Faction Zero Rocker Skis 2012

Comments about Faction Zero Rocker Skis 2012:

I demoed these in Telluride a few weeks back as I neglected to bring my AKs. The only length they had available was a 183 which I was slightly skeptical about, as I usually like to stick in the 179-181 range especially with fatter skis. I am 5'11" and weigh about 145. I have been skiing my entire life and consider myself a pretty hard charging aggressive skier. These guys handle like a much smaller ski. In comparison to my AKs which these are 4cm longer and 7mm wider underfoot the Factions are far more nimble. In the trees they snapped around quickly, the swing weight on them is pretty dialed. Honestly one of the biggest things that surprised me was their performance on the groomers. They hold edge like a pipe ski. My skis I brought are armada pipe cleaners and I can honestly say these hold edge just as well while carving turns just as aggressively. Later in the day we hiked a decent size peak (Palmyra) and dropped into some big mountain-ish lines. At speed in deep snow they are very well composed for a ski that also does so well on piste. Stable through chop and excellent flotation, due in part I suspect to a slight early rise in the tip. Personally I feel that false-sense-of-security-providing rocker is a cloaking device for bad habits and lacking ability, therefore is best located on my grandpas chair or smoking cigarettes behind a seedy music venue with your girlfriend. This ski definitely fit the bill for a larger traditional shaped ski. The slight cons I noted, and I'm really kind of nit picking here, is they were slightly heavy, and I noted a bit of chatter here and there on harder snow. Really though I would attribute the extra heft to the clunky demo bindings, and the chatter to the snow that even a race ski might have given mild protest to. Bottom line, absolute killer ski that I will likely be looking into scooping up at the end of the season off of a demo rack. (I'm cheap like that)
Cheers.