New Super Shapes...

[arothafel]

It's demo days at Mammoth this week. All the mfgs are here in full force.

Yesterday, I hopped on a chair with a guy who had on the 2017 Super Shape Speed (177 cm) -- but had not yet taken a run on them. This was his first trial.

I mentioned that I'd read on Real Skiers that Head was bringing them back.

The guy looks at me and says, "Hi, I'm Jackson Hogan!"

We had a good time talking about Harald, PMTS and my obvious consumption of the Kool-aid... (all good!) and took a run together.

At the bottom, he didn't give too much away, but he was obviously very pleased with the ski.

I'll be curious of Harald's "take" on them as I'll be looking for new skis next year to replace my TT80s (which I love).

[zuschauer]

I saw HH at the recent SIA demo at Copper and he was enthused about the New Head Supershape Speed (as was I) and the Dynastar Speed 12 (new narrow carver as well).
The Head has had some changes (Rounder tip, more mass (metal) at tip and tail, graphene in the middle. (less core material overall) For me the ski had more life and was easier to carve than the previous version. Radius 14.0 @ 170 124/68/104 The skis are available in 156, 163, 170, 177, 184
I felt better about the other super shapes as well, but need more time on those (Magnum, Rally, Titan) I've always disliked the Titan, but found this years much more approachable (from a PMTS standpoint)

Head' also has new/updated recreational race skis (World Cup rebels ISpeed and Is.L. and an additional combi race model the I. Race @ 14.4 radiuslook to have similar changes and they have added

Richard

[Max_501]

From the "Skis getting skinnier for 2017" thread:

I spoke with Harald and Diana yesterday about next years skis as he had just come back from SIA last week. There is both some good news and some bad news. First the good news. Harald and Diana both think that they have improved the SS Speed for next year. It has a tighter TR and it has a little easier flex pattern. It is somewhat reminiscent of the TT80 and is a reasonable replacement for that ski. They both loved it. On the bad news front Head decided to stiffen up/burly up the ISL non RD ski. Harald says it now skis like the current ISL RD and in his opinion they ruined what he considers a great ski.

Harald was not particularly fond of any other Head ski (I don't think he focuses much on the Monster series) and he especially does not like the Instinct series. The SS Magnum is softened some and he thinks that improves it but he has never loved that ski. Still hates the Titan and thinks the Rally lacks.. just lacks.

They both really liked a Dynastar ski called the Speedzone 14. This is a 72mm underfoot carver with a TR around high 14s to low 15s in the 174cm length. It bends to a much tighter arc and they both think this is a wonderful all mountain ski.

and from the HSS FB page:

This week Harald and I went to the SIA trade show and ski test. It's always interesting to get a look at next years product. There are a few changes coming for Head skis next year. The iSL Rebel and the Supershape Speed have both undergone significant redesign. Both have been positioned more aggressively. For the iSL this means the ski is less of the all mountain slalom we all love and more suited towards race courses and hard pistes. The Supershape Speed is a snappier more fire breathing ski requiring a bit more effort than the current model.

[WayneK]

I bought SSTitan 170 this year because I couldn't find the iSpeed. Then I tested the 2017 iSpeed 170. WOW!!! What a huge difference. Quick transitions, pure carving and FAST. I am not happy I wasted a season on Titans. I liked my old iSL much better than the Titan. The iSL were my "ice skates". The new iSpeeed skis are the best i've ever skied on. I will not sell the Titans to a PMTS skier, I promise!
Wayne

[Robert0325]

Sorry to bring up Titans again on this thread, but it interests me.

When I started on the PMTS journey end of 2011 (after 25 year skiing) I was skiing Rossignol Bandit B2’s and thought probably not the best ski for PMTS. I knew that Super Shapes were highly regarded by HH and others, so when I saw a pair of Super Shape Titans 2011 model on ebay of the right length I snapped them up not realising that the Titan was a completely different animal.

I quite liked the Titan's stability etc. at speed, although they did seem to run away from my quite a bit, but what worried me / embarrassed me more than anything was falling over randomly when going slowly and trying to do PMTS drills. When I then switched to TT80’s that problem all but went away.
I’m interested to know if anyone can offer a theory to why this happened. Is it because the Titan is an overly stiff ski? Or is it that the TT80’s are more forgiving of my technique. I weigh around 210 lbs, 6’2”. Both skis were 176cm.

[DougD]

HH, Max_501 and Jbotti have posted numerous times that the Titan is a bad PMTS ski. The flex pattern is frequently mentioned as problematic. A forum search will yield many such posts.

Stability at speed is no indicator of PMTS suitability. If it were, my 1990s Volkl GS skis (208cm, virtually no sidecut) would be superb PMTS skis, as would any DH or SG ski. In fact, these are among the worst ski types for learning PMTS movements (along with very fat and/or rockered skis).

As to why you were falling over, or making any particular movement, I imagine the usual answer applies - "we need video!"

[milesb]

Too many beers at lunch. It happens...

[Robert0325]

Too many beers at lunch. It happens...

...ah get it now. That's why the fall always happened in the afternoon!

[chris719]

The only thing that comes to mind would be the tune, if you are truly skiing the same way. It's possible they had very little base edge bevel and were grabby as a result.