best ski to upgrade to from RCX

[alex38]

Been on D3's for years, trying to bag -35 at 34mph for awhile now-i know it's not the ski-but just curious what some of the experts would reccomend. 170lbs.

[Boody]

65 midride, fire. $1000. Money back gaurantee.

[Horton]

Vogue

[Horton]

No seriously. Tell me about your skiing. What do you think your weakness is and your strong point. What goes wrong at 35?

[skinut]

Last summer I went from an RCX to the X7. Within three weeks I set a new pb in a tournament by 3 bouys(4 at 35 at 34 mph). The biggest difference in the skis was the off side. The RCX had a tendancy to stall on the offside for me while the X7 kept on turning. I don't think the 7 is as fast cross course but I didn't feel there was a whole lot of difference in speed. The 7 felt more stable in the turns(especially offside) and more forgiving if I was on the tail. BTW I am RFR and weigh 160. I'm on a 66. On thing to note is that the ski seems to have a lot of tip rise coming out of the turn. It could just be me, but I have heard other skiers comment about it.

[6balls]

Was on KD/D3 since early 90's...last one the RCX w/Leverage bindings. Was running 35 pretty regular in practice...best 6 rnd tourney weekend was 4 of 6 35s and often big slack out the end gates.

Went to Razor A68 with Strada's and struggled. Put Leverage bindings on the Razor...ka-boom.

Went around 5 ball at 38 four consecutive sets. Skied 11 of my last 12 tourney 35's, 5 of them tailwind. Matched lifetime tourney best score twice in those rounds w/4 at 38.

Quality seems impeccable. I'm 12 sets deep right now w/out tightening my binding screws...it must not vibrate at all. Price point is good given performance, it has great inserts, and with RTM construction it should last. It may not be for you, but it should be on your radar screen.

 

[thompjs]

tip rise on x7? I'm on one because it doesn't do that!

 

Speed across course -- look at Nate Smith.

 

Try Fusion or z7

[skidawg]

If u like the feel of ur rcx get a fusion, if u want a totally foreign feel try a few bf u buy

[Ed_Obermeier]

@6balls - interesting statement on the Strada/Leverage binding issue. Going through the same issue with my Strada ski. With the Strada bindings I just can't get any consistency. Slap the Leverages back on it and it's an entirely different ski. Thought it was just me...

[alex38]

@horton I've put alot of emphasis on gates, two handed, trying to get up on boat and turn in easy and progressively, -35 is my only inconsistent 1ball, no matter what I do I drift in from my glide before I turn in-kills me. When I get a good 1 at -35 I usually pull too long for 2 (telling me my 1 wasn't as good as I thought, and I'm back to square 1 with gates ha ha). turned 4ball at -35 in a tournament and honestly just forgot to open up and reach cuz I couldn't believe i turned 3 so well. turned 5 in practice at -35 and blew tail out but I believe I was forcing the issue with my front foot, this was my best attempt yet cuz it was out of the box running 22, 28, 32, easily(5 days of rest too).

 

weakness is definitely wake to buoy, at 28 I can be in almost complete control, at 32 I often just reach like hell and hope the ski comes back under me(usually does)

 

strength is well, not sure really, I guess im pretty strong behind the boat, never let go, and at 32 I can get bent in half at the buoy, read the word nomad on the tip of my ski, and still run it, not sure if that is a strength or just dumb. Im pretty scrappy, I can change if Im disciplined, but I usually just go out and have fun. But I also think running -35 would be fun!

 

i tried to get myself to ride a turning edge out to the buoy a few times (thought I was on to something), only way i could do it would be to think about getting off my pulling edge as soon as I felt I was putting maximum load on line, i.e. instead of pulling through both wakes i would try to kind of squirm out of my lean and start turning way earlier than usual.

 

fwiw: 6.830 tips/2.503/.79 needle/8 degrees/RS1 bindings at 29.5 i think/66 in 2009 RCX

 

@6balls that sounds sweet!

 

@skinut I stall on my offside occasionally too, tends to be me most of the time I think. only reason I state that is because mostly my offside on this RCX is sick, sometimes better than my onside.

 

would love to try a fusion.

 

[ral]

Fusion is the way to go.

[Razorskier1]

Ed, I have now heard 4 guys say they couldn't ski the Strada bindings -- couldn't get tip pressure they needed. Two of them are guys who ski into 39 with regularity. I ski the Strada bindings on my Razor and don't have that problem. HOWEVER, after my first ever tournament 38 in 2007 with Animal bindings I switched to Strada. Skied like crap the entire 2008 season before figuring it out. Now it works fine. Took me a long time to adapt and I like it now.

[ForrestGump]

I would definitely recommend the 65 midride Goode Fire. I have picked up 3 1/2 buoys average in practice, +3 buoys tournament average, and my practice pb went up 6 buoys since getting on the Fire 6 weeks ago.

[Dusty]

FWIW- I ski with, and boat judge a number of people capable of -35, and usually see one or more of the same things when they are having trouble at shorter lengths. I think you nailed it already- holding accelerating lean/load after centerline adds down course speed... Visualize you can hold direction at 90 degrees to rope tension (most of us can't)- a tangent to the arc of the rope. As the line shortens, past C/L, the tangent starts to have a larger down-course somponent. (At -38, halfway C/L to buoy, (45 degrees) assuming you maintain load at 90- about 7/10th of your effort would be in the same direction as the boat...) Watch video of the pros- their edge changes are very quick- almost violent, and are rarely much after C/L.