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AmyPJ

Skiing the powder
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I picked up a pair of these and have skied them in just about everything at both Snowbasin and Sun Valley. They are FANTASTIC. Every time I ski them, I proclaim; "Holy cow, I LOVE these skis!" I used to second guess which pair to bring to the hill: Black Pearl 88, Sheeva 9, Sheeva 10, Volkl Secret. Well, that doesn't happen any more. I even had my Santa Ana 100s out in powder last week, and switched to the Santa Ana 88s because the powder was dense, and I preferred the way they handled and felt in the dense snow compared to the 100s. (I own the pre-2018 version of the Sana Ana 100s, so they have no metal and get deflected easily in dense snow.)

If I had to describe these skis, I'd say Black Pearls married Kenjas and had the Santa Ana 88. They have the ease of the Black Pearls with the stability and grip and power of the Kenjas, but without the ass-kicking the Kenjas can deliver.
 
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VickiK

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That is some parentage analogy, @AmyPJ ! They're new, so no discounts likely for a while.

@Tricia it bears repeating, congratulations on being recognized by Nordica as a key influencer in women's ski gear!!
 

sinbad7

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After skiing them for Pugski testing last week, I can concur. They are FANTASTIC. I personally found them to be VERY playful, but when I was able to open them up, yowza! Fun without the serious side of say, my Volkls.

Was that at Alpine Meadows? A friend of mine sent me a photo of a pair of the protos at the base of Alpine a few weeks back. I thought it must have been Tricia but then realised she was at the gathering that week,

Just starting to wax skis and get ready down here.
 
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Tricia

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Was that at Alpine Meadows? A friend of mine sent me a photo of a pair of the protos at the base of Alpine a few weeks back. I thought it must have been Tricia but then realised she was at the gathering that week,

Just starting to wax skis and get ready down here.
The Nordica Rep had a few Protos to distribute in the region for influential women in the area.
He actually reached out to me to get me a pair but Nordica had already reached out to me directly. :D
 

Dasingttsnow

In the parking lot (formerly "At the base lodge")
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How would you compare these to the Secret? I ski mainly East Coast and was considering the Secret until I read about the SA88s.
 

AmyPJ

Skiing the powder
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How would you compare these to the Secret? I ski mainly East Coast and was considering the Secret until I read about the SA88s.
I own both, so I'll try to answer. The Secret is quite a bit less forgiving. Both are really fun in soft snow and powder. The SA88 has fantastic grip on hard snow that rivals the Secret, but it has a more playful feel to it. I can relax on the SA, I cannot relax on the Secret. If you are a Volkl lover, then you'll probably love the Secret. But, you'll probably also love the SA88 because it has the stability of the Volkl, with added ease and playfulness that the Volkl lacks.
 
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Its been a while since I bumped this thread, while there is some discussion going on over in the @SkiEssentials review of the Santa Ana 88.
Since March, I have gotten a bunch of days on this as well as a few other 88's and would put this one in the top two of my favorite 88 waisted skis, each for slightly different reasons. The Santa Ana 88 just loves moguls, carves nice on groomers, charges steeps and floats darn well when there's a little spring crud or powder. Look for a cage match soon. ;)

In addition to my personal time on the Santa Ana 88 Proto, I have shared it with several different women who have had some fun and exciting feedback.

First, Pugski Reviewer and fellow influencer @SkiNurse
I was able to get on these during the May gathering in Colorado. What a great ski! Did anything I wanted: steep, groomed, bumps, trees and several inches of fresh.
fullsizeoutput_76e2-jpeg.72649


Recently, from a mini gathering at Mammoth. I think @Keys2Ski found a new love, or at least a new lust ;)

I tried these out at mammoth end of May/beginning of June. They were great in spring conditions. And I took them all over the mountain for multiple days. They were my go to ski that weekend with the choice of liberty vmt82(second choice), dps 79 trainer and head wild joy ( way too light for me)

Santa Ana 88. 165
5’2” 125lbs
IMG_1169.JPG
 

AmyPJ

Skiing the powder
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I still say they are kind of a marriage in feeling between a BP 88 and a Kenja, both which are great skis in their own right but didn't resonate with some skiers. There's something about the SA shape, too, that just works, even in powder:

I skied my SA 88s on several legit powder days and they were awesome in it. I think the shape being the same as the wider SAs which are very much powder-centric makes these very easy to maneuver in powder, even being narrower. If you are someone who craves being IN the snow in powder, or are someone like me who just doesn't care for wider skis in general except for in deep powder, these are truly a fantastic 80% ski--you'll ski them 80% of your days in just about any conditions and have fun doing it. I have yet to ski on or own a ski that made me smile in every condition I skied them in like these do. I bought mind in mid-February and skied them probably 50 days after that, and never found conditions I didn't like them in.
 

laine

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Its been a while since I bumped this thread, while there is some discussion going on over in the @SkiEssentials review of the Santa Ana 88.
Since March, I have gotten a bunch of days on this as well as a few other 88's and would put this one in the top two of my favorite 88 waisted skis, each for slightly different reasons. The Santa Ana 88 just loves moguls, carves nice on groomers, charges steeps and floats darn well when there's a little spring crud or powder. Look for a cage match soon. ;)

I'm assuming that's the Mindbender 88? ;)

Looking forward to reading that cage match.
 

peterm

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Another data point: my wife (5'11) demoed the Enforcer 88 (172s) recently and liked them, quite a lot in fact. Unfortunately they didn't have the Santa Ana in her length. I'd be curious to hear from anyone who has skied both the Santa Ana 88 and Enforcer 88.
 

markojp

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Haven't skied both but the construction is the same, and I'd guess they use a slightly different wood selection in the core composite. A bit softer, but not a lot. Skis care about simple physics, not gender. It's not unusual at all for taller/stronger/heavier women to happily choose from the men's side of the aisle. If she liked the men's ski, you're done shopping. ogsmile
 
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Analisa

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Another data point: my wife (5'11) demoed the Enforcer 88 (172s) recently and liked them, quite a lot in fact. Unfortunately they didn't have the Santa Ana in her length. I'd be curious to hear from anyone who has skied both the Santa Ana 88 and Enforcer 88.

I've talked to the reps about the men's & women's differences for the existing widths (93, 100, 110) during a demo day (to determine if I needed to demo both) - they said I probably wouldn't notice a difference between the two. I ski the 110 in a 169, and it's pretty great to be able to pick whichever's cheapest or have options for topsheets.
 

skiki

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As far as topsheets go, I loved how the SA 88 at a demo day last year and they had a regular topsheet there that day and the proto. If I had my pick, I would definitely go for the proto topsheet over the regular.
 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Just ordered the 2020 Santa Ana @165cm for $509.99 total, no tax and free shipping included.

I'd been commenting over the last couple years on buying an all mountain women's midfat that has been the hole in my 3 ski quiver for several years now and that has kept me from much interest in skiing all mountain terrain.

My 2012 Rossy S7 @173cm at 110mm at the boot, are superb bouncy soft fresh powder skis, but not fun in junk or older metamorphosized untracked snow, just ok on groomers, and way too heavy for backcountry skinning.

My short Scott The Ski @155cm at 89mm at the boot are excellent in up to footish depth powder, and intended for backcountry powder skinning because they are super light. They are just ok in bumps and can be fun on groomed.

Most ski days am skiing bumps with my 2011 Twisters @168cm at 65mm at boot and they are also much short turn fun on groomed and skier packed powder. But they are a poor tool in fresh snow more than a few inches deep and get jacked around in any junk snow.

I had not seriously expected to buy any skis this season despite an interest, much less during this holiday period. When Wendy opened her thread to sell her Hart F17 mogul skis, I added a less than serious comment of interest that provoked revisiting my midfat dilemma spending a few hours on the web this morning reviewing through all the current midfats of interest. Many ski models are reviewed inconsistently across the various web sites or between different reviewers even on the same site, so one needs to be careful believing single reviewer comments and instead look through as many online reviews as one might find.

Two reasons that occurs is snow conditions during testing may be limited and lighter testers may be on longer than optimal length, available demo skis. As a small male of 135#, I tend to trust what women reviewers have to say more than men. So thank you Tricia and Amy. The 2020 SA's are priced at $599.99 everywhere on the web. However some online retail shops are of course offering special holiday discounts as well as free shipping. So after much poking about found one with a 15% discount over these last few days before Christmas. I do still need to select and buy (cheap) bindings and get them mounted so will do that locally after they arrive next year.
 

AmyPJ

Skiing the powder
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Just ordered the 2020 Santa Ana @165cm for $509.99 total, no tax and free shipping included.

I'd been commenting over the last couple years on buying an all mountain women's midfat that has been the hole in my 3 ski quiver for several years now and that has kept me from much interest in skiing all mountain terrain.

My 2012 Rossy S7 @173cm at 110mm at the boot, are superb bouncy soft fresh powder skis, but not fun in junk or older metamorphosized untracked snow, just ok on groomers, and way too heavy for backcountry skinning.

My short Scott The Ski @155cm at 89mm at the boot are excellent in up to footish depth powder, and intended for backcountry powder skinning because they are super light. They are just ok in bumps and can be fun on groomed.

Most ski days am skiing bumps with my 2011 Twisters @168cm at 65mm at boot and they are also much short turn fun on groomed and skier packed powder. But they are a poor tool in fresh snow more than a few inches deep and get jacked around in any junk snow.

I had not seriously expected to buy any skis this season despite an interest, much less during this holiday period. When Wendy opened her thread to sell her Hart F17 mogul skis, I added a less than serious comment of interest that provoked revisiting my midfat dilemma spending a few hours on the web this morning reviewing through all the current midfats of interest. Many ski models are reviewed inconsistently across the various web sites or between different reviewers even on the same site, so one needs to be careful believing single reviewer comments and instead look through as many online reviews as one might find.

Two reasons that occurs is snow conditions during testing may be limited and lighter testers may be on longer than optimal length, available demo skis. As a small male of 135#, I tend to trust what women reviewers have to say more than men. So thank you Tricia and Amy. The 2020 SA's are priced at $599.99 everywhere on the web. However some online retail shops are of course offering special holiday discounts as well as free shipping. So after much poking about found one with a 15% discount over these last few days before Christmas. I do still need to select and buy (cheap) bindings and get them mounted so will do that locally after they arrive next year.
That's awesome! They will do everything you say above that you are looking for them to do. Report back after you ski them.
 
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Tricia

Tricia

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Just ordered the 2020 Santa Ana @165cm for $509.99 total, no tax and free shipping included.

I'd been commenting over the last couple years on buying an all mountain women's midfat that has been the hole in my 3 ski quiver for several years now and that has kept me from much interest in skiing all mountain terrain.

My 2012 Rossy S7 @173cm at 110mm at the boot, are superb bouncy soft fresh powder skis, but not fun in junk or older metamorphosized untracked snow, just ok on groomers, and way too heavy for backcountry skinning.

My short Scott The Ski @155cm at 89mm at the boot are excellent in up to footish depth powder, and intended for backcountry powder skinning because they are super light. They are just ok in bumps and can be fun on groomed.

Most ski days am skiing bumps with my 2011 Twisters @168cm at 65mm at boot and they are also much short turn fun on groomed and skier packed powder. But they are a poor tool in fresh snow more than a few inches deep and get jacked around in any junk snow.

I had not seriously expected to buy any skis this season despite an interest, much less during this holiday period. When Wendy opened her thread to sell her Hart F17 mogul skis, I added a less than serious comment of interest that provoked revisiting my midfat dilemma spending a few hours on the web this morning reviewing through all the current midfats of interest. Many ski models are reviewed inconsistently across the various web sites or between different reviewers even on the same site, so one needs to be careful believing single reviewer comments and instead look through as many online reviews as one might find.

Two reasons that occurs is snow conditions during testing may be limited and lighter testers may be on longer than optimal length, available demo skis. As a small male of 135#, I tend to trust what women reviewers have to say more than men. So thank you Tricia and Amy. The 2020 SA's are priced at $599.99 everywhere on the web. However some online retail shops are of course offering special holiday discounts as well as free shipping. So after much poking about found one with a 15% discount over these last few days before Christmas. I do still need to select and buy (cheap) bindings and get them mounted so will do that locally after they arrive next year.
I was reading your signature and thinking, Hmmmm, his stats are about the same as mine. I bet we could ski similar skis.

That being said, you said you need to buy cheap bindings.... Please don't go too cheap on the bindings. It really does matter.
I'll be happy to give you ideas and suggestions.
 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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On an old thread where you were testing newer model Lange RS110SC boots, we also found out besides similar weight/height our boot lengths are close enough around 300mm that we could likely swap out our skis on slope as is.

As for binding advice, thanks again Tricia, I value your experienced knowledgeable inputs. Outside of safety, I've never been aware of reasons for more expensive bindings for the kind of rec skiing I do, and don't have experience on what benefits such might offer. Amazingly, apparently the shop has already shipped the skis overnight and are on some upgraded expedited UPS shipping mode. So may get them before next year and if so, will be wise to have the bindings mounted during the upcoming value pass black out period.

I was thinking of the Look NX 11's or Tyrolia RX12 either about $130. Over decades I've usually bought such low end model bindings for my skis and never had issues of not releasing when they needed to or pre-release. Part of that is due to lower forces as I'm light weight, don't tend to ski fast with strong forces, don't do more than small airs, and rarely fall, much less enough to pop out of bindings. When I do fall so, it seems to be on deep fresh snow days where skis end up buried some where at the end of my powder cords.
 
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On an old thread where you were testing newer model Lange RS110SC boots, we also found out besides similar weight/height our boot lengths are close enough around 300mm that we could likely swap out our skis on slope as is.

As for binding advice, thanks again Tricia, I value your experienced knowledgeable inputs. Outside of safety, I've never been aware of reasons for more expensive bindings for the kind of rec skiing I do, and don't have experience on what benefits such might offer. Amazingly, apparently the shop has already shipped the skis overnight and are on some upgraded expedited UPS shipping mode. So may get them before next year and if so, will be wise to have the bindings mounted during the upcoming value pass black out period.

I was thinking of the Look NX 11's or Tyrolia RX12 either about $130. Over decades I've usually bought such low end model bindings for my skis and never had issues of not releasing when they needed to or pre-release. Part of that is due to lower forces as I'm light weight, don't tend to ski fast with strong forces, don't do more than small airs, and rarely fall, much less enough to pop out of bindings. When I do fall so, it seems to be on deep fresh snow days where skis end up buried some where at the end of my powder cords.
First: I'm in a 23.5. I believe you're in a bit bigger size boot, more like Phil's size. He's in a 295mm shell. I'm in a 276.

As for bindings, its not about the price but the quality of the spring, housing and the actual set up of the bindings. For instance an 11din binding may have a different delta than a 12 or 13. I tend to ski on Salmon Warden 13's because, in part they work with us on our test ski bindings, but also because the stack height and delta are fairly neutral in comparison to some other set ups.
Those of us with short boot sole lengths tend to have more issue with changes in binding delta.
 

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