Few weeks ago we got a new test pair, K2 Extreme 179cm, from www.suksikauppa.com for a long time ski test. It took a few weeks before I got the binding mount done and finally got to give the ski/binding combination some real action.

What got our initial interest in this particular ski-binding combination was that we wanted to know whether the 6cm fore-aft adjustable Jester SchizoFrantic and 85mm wide in the middle K2 Extreme would be the true do-it all combo for our conditions. Basically we were looking for a solid performance in all park, moguls, (often icy) groomers and the occasional softer run here and there.

Many people swear for around 100mm middle skis for all-day every condition skiing but you gotta remember here we ski a lot of icy man-made snow conditions (think East Coast USA), small hills, moguls and tight runs in the woods if the snow allows.  At least for me the best middle-width of a ski for all this have been around 85-90mm –  it still floats some in the soft snow but you are not offering too much of a performance in the park or hard groomers, or even moguls if you are not interested in the competition level zipper-line skiing.

Skiing pictures in this post by Juha Roivainen.

K2 Extreme – A true all mountain machine?

The extreme has a measurements of 118-85-109mm. It has a fir core and standard taper – meaning the ski, while having twin tip, is still meant to be more directional than a true park ski. K2 states on their site that the performance of the ski is aimed at 60% park, 40% powder. They also give this statement in the site “Emulate PK Hunder’s double cork 1080 or just bust out some of the ol’ moves on the topsheet. Either way, we’ll be proud. Keep it Extreme”.

From the above line I got the idea for this test day. While I can no longer call my self as a 100% ”new school skier” or “park rider”, I can easily take the latter role of busting some of the old school moves and then we  can always “hire” some of our younger friends that really know their moves in the park to “emulate PK Hunder”, or at least represent the hardcore park skiers. Well, Miika Rissanen that helped us for the test might not be as good as PK but I guess he knows his stuff well enough to tell the difference (see the pictures!)

Miika Rissanen, classic crossed 540 tail grab, Serena, Finland

Marker Jester SchizoFrantic - Six centimeters of adjustability, from powder to new school

Marker Jester SchizoFrantic is a new type of binding that allows the skier to adjust his/her binding location on the ski six centimeters fore-aft. While this has been possible earlier with the so called demo-bindings (used for ski demos and rental skis), earlier all the solutions have been both quite high off the ski (generally not good for freeride or park) and/or offering a bit of “slop” in the system. In other words not offering 100% performance for the dedicated skier.

Jester Schizo system has a clever solution of keeping the stack height low through adjustability made by the steel wire that moves the binding along the two-piece thin plate on the ski (see the picture above). This solution won’t put you any higher than probably 2-3mm more compared to a  ”traditional” binding bolted straight to the ski. On the slopes when you click to the binding it feels like all the other Marker Freeride models, like e.g. the Marker Duke binding I’ve liked so far quite a lot.

The new schooler’s opinion -  Miika Rissanen’s take on the K2 Extreme and Marker Jester SchizoFrantic combination

Before I go to the Miika’s notes from the test day I have to admit one thing: I probably made a slight mistake when mounting the bindings. Www.suksikauppa.com provided the mounting but we chatted a few words about the placement and I decided an adjustability range on the ski from “traditional” (or zero) mark to +6cm. (Note that this was the version of the ski without the pre-drilled inserts for the SchizoFrantic system)

Miika would have liked even more forward position of the binding, from +7,5 (core center) to even 1-2cm front of that. While I like more traditional binding placement, my first impression was that for this ski I could have put the whole system a few cm’s more forward – the K2′s traditional mark seems way too far back for anything else than maybe deep powder (but this ski isn’t the best option for that anyway). We’ll see how it works later when we got to ski some more outside of the park but for now we consider remounting the whole system a few more centimeters forward in the near future.

Miika getting EXTREME (cork 720 I guess)

But let’s move on to the Miika’s comments. Here are some of his thoughts:

“The good old Extreme. It hasn’t changed that much from the last year (08/09)”

“The ski is stable, damp and on the stiff side – Probably aimed a bit more for an all mountain use than a pure park and jibbing. On the back seated landings the ski did some great damping though -saved me from some hurting!”

“Frankly, on the little jibs and bonks the weight is quite depressing compared to my own park skis (Armada AR6s + Salomon bindings) – you loose a lot of fun factor in the smaller tricks and jibs”

“The binding is suprisingly low weight and pretty flat on the ski, despite the six centimeters adjustability range. And otherwise Jester felt pretty good too – the long time durability  raises some questions. I wonder how long it would last in my use? I’d say for 100% park use I wouldn’t buy the binding, for powder/all-mountain skis probably yes”

“Even on park skis fresh edges are a nice thing to have. New and stable ski with sharp edges provided some solid take-offs and landings, eventhough I would have liked the bindings mounted still some three-four centimeters more forward”

Miika on his own park skis, feeling comfortable – spinning corked and grabbing his ski tail

Janne’s comments – old mogul skier’s view on K2 Extreme/Marker Jester SchizoFrantic

As said, I can’t call my self a pure park skier or “new schooler”. I still like to hit kickers when the conditions allow though. These days I hesitate from the biggest booters but can do the basic stuff on the middle size hits. Otherwise I’d say that I am fairly strong all-mountain skier that can ski pretty much everywhere and in every conditions (Height/weight: 184cm (~6feet) 83kg (~160lbs), some 29 years of skiing experience, mogul back ground).

Here are some of my opinions:

Pros

Feels stable and solid. More of a “real ski” feeling than on your typical park ski. Gives you nice control and damp feel on the snow. The bindings add to that feel – Jester feels as good as any old, trusty race binding out there

Typical K2, reminds me a lot of my old 04/05 green Seth Pistols. Some hate the K2 feel, some love it. I gotta admit I am a fan of it too

As Miika stated, dampens the landings VERY well. (The difference was huge to my current park skis – Salomon 1080 CR Labs)

179cm is more of like a 185cm in other manufacturers’ scale (another typical thing for K2) – I liked that, because originally I was even interested on the 184cm version, “short skis suck, long skis truck”…

Jester SchizoFrantic adjustability is a very good option for a skier like me (or if you don’t want to hassle with big “quiver”)

Very cool graphics in my opinion

Rocket a.k.a. “Plake’s grab”, giving the test an old school twist

Cons

Not that much “pop” and liveliness in the ski, feels a bit planky

No rocker (can be a good thing too) (A side note: K2 is putting rocker to almost all of the line-up next year! And the Extreme is discontinued, instead there are three models around 85-90mm width, one symmetrical park ski, two aimed at more all-mountain, and all three with varying degree of rocker)

Jester Schizo boot sole lenght adjustability was a bit of a hassle (it is not a demo binding after all, you gotta remember that though)

The mini-tool (see the pic below) that comes with the binding is pretty useless if the binding/adjustability screw has any snow accumulation on it at all, you have to use an ordinary  Philips head screwdriver – not a big deal but just for the info

Other notes

Jester SchizoFrantic system’s long-time durability remains to be seen

To be continued…

Ok, that was it for now. I will write some more when I get to ski some moguls and groomers, giving a perspective of how the K2 Extreme turns and behaves at speed. Before that big thanks again to Sakke Ekman of www.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.