm's Andy) want to get stock out there this season which is their first year of real production I imagine. But I know if there's a warranty problem on Whitedots I could pick up the phone and talk to the boss and the designer and he'd probably welcome the feedback.

Other ski boutique businesses in the US there have had the usual teething problems like production delays, some quality issues etc but seem to have weathered the storms by standing behind their product. OK it might not be a lot of comfort to you if you're caught in the middle of a multi day backcountry tour by ski failure but there's few of us that badly affected.

To my mind big ski business does stuff like race skis very well then everything else is demographically marketed and has to be priced to leave margin for the distributor and retailer as well as covering the marketing budget . This is not to say their kit is poor - I've never met anyone who hasn't rated Dynastar's high end freeride skis for instance and e.g. Salomon and K2 are to be applauded for bringing fat skis & new shapes (X scream/ 1080/ Public Enemy// Launcher etc) to the masses. From personal experience I know that highly priced gear from the leading brand does not equate to most durability e.g. shocking durability of Burton snowboard boots in the past.

The Shogun seemed like a fine ski to me but I bet its been carefully costed and built to a price point and that they know 100+ day skiers aren't their target market.

I think to be fair there is probably a bit of a hangover of prejudice in my mind from when Salomon went wholesale into the foam core/monocoque (read cheap) construction and like all ski (& indeed tech) geeks I'm more inclined to new and potentially cool stuff than the Ford Fiesta bread & butter type stuff.

snow reports

Ordhan, It's a fair point. IMO In general when you buy any ski you take a chance on this regardless who makes it. Models and materials change every year.
Good build quality is something the small manufacturers cant afford to skimp on. If a batch of skis fall apart they are out of business where a bigger manufacturer could absorb this better.
From what I see most skis are robust. The ones we hear about delaminating here have been some of the most popular skis from the bigger manufacturers (two recent winners of ski of the year). So is it just that there are more of them out there? Or is it just that there were some bad batches? Or did they suffer impact damage? The other thing of interest is what kind of customer support was offered in these instances? Its all been dealt with in the appropriate threads (These were some of the issues raised I don't want to start the debate again here).

Build quality of most products is determined by the materials used and manufacturing process and the quality control associated with it. So making a robust product wont come down too chance but rather design and using processes already known to work well. Many of the small companies are getting their skis made at existing ski factories, who's processes are producing lots of robust skis and boards already. Whitedot do take a lot of pride in using the best of materials and high manufacturing standards. Having bought a number of items from Andrew at Whitedot he is the type to stand over his product. The people who have skied them have skied them hard (harder than I ever will Crying or Very sad

) and they have done a lot of testing before hitting the market.
The first thing that struck me about the Whitedots was the bases and they were definitely different to other skis I have. Also when I base prep waxed them I did a hot scrape and the cleaning wax came off spotlessly clean first time this indicates a good attention to detail in the finishing as a lot of new skis will need a couple of passes to clear this out of the bases.

Whitedot is a company which has grown in the full view of their customer base, have kept people informed as they developed and have even had pre-production skis reviewed along the way. I've been following their progress I like what they are doing. I'm going with my gut instincts and on liking what I hear from them and from handling their products. I think buying them is no higher risk than any other ski. I'm putting my money where my mouth is and I'm going to have 2 pairs of Whitedots this year and will be skiing them most days this season I will know how good they are by the end.

Faction skis, as recommended by RPF, appear to be BOMBER on the basis that Parlor has pairs which have lasted him for more than a season

You know it makes sense.

Thanks guys, great comments! Good thread!

FatBob, I'm with you on the quality of the gear. My crossmaxs have served me well for 3 years now but I rented a brand new pair of Lords at the end of last season with a view to buying them and after 1 day the laminate was coming off. I cross my skies but not that much!
That was a shame really though cos I thought they were pretty impressive in terms of how stable they were on piste when I was really gunning them. Only once did I almost pop out of a turn! Made me slow down for sure!
JT, you're pretty close to the money
wink

I'm a very aggressive skier on piste but off piste I'm more of a pussy and probably have about 15-18 weeks under my belt. I'm not counting the days up to Glenshee from college!
I have rented a shoebox in Morzine for the season this year so hope to up my days significantly!

I read that the Shoguns are quite forgiving when you skid out of a turn which got me to thinking that they could be quite useful when I start bottling it at speed.

I admit it's a bad thing to just buy before I try and I am going to try to hang on till the ski testing in Avoriaz but it's hard! I'm just getting so excited already. Just want to get the season under way and window shopping for new planks just makes it feel like it's almost here!

Help!!

Salomon Shoguns

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