While I have been quite pleased with my current park skis (read the Salomon 1080 CR Lab review for more information), I have been looking for some more versatility for my alpine “park” skis too. This meaning that as I am getting  older and more cautious I am no longer hitting the icy stuff and need a ski that can also be used to comfortably cruise the the groomers when needed.

In my opinion the problem with the center mounted park skis is the lack of versatility that comes with the park/jib optimized stance. While you can somehow get used to the long ski tail and centered binding location, it still doesn’t feel like it should to an old schooler like me. On the other hand you could buy some real carving skis and be happy with even more skis in the “quiver” (yeah, like I need some more skis, see below. And sorry about the crappy mobile phone pictures this time). Anyway, modern twin tips are pretty good all mountain skis after all, so in a way it all comes down to the mounting point: for cruising/all mountain the more “traditional mount” works the best and for jumps and any jibs it’s the center mount that just rules, even more so if you land and hit stuff switch.

One solution to the above mentioned problem could be the so called rental/demo bindings, which can be moved  few centimeters along the ski. But for the expert/advanced skier they come with a trade-off; they are heavy, quite high off the ski and often come with a little bit of “slop”, affecting the feel and touch of the skis.

Enter Marker’s new SchizoFrantic line: low stack height, beefy freeride bindings with the ability to move the binding six centimeters along the ski, very clever solution for the skier just like me. And luckily web shop Suksikauppa.com gave us a test pair of Marker Jester SchizoFrantic bindings for a long time test use. And with the bindings came some pretty cool sticks too: a pair of 179cm K2 Extreme skis. Nice all mountain skis with measurements of 118-85-109mm (tip-middle-tail) and very cool “hot dog” graphics of skiers doing classic daffies, spreads and mule kicks (how cool is that for an old school mogul guy like me? I have to say I have been drooling at this particular ski model for a long time!)

We are planning to give this test pair a good beating on the local mole hills, including some moguls, park jumps, groomers and maybe some pressure boxes/rails too. And I am more than willing to lend the pair to some friend who wants to test the combo on some bigger hills too (if I don’t get the opportunity to do that myself). I guess Scandinavian Lapland/Mountains would be quite perfect for the set-up: just change the mounting point for the different use, off-piste, slopes, park.

Stay tuned for some test result in the upcoming weeks. We are pretty stoked to take these skis out to the slopes as soon as possible. I will also post some more pics when the binding mount is finished.

Big thanks to Sakke Ekman of Suksikauppa.com (Finnish) – be sure to check out the different country/national versions of the shop too:

http://www.skidbutiken.com (Sweden)

http://www.skishopen.com (Norway)

http://www.skishoppen.com (Denmark)

http://www.skiwebkauf.com (Germany and Austria)

These shops specialize in freeride skis, so you will find plenty of models that don’t necessarily belong to the assortment of your local sport shop. The deal includes binding mounting too, if you want to, and there is some great, good-value offers of different binding/ski combinations. We can highly recommend the shop and we have also heard some pretty good feedback on their accuracy of delivery and good service.