Hello all,
I would like to introduce Kicker Snowsports to DCSki. We are a local ski manufacturer right here in Washington, DC. Our design focus is on East coast conditions.
We have great weather for this weekend and we have a few opportunities for you to try our products. We will be doing demos all weekend;:
Jan 9 - Whitetail (ski center demo)
Jan 10 - Seven Springs (Willi's Ski Shop Demo)
Jan 11 - Roundtop
We hope to see you there. For mor information you can visit us at www.kickersnowsports.com
Special thanks to Scott of DCSki for permission to promote our brand on this forum. We appreciate the support for DC brands.
Frank
Kicker Snowsports
Intersting, how did you decide to open your own line? What was your background?
Best of luck in your endeavor!
i actually saw them at the Warren Miller moive at the Navy Heritage Center. I saw a slalom ski, a park ski, and a all-mountain ski. The build quality seems very good and the "flex and thump" test I did on the all-mountain one seemed to indicate a fairly damped ski. I actually was foolish to not have taken the 40% offer they were giving out.
I have not tried the skis but would be very interested to. I'll try to get on a pair before heading out to Park City.
eggraid wrote:
Intersting, how did you decide to open your own line? What was your background?
Best of luck in your endeavor!
We are a group of mechanical and aerospace engineers working for the DOD that were ski buddies for a few years. We were looking for a project and one day on the slopes we decided to try making our own skis. The next summer there were some budget cuts and we were furloughed for a few weeks. This gave us time to build it into a more sustainable business (And gave us the name of our first ski model "Furlough Friday"). We designed and built prototypes, tested them out, refined the designs and launched our line last year.
Mr. Kicker - you guys ever going to make it up to Canaan Valley for demos? There are two ski areas there. I know some folks that might be able to put you in touch with the right folks at the resorts if you are interested.
TomH wrote:
Mr. Kicker - you guys ever going to make it up to Canaan Valley for demos? There are two ski areas there. I know some folks that might be able to put you in touch with the right folks at the resorts if you are interested.
From their website, it looks like they're doing a demo day Jan 31st at CV.
I dont know why but I have a huntch you have had ads on rally cars ( pastrana)
so i was at whitetail Jan 9 (actually my first day out this season) and demo'd the Kicker products, both the Filibuster (carver) and Furlough Friday (All mountain). I did *not* test their park ski b/c i'm not a park guy.
OK executive summary - these skis are for real, and this could be the next Line or 4frnt .i guess the real question you have is why should one would buy into a boutique ski rather than Atomic, Dynastar, Rossi etc etc etc. Simple - you want to see something out of the mainstream, another guys' idea of what a ski should be and what it should feel like. And make no mistake - this product line has quite a strong character. You'll have to decide for yourself what you like to feel under foot, but this lineup might turn you crank.
After taking three warm up laps on my Palmer P02 i did it -
NOW THE GOOD STUFF :: i'm 5' 8" 150 lbs, i like to carve and lay out as much as possible on groomed stuff. Kinda a crappy racer in the day but i did take a few FTD and cleaned some clocks. Ski bum for 5 years in Park City back in the day.
#1 - Filibuster (163). Really good build quaility. Light (no metal). A little rocked, not a huge amount of camber. Tapered rounded tail and fairly narrow waist.
First run - i noticed that the turn initiates easy; you don't have to drive the tips at all just be normal and roll them over and they start to bite. Conitnue to angle up through the middle of the turn and i felt a very progressive turn getting set up that gave me confidence to move a lot of my weight to the inside and lay out. No need to stomp on it and hold it down just keep building. Bottom of the turn was solid i never felt the ski bottom out or wilt either. It was easy to stay in balanced and centered and just ski the ski.
Second run - i felt a lot more confident and trusted the ski fully. i really cranked up the angluation and full body inclination and they held real good. i definitly linked turns putting my hand down on the snow which gave me mucho grins. i made a mistake on a turn and pressured through the tail and it held so it seemed forgiving. Looking at my tracks riding back up on my third run i saw i pulled a good set of 10-12 meter railroad tracks so they definitly can carve. The only thing i can't tell you about is how they hold on really firm snow because there wasn't any (boo hoo).
Third run - i tried out a top to bottom slalom run. These are *not* slalom skis nor are they marketed as such. Like my Palmers, the don't have a lot of pop or rebound but are actually pretty damped. No problem there - I was just curious how they would perform.
#2 Furlough Friday (175) - Again great build quality, center mount twin tip that seemed stout but not an I-beam. Seemed to have almost a traditional camber on it. Sort of wide underfoot but that ain't bad.
First run - what i expected ... more of a GS turner, bigger radius but held well. It seemed pretty stable and i felt confident on it. They needed a little more driving of the tips but that's cool. They tracked well and there were no suprises so i figured it was time to crank them up and get some speed going so off to somewhere I could knock out some fast stuff.
Second run - eh it was a little bumpy here and there and meh i was not going to really wail the way i had hoped but it would be a good test to see if they get thrown around a lot or not. They handled small bumps well for a ski with a fair amount of burely in 'em. I did get surprised on two turns where my inside ski did not hook up with the snow as fast as i wanted them to and i fell a little bit too much to the inside because i crossed over too early but that is probably because i just came of the carvers. i did get pushed down into the back seat on those turns and had to make a jet turn to get out of it but it worked and the skis did not punish me for the fault. You *do* need to mind them and not space out - keep a strong input and command them 100% of the time.
Third run - OK not totally trusting the skis yet but let's really let them run this time. Again it was sort of hard to do given the terrain and traffic ( i was really trying not to get busted by the ski patrol) but i got a nice fast run in. The skis absorbed terrain well and i never felt like i was going to go ass over tea kettle or anything, but lol i am not in the best shape right now so if was stronger i could have pushed them harder. i did find some firm snow and they arced well on it, not chattering loose. Again, they seems pretty damped. I guess the remind me of my Dynastar Pro Riders but with a way better turn radius - i really wished i could have taken them up tp warp speed to see how handled but terrain did not allow it, so that part i can't tell you about but i didn't feel any impending speed limit on it and i think they could have no problem going 50.
So that's it - i would recomend taking a hard look at this line up and try them out if you can. BTW the guys that designed and build them (yes they build them) wrote their own code to simulate the flex pattern etc - i guess they are finite element guys so more power to them. i definitly like the flex pattern of the Filibuster they got that right 100%. I think the Furlough Friday might need a little work but that is just me - a taller guy like 5"10" would probably find it all good.
Thanks for the analysis. I too saw them at the Warren Miller event downtown in November. Now I REALLY am kicking myself for not using their 40% discount at the film...
