At 5'10" and 250+ lbs. I am bigger than most and consider myself to be a pretty good skier. Most of my days are spent at Perfect North Slopes just aoutside Cincinnati in southeast indiana. I had been in the market for a short turn oriented ski and was looking at mostly slalom race skis but the thought of being on something that demanding was a bit of a turn off. When I stopped buying race skis 10 years ago I swore I'd never own another. I was excited when I saw the email from DPS with the details on their new ski. The 12.5 meter seemed to fit the bill for what I wanted and I have loved the DPS skis I've owned in the past. They arrived last week and I was eager to pull them out of the box and put them to use. I had DPS mount a pair of Look Pivot 12s at the time of purchase. The relatively soft flex of the ski did make a bit nervous but I kept reminding myself they aren't race skis.
My first chance was Saturday afternoon while skiing with my 5 year old son. While it it didn't give me a chance to test the performance limits it did give a chance to test the ease of use. They were perfectly happy making slow speed maneuvers on an easy blue run . Sunday morning gave me a chance to really put them use. We are in the middle of freeze thaw cycle and the temps ranged from the upper 30s at the bottom in the morning to near 50 later the in the day. The snow was soft and wet with less than stellar grooming. It didn't take me long to realize its been a long time since I've skied anything with that short of a turn radius. Within few runs I was getting a feel for how they liked to be skied but I also figured out that the plus side of not being a race ski is that they we OK with varying the turn shape and even a bit of "slarving" when needed. The light weight of the ski makes them very easy to toss around and I look forward to skiing them in some bumps and on firmer snow. The only real downside I've found so far is that they are a bit twitchy and nervous if you try to let them run straight, particularly on rough snow.
My first chance was Saturday afternoon while skiing with my 5 year old son. While it it didn't give me a chance to test the performance limits it did give a chance to test the ease of use. They were perfectly happy making slow speed maneuvers on an easy blue run . Sunday morning gave me a chance to really put them use. We are in the middle of freeze thaw cycle and the temps ranged from the upper 30s at the bottom in the morning to near 50 later the in the day. The snow was soft and wet with less than stellar grooming. It didn't take me long to realize its been a long time since I've skied anything with that short of a turn radius. Within few runs I was getting a feel for how they liked to be skied but I also figured out that the plus side of not being a race ski is that they we OK with varying the turn shape and even a bit of "slarving" when needed. The light weight of the ski makes them very easy to toss around and I look forward to skiing them in some bumps and on firmer snow. The only real downside I've found so far is that they are a bit twitchy and nervous if you try to let them run straight, particularly on rough snow.
