Anybody looking for a GREAT deal on a NOS '15 HO Syndicate V-Type? Read this!

[DangerBoy]

I just picked up a new 2015 67" HO Syndicate V-Type Blem for a mere $270 USD shipped. If anyone is in the market for a ski like this they still have a couple more 67s, 66s as well as some 65s and 63s I think at www.SkiPro.com in Arizona.

 

They have them on for $299.99 but if you apply this coupon code skipro102011 you'll get another 10% off B). Pretty good deal, methinks. The blems are all supposed to be minor and located on the topside, at or on very near the tip of the ski. I already ski on a blem ski so that matters not to me.

 

Get 'em while they're hot!

[powbmps]

Damn. I'm telling my wife to speak with DangerBoy if she has any issues with the SkiPro purchase on next month's statement.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

[btb24]

Thanks for the tip. Just sent my order

[DangerBoy]

I ordered mine this morning, got the UPS shipping notice this afternoon. Helluva deal eh? I hope I love the ski. I'm sure it'll be great. Now what to do with the old Monza?....

[wheelskis]

I ordered mine. Hoping I got the right size. I'm 170 and ski at 30 mph right now hoping to be at 34 mph by the end of next season. I went with the 67.

[DangerBoy]

@wheelskis I think you're good with a 67". That's what I went with. I'm a little heavier than you and ski at 31 - 33 mph. My old 67" Monza works quite well at those speeds. I hope the V-Type will as well.

[wheelskis]

@DangerBoy I'm hoping you are right. I'm currently on a 67 Senate 2011. The ski chart recommended 67 for my weight at 34 so I guess I'll trust the guide and plan on not losing any weight.

[bigskieridaho]

@wheelskis and @DangerBoy here are some settings for the 67” that work well.

29 5/8

6.905

2.485

.730

9 degrees

[DangerBoy]

@bigskieridaho Thanks for those settings. Will definitely give them a try. I'm curious to see how this ski will compare to my Monza which has been a very good ski for me. I'm hoping it'll feel and ski similarly but just be better in every way and help take my skiing to a new levels like the Monza did after I switched to it.

[Timr71]

couldn't resist. I just pulled the trigger. I'll have to work from home the day it gets delivered. Once I get it into the garage, it'll just blend in with my other stuff. The DW will be none the wiser.

[powbmps]

@DangerBoy one of the guys I ski with went from a 2010 Monza to the 2015 V-Type and loves it.

 

I'm skiing on a 2016 Radar Vapor Graphite. Interested to see if I like it better or not. Figured it was worth a try at that price.

[DangerBoy]

@powbmps It's great to hear your ski buddy went from the Monza to the V-type and loves it. Very reassuring. I wonder what he thinks is better about the V-type. Does it do just certain things better or is just better in every way?

 

It looks like four people have bought one since I put this posting up. Those guys at SkiPro should be paying me a commission or something... ;)

 

You're right though, at that price you've got nothing to lose. If you don't like it you should be able to sell it for at least what you paid for it.

[DangerBoy]

So to add to the smokin' hot deal on the V-Type, I just picked up a pair of NOS/overstock Connelly Talon bindings (full back boot) for $100 SHIPPED. That's $370 for a package of new gear that would've retailed at around $2K three years ago and shipping costs are included in that $370. Boo-yah! :p

[powbmps]

@DangerBoy I asked my friend about a comparison. He said "I think it is much more stable through the wakes, and turns much easier." I've tried his V-type over the last couple days (with my Profile bindings) and am liking it so far. I'm a total hack, but to me it feels surprisingly stable as well.

[DangerBoy]

Wow. I always found the Monza to be very stable and easy to turn. If the V-Type is even more stable and turns even easier, I think I'm really going to tear it up on that ski. I don't know if it is but if it's a little wider underfoot than the Monza, that would make me very happy as well. I skied a friend's 2018 Radar Alloy Senate this year and the only thing I liked better about it was that it's extra width made it noticeably a lot easier and less work to get out of the water on than my Monza. If the V-Type also happens to be a little wider and is a little less work to get up on than the Monza, that would be terrific but I'll happily settle for easier turning, more stability and hopefully also faster and more fun to ski.

[bigskieridaho]

@DangerBoy the V Type is an HO S2 front half and an A3 tail.

[DangerBoy]

@bigskieridaho I'm aware of that. I know the A3 tail is narrower than what the S2 had but don't know anything else about the S2 . Were they any wider underfoot than the Monzas or about the same?

 

Regarding those settings you gave us for the 67", are those with the tip weight forward, aft or off or does it not matter? TIA

[bigskieridaho]

@DangerBoy So the V Type is going to ride deeper in the water than the monza. As far as width I would put it on the same spectrum as the Monza. The V Type is decently fast, but not as forgiving as the monza was. Both were very sensitive to fin and boot settings. The settings I gave you are pretty evenly weighted. I do have others if those don’t work. I liked those the best. This is only my opinion of this ski so might work better for you. I went from a Radar to this ski, and now back on a Radar again. Not sure if this helps, but feel free to ask anything else you got.

[DangerBoy]

@bigskieridaho Regarding those settings you gave us for the 67", are those with the adjustable tip weight/dampener forward, aft or off or does it not matter?

[powbmps]

@bigskieridaho my terminology is probably incorrect, but would your settings be considered a bit longer/shallower than the H.O. recommended settings? What do you feel are the benefits to going that route?

 

Brought the borrowed H.O. ski home to check the fin settings, and found this whacked out setup:

 

 

Adjusted to factory recommended settings. Looking forward to trying it out.

 

 

 

[Chef23]

You can’t really tell settings without some calipers and angle gauges.

[Ilivetoski]

I loved the V type. Had I not run it up on some rocks at nationals in Texas last year I would still be riding that. Not the fastest ski in the world which I like bc when I am on an excessively fast ski I end up with slack at the ball every time. Very stable, controlled turns, finishes with TONS of angle. I ran stock everything

[powbmps]

@Chef23 I've been printing up paper templates from CAD (to the measurements shown on H.O.'s website), and using those. It was wayyyy long and deep. About 3/16" of the vertical leading edge of the fin was exposed below the ski.

[BraceMaker]

@powbmps i tried that too. Unfortunately what I found is that it the bottom of the ski is tough to reference with paper and when measured with a caliper they did not hit my plotted dimensions.

[powbmps]

@BraceMaker I follow what you are saying, but this works pretty well (at least for my skill level). I was just researching better calipers this morning.'t

 

[bigskieridaho]

@powbmps @DangerBoy Stock dampener settings which really doesn’t seem to do much and the fin settings actually came from a pro that is about the same size as me that was on a 67” as well. Stock didn’t work at all for me. Try stock and go from there if you want. I have other settings that didn’t work for me but may for you. Just toy with it and figure it out. Buy a good set of tools/calipers so you can dial it in. Moving boots Can always be a factor also.

[BraceMaker]

@powbmps thats what I tried as well, minus the box in front and back boxes. Which are those to do wing angle with a ruler? Or also DFT?

 

Few things A when you print you dont necessarily get true 1:1.

B: dft measurements are weird due to slot flat or needle measurements being slightly different.

C: best length tips or flat wont match what you printed.

 

I think its a better way, you could easily add this to the fin measurement app as long as you had a print adjustment to scale it.

[powbmps]

@BraceMaker the DFT measurement baffles me. There is so much angle on the tail, I was just measuring to the start of the slope up. Of course it's a rounded edge, so that doesn't work well either. I suppose I'll just try it and tweak as necessary.

 

For the fin angle, I have a couple plastic hotel room keys cut to specific angles, but I just ordered a wing angle gauge set and 8" calipers.

[BraceMaker]

@powbmps kind of off topic but i have a little square and if you zero the caliper on the square then hold it along the fin hooked over the tail of the ski it will let you measure dft off the flat very repeatably.

[DangerBoy]

I find this discussion of precise fin and boot settings interesting and useful but I can't help but think that given the large amount of error introduced by my much less than precise technique and the variability of my positioning, timing, weighting, etc., on every single turn, that to be precise down to even hundredths of inches let alone thousandths in fin settings seems a bit overkill to say the least. I'm sure that being precise to that level in all the settings makes sense for really good skiers with really precise and highly repeatable technique but for a hack like me striving for such precision doesn't seem to make as much sense. Once you get to a certain level of precision - which I suspect is nowhere near the thousandths or even hundredths of inches for me - it becomes impossible to differentiate between error caused by non-ideal settings and non-ideal technique when trying to assess what's wrong or right with my turns.

 

That being said, I will be trying the settings people have found to work well on the new V-Type until I find something I like. I remember that I couldn't turn my Monza at all when I first got it but after moving the bindings forward and tweaking the fin settings a bit, I now find it super easy to turn so I do believe that settings can make a big difference. It's fair to say, however, that part of that is due to the fact that my technique and ability improved a considerable amount since I got that ski. Whether getting the settings right for me helped in any way to facilitate that improvement is really hard to say. Much of it, I think, was simply due to the huge superiority of the Monza over my previous ski which was a HO Mach I. Just having a ski that turned so much better, could hold so much more angle and hold that angle with such increased stability allowed me to take my skiing ability up several levels in pretty short order. I'm sure that getting the settings right had something to do with that as well but since I went from an old tech and design recreational level ski to what was considered a cutting edge high performance tournament level ski at the time obviously had a lot to do with my improvement also.

[skiboyny]

You would be surprised. A ski not set to at least the manufacturer's numbers can perform very poorly. If your skiing the course your really looking for precise and highly repeatable technique. Maybe not as much if your free skiing but I would think that still would be the goal. Either way to give that ski a fair chance I'd get the fin pretty close to where the people that made it says it belongs.

[Timr71]

So, I just unboxed mine. It's beautiful. And, I don't see any blemish...in fact, I pealed off the Ski-Pro $1540 price tag off it. Very nice. Anyone else same situation?

[DangerBoy]

That's awesome news! :)

 

I live in Canada so to take advantage of the free shipping I had my ski sent to a border town in MT. A friend of mine who lives just across the border from that town is picking it up for me and will bring it up to where I live the next time he comes up to visit his son. As such, it might be a number of weeks before I get to unbox mine. I sure am anxious to see it though. :#

[robmollysilverlake]

I got mine yesterday, no blemish and had stickers. I found that they had the same price for non-blemished skis on their website too, just had to get the olive/black instead of all black. Excited to try it out this weekend!

[powbmps]

Mine had the full price sticker as well. Two very small "dents" on the edge of the topsheet, but not sure if that would be considered a blemish.

 

 

[Tom351]

I notice in @powbmps photo that the ski has a copper colored tip weight- this appears to be from a 2016 V-Type R. I also found this ebay listing for the same store (link below)- the ski shown has a copper tip weight on black pad instead of green- maybe the "blemish" is the mismatched tip weights?

 

https://goo.gl/2Gx6Qw

 

 

 

[powbmps]

How are you guys measuring the distance to tail? To the long point on the top of the ski, or to the bottom? I called H.O., and was told measure to the top. Just curious.

[Chef23]

Are you talking binding position or fin DFT? DFT is a finicky measurement requiring calipers. D3 has some good stuff on their website. http://www.d3skis.com/v/sitefiles/Tech%20Support%20Fin%20Adjustment%20Literature%20Rev%20A.pdf

 

There is also a good video by Chris Rossi on YouTube.

[DangerBoy]

How's everyone liking their new V-Type so far?

[btb24]

.@DangerBoy thank you so much for the tip! I almost bought an lesser ski for $200 more.

 

I love it so far, turns like a dream. I don't think I could ever reach this ski's max potential but it will sure be a lot of fun trying to get ten tenths out of it.

 

My only complaint is that the ski tends to send a lot of high velocity spray right at my left calf so that when I finish a run it feels like my leg has been hit with a pressure washer. Most definitely a technique issue on my end and not the ski's fault, but it's painful nonetheless.

 

Even so, I have absolutely zero buyer's remorse.

[DangerBoy]

@btb24 You're welcome for the tip. I'm glad that you and a few others were able to jump on and get that smokin' deal as well and I hope everyone who did is liking their new ski.

 

As far as the painful ankle spray issue, I've had that problem with other skis but fortunately, it's an easy fix. I just wear a neoprene spray protector like this. https://bartswatersports.com/catalog/Wetsuits/Wetsuit_Accessories/Body_Guard_Neo_Spray_leg/index.asp

 

I started wearing one years and years ago. I then changed skis and have kept on wearing it even though I'm not even sure I need to anymore. I'm so used to having it on, I feel uneasy and out-of-sorts when I forget to put it on and tend to be tentative and not turn near as hard as I can on my off-side because I'm always worried that I'll get the painful cutting pressure washer spray across my right ankle (left foot forward skier) when coming into an off-side turn. When I put the sleeve on, I never think about that happening so always give 'er wild open on both sides. :p

[Glydon]

@btb24 you are experience spray leg ... it will go away as the calf will develope an almost "callous" feel to it. @DangerBoy I was too late to the game on this and the 67's are now sold out. Guess it's another season on my A2. Not like that is a bad thing.

[Tom351]

@Glydon They appear to still have the 67 in the Black/Olive color. If you select the thumbnail with the yellow bottomed ski then you can select 67 for length. I ordered mine in this color last week because the all black were sold out in 67. The 67s are listed for $369 but that goes to around $330 with the coupon code mentioned in first post.

 

 

[Timr71]

I found the "blemish" on mine, and it's really nothing. And, if I was a customer in store and purchased the ski, it wouldn't have been a discounted blemish. There's a dimple on the front right side, below the paint that is the size of a ball point pen. That's it. I didn't take this ski to the lake this weekend. Being a holiday weekend and having a full crew in the boat, I knew that there wouldn't be good conditions to ski in, and it would get beat up some in the boat, and it's so pretty, that I can't do that to it...yet. :smile:

[powbmps]

I've got the fin setup, but waiting on some VMax bindings to show up before I use it. They've got the 2016's (direct connect) on SIA for super cheap.

[DangerBoy]

@powbmps With the 2016 VMaxs you can also get adapter plates to mount them the regular way if you decide you don't like direct connect. On the 2015 VMaxs, that option is not available.

[powbmps]

VMax bling goes well with the mismatched tip weight :D .

 

 

[DangerBoy]

@powbmps Looks good. Have you skied on it yet? I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

[powbmps]

@DangerBoy hopefully first thing tomorrow morning.

[DangerBoy]

Can anybody report back on how they like their ski yet? In all likelihood, I won't be able to try mine out until next May :s