05 October 2004

No snow? No problem
Now back in my native Wales the testing of skis goes on. Ok, we don't have any snow here at the moment and we rarely get enough to ski, so time to look to the alternatives.

The skis needed to be tested on any skiable surface. It's too cold to go swimming in the sea and I don't fancy trying to swim with ski boots on so water is out of the question. Slate slag heaps destroy metal trays when you try sledging on them, this is supposed to be a skiability and durability not a destruction test hence no slate pile skiing. In this part of the world that leaves dry slopes, sand and grass.

Dendrix v sand
Dry slope skiing on these skis was utterly predictable and rather boring. Due to their huge width they are not a slalom ski by any means but being rather light for their size they are reasonably quick from edge to edge and turn quite well. The skis performed the way the would on very firm but not icy snow...if it did anything different I would have been surprised.

Sand, first you have to find it, for me in North Wales not too much of a problem. On the isle of Anglesey there is lots of shoreline with dunes. Ok the dunes weren't massive but enough to get a few turns in. I've tried this before on old straight narrow skis, turning can be quite an effort. Not with 99 mm underfoot and nice hard extra large edges. I managed to cut deep reasonably controlled furrows in the dune as opposed to semi controlled falling of my previous attempt.

Piste pasture
Grass.....yup there's lots of it here in sheep country. But not wanting to incur a farmer's wrath or hit rocks (of which there are lots on the fields of hill farms). I skied on a large grassed over dune instead. The grass proved to be slipperier than I thought. Normally grass skiing is done with contraptions with wheels or tracks on them to roll over the grass not slide on it.

These planks have Ptex 4000 bases which are harder than the more common Ptex 2000 bases on most skis and boards and therefore slide quite well on grass. I found edge control quite a bit tougher on the tough grass than slicing into the dunes but managed to stay on my feet and not end up in a pile at the bottom. The Bro Models performed as expected on the Dry Slope, better than expected on sand and survived my grass skiing antics.

At the end of the day they are showing no visible signs of damage, just a little muck and a few bits of greenery stuck in the bindings! I hope to get a chance to give these planks a test in some really deep snow next.....then again it could end up being ice!

Report from Tom Greenall - Natives Senior R esort Reporter

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