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Last spring I got a chance to do Armada JJ ski review in Ramundberget ski resort, Sweden. I tested Armada JJ skis on various platforms, and here’s my take on this interesting skis. If you wish, check here first basic information of the reviewer.

Armada JJ has tip and tail rocker but normal camber and sidecut on the middle of the ski

I wrote an overview of the rockered skis in the beginning of the season 07/08. The one pair of skis that immediately caught my attention back then was the Armada JJ. I believed in the concept of negative camber and even sidecut from the beginning but somehow couldn’t see me skiing the variable Euro conditions on a so called reverse-reverse ski like Praxis Powders regularly (or the original Volant Spatula designed by late Shane McConkey himself). This is especially case nowadays when I can’t have the luxury of longer ski trips – the reality is that when you’re on a week or two long trip the weather can be anything. And I don’t like to drag multiple pairs of skis to the shorter holidays anyway.

This review is about the Armada JJ model 2008-2009 but the ski is essentially the same for the coming 2009-2010 season. I guess Armada pretty much nailed it the first time with this ski. The ski has an interesting five dimension sidecut: 126-136-115-133-121 mm, “the ski within a ski” design as Armada calls it. The rocker profile has similar tricks with Armada’s clever “Elf shoe” technology – the idea is that you have some conventional sidecut and camber under your feet but the tips and tails of the ski are rockered and also heavily tapered, meaning the widest part of the ski tip has been moved significantly further back on the ski than on your normal piste carvers (and the same goes for the tail of the ski also).

Skiing the Armada JJ – Tree skiing made even more fun than before

The one thing that comes to mind first when thinking about the JJ is versatility – and this meaning versatility especially in different kind of off-piste conditions. The skis do surprisingly fine on the hard pack and prepared slopes but in my opinion the shape comes alive when you enter natural snow conditions and variable forms of features to play with. The thing with rocker ski is its ability to “slash and slide” and do it also very quickly when needed – and where you need this kind of character is the natural terrain: trees, chutes, so called tricky snow etc. The ski also lets you to get much more playful on the features – rollers, natural half pipes, bumps and so on…

I couldn’t get the opportunity to ski the JJs on real, deep powder but can say they do very well from “dust on crust“ to very heavy spring snow. I had the luck to ski perfect spring corn snow in some relatively tight glades and I guess the ski was in its element right there. Almost any ski is good on that kind of snow but JJs boosted my confidence in the terms of knowing that I can slap the skis sideways in a microsecond when needed and the edge just wouldn’t catch but make a controlled, smooth drift. This is a lot of fun in tight trees; you end up testing how fast you can go without scaring yourself death!

Rocker ski like Armada JJ helps the skier in difficult conditions

I also skied few runs on a very heavy, “rotten” spring snow. My snowboarder friend was having trouble with his quite long and traditionally cambered, stiff freeride board, whereas I could make some remotely decent turns. The feeling was very funny, I ended up skiing like in a slow motion film because the snow was so sticky – not the most pleasant feeling but in this kind of snow I’ve always been scared for my knees before, now I felt to be in control instead. I guess the so called reverse-reverse ski would be even better for this kind of snow though. (The real question is why not rather instead go have a beer and maybe do a few steezy old school daffies in the park , heh).

Some people have complained that for the real tough big mountain skiing the JJs have too much sidecut and have maybe a tad too soft tips and tails. This might be true for real straight-lining, big hucking guys (or girls) but I guess for others it is all about the personal preference. For my use, the long turns were just fine. The sidecut is only present in the so short section of the ski middle that you won’t have the ski feeling too turny or “hooky” in any sense, and the rocker eliminates this completely anyway.

This type of ski, like the Atomic Bent Chetler I tested last season, has mad pop too. The combination of rockered tails and relatively stiff, cambered middle makes you feel like if you had some kind of springs on your feet. Some people have not liked this feature but for an old mogul skier like me this is pure joy. The skis even work pretty well on soft park hits, even though this is not a light set-up (especially with the Marker Dukes I have on them). The so called swing-weight is still relatively low because of the heavily tapered shape (backcountry freestylers take note!).

The negative?

The Armada JJ is clearly a soft snow ski despite its versatility. Once the soft snow melts and starts to re-freeze to uneven crud the tips and tails of the ski start to slap wildly at higher speeds. When (or if) you stay on the middle and be sharp this probably won’t totally drag you but here you will discover the negatives of the short effective edge and feel like if you were on a very short ski, after all. The 195cm or even the manly 200cm version wouldn’t be overkill for bigger skiers and/or for real big mountain use. Rossignol already has the 195cm “Super S7”, so I guess Armada should also step up here?

Hard moguls are not JJ’s strong point either – this can’t be a surprise to anyone. Anyhow, soft and loose, uneven moguls are pretty fun. This is where you can choose any possible turn type and use all kind of combination between pure carve and a total sideways slide. Again, one could state that it beats the office hours at least…

I didn’t ski any real bad breakable crud on these skis. This is probably where the real challenge comes, if the JJs can handle this stuff then the concept is a winner in my mind. I’ll report once I “get” to ski this kind of snow next time (And by the way, please let me know if you’ve already tried it!).

The Summary – Armada JJ is a great ski for a playful skier that seeks for powder but has to encounter all kinds of conditions

A ski that is rockered both at the tails and tips is actually pretty demanding when it comes to fore/aft stability of the skier. If you know what you’re doing and keep your weight centered, the ski will serve you and you will be rewarded with an ability to control your skis that might not have been familiar to you earlier. Anyway, the rocker (especially in the tail) can lead the skier to trouble too. I’ve found that old school “jetting” (moving your weight towards the back of the ski in the end of the turn) is pretty much a no-no. All kinds of lazy back seat turns will be a quest for trouble also. “Vtdownhiller” from TGR forums put this neatly when reviewing some other rocker skis, calling this feature “autobackseat”:

The key to first time reverse/reverse skiing is to ski them weight forward, aggressive stance and keep pressure in on the front of your boot, the fatter width under foot the more “smearing” you have to do….the tips won’t dive, so you have to stay forward to keep from getting the backseat because the skis want to jet out ahead of you…the Moments are a little easier to get to used to because of the flat spot under the foot, continuous rockers allow a more pivot style of skiing…

The JJs won’t do this in an exaggerated manner but on the contrary to first intuition they are quite demanding skis after all. This meaning they will be easy to ski and help anyone to ski difficult conditions but if you really want to get the benefits of the design you will have to know how to ski properly too. And I guess that to an extent this holds true for all rockered skis.