The quest for MOASS

[Horton]

MOASS is the mythical “Mother Of All Slalom Skis”. It is the greatest ski ever. Sadly it will never exist because perfection is impossible.

Last night a non-skier asked me to explain the difference between a great slalom ski and a not so great slalom ski. I was mostly speechless because where do you start? What makes one ski better than another? Visually it is nearly impossible to see the difference between the best and worst skis in my collection.

I think the easy and thoughtless answer is "what ski do you run the most balls on". This is true (or not) but is not a very insightful description. This non-skier then asked me to describe the literal attributes that make one ski better than another.  What I should have said is describing the attributes of the perfect ski is as easy as describing the attributes of the perfect wine or woman or song. There are some details we could maybe mostly agree on and then there are some nebulous details that are nearly impossible to define.

One of the things I think about in the search of MOASS is how forgiving the ski is after my first major mistake. Every attempt at a high score ends in an error followed by a missed ball. The ability to round a few more balls after things initially go sideways is a big deal. A ski that feels amazing on my opener but then crushes me before I get close to my limit is not really that great.  

Similarly, how critical is any ski to the habitual faults in my skiing?  The most technical skiers in the world certainly have different needs than you or I do. Another way to think about this is how early in a ride does a ski draw out our faults. At my opening pass, I can be quite technical but as the rope gets shorter my faults become more and more evident until I make a critical mistake.  How wide is the margin for error?

And then we get all into the grit of speed, turns, load, smear, slide, unicorn dust and so on.

[jpwhit]

Is the greatest skier for one person also the greatest ski for someone else? I would suspect not. 

[jhughes]

It might be best to approach this from the perspective of: "What are we expecting when we invest in a new ski?" I'm curious so let's hear it!

At the extreme end of that expectation, imagine that we are expecting that a ski simply always makes it to the end of the course and we never fall on it no matter what. Put it on, tell the driver any speed and rope length, and you'll always run the pass no matter what. Is that what we are going toward with ski technology? If so, what fun would that be, right?

Since that's a fairly unrealistic expectation, here is what I look for in a ski, 34mph mid-35 skier ATM:

1. Does not want to kill me, aka a "non-homicidal ski". If I'm in a very poor position out of a turn, I should probably fall or be able to re-point. If the ski instead wants to keep going with me on it in a lean lock with no recourse, that is not something I actually want to experience. 

2. While adhering to rule #1, the ski will turn, with me on it and in a recoverable, re-pointable position if needed, (particularly onside where I'm most likely to approach the buoy more separated and directly), with a WIDE array of pre-turn antics, alignment, and positions.

That's really it. It's a "game improvement iron" expectation in golf-terms. Most of the skis I've tried have satisfied requirement #1 lately, and the extent to which they do #2 without doing #1 has been what makes them better or worse particularly onside. For example the XTR team is bonkers onside. I like that. More than previous ski. It wins, that's a worthwhile upgrade for me. The rest of the course feels pretty similar to a lot of skis- gate, offside, etc.

If you look at any submarine or ship, they all kinda have to look like a submarine or ship. To some degree, we are probably reaching a point where a slalom ski is going to look like a slalom ski and do slalom ski things across the board just due to physics and material science.

[6balls]

My best ski I ran more successful 38's than all other skis I ever owned...combined.  It wasn't always the smoothest experience, but it got me the most buoys with consistency--and both practice and tourney PB's at 39.  Not a lot of love for that Razor A68 for others, though, so as Horton's post above it's all individual and difficult to explain.  I could make a lot of mistakes on that Razor--hell it may have induced some of them--but I could scramble out on that ski as well as run pretty when I was "on".    

[Slalom.Steve]

Yeah man, I'm always tryin to find mo' ass.

oh wait... nevermind.

[Than_Bogan]

I think part of the definition of the (fictional) MOASS is that it works great for everyone.  It's pretty much in the name Mother of ALL Slalom Skis.

[Dano]

If I could somehow have the speed of the 2015 vapor, the consistency of the R2, and the “insane fun factor” of the  c65.  That may be my perfect mix of ski traits. “Insane fun factor”  of the c65 is referring to the fact that on that ski I could get all out of shape, still round all six, and still have no idea what just happened. It was both fun, and frightening. 

[Cooper_Trelawney]

Take a little bit of an El Diablo,  the turns of a Li'l Monster, the fin of an Alfredo Mendoza and the speed of a Tech 1 and you have the MOASS 😁

[Jordan]

As a self-admitted, somewhat reformed gear junki, I used to always want the newest "bestest" gear. 

That brings me to a thought. If Nate is the best slalom skier, what does it say that when D3 brings out a new ski, he often stays on his old ski and it gets rebadged to look like the new ski. He is notorious for clinging to not just the old version of the ski but sticking with that very ski.

Perhaps it's the shiny new bauble that draws us in. On the other handwe all know that from time to time we try a new ski and it's instant love and gratification.

That said, I read every new ski review anxiously hoping that the MOASS exists!

[chaloux]

2 hours ago, Jordan said:

As a self-admitted, somewhat reformed gear junki, I used to always want the newest "bestest" gear. 

That brings me to a thought. If Nate is the best slalom skier, what does it say that when D3 brings out a new ski, he often stays on his old ski and it gets rebadged to look like the new ski. He is notorious for clinging to not just the old version of the ski but sticking with that very ski.

Perhaps it's the shiny new bauble that draws us in. On the other handwe all know that from time to time we try a new ski and it's instant love and gratification.

That said, I read every new ski review anxiously hoping that the MOASS exists!

My thoughts exactly, both re: bring a gear junkie and Nate. As Marcus said in his interview with Allie Nicholson in Cali, it's a "between the ears" thing for me... if you can include my entire body as being between my ears. For the most part, anyway. I for sure need a new boat, but that's cheap and easy 🤦🏻‍♂️

[Stevie Boy]

Ultimately ! the ski that your are most consistent on.

[Slalom.Steve]

@Jordan - I think there is definitely something to be said for not constantly changing things. I think this is particularly true in a sport like waterskiing, where our opportunities to practice are so limited. Even if you have a situation where you can ski as much as you want, your body can only take so much. If I play basketball, I can go to the gym and shoot 1,000 free throws in under 3 hrs (I looked it up lol), and I could do that every day, even twice a day! As a skier, we only take 12-20 passes in a practice session (generally speaking), and at least personally I can't keep that up 7 days a week.

At this point, any high-end ski is a good ski, so if you're on a high-end ski, even if new Ski XYZ is a little bit better, you're also going to use valuable practice time adjusting to the ski. And even if your old Ski ABC isn't quite as good, if you know exactly what to do on it, you may ski more buoys than on a "better" ski that you aren't as familiar with.

That said... obviously this doesn't mean you never upgrade a ski! My skis have been the '16 Radar Vapor and the '22 Radar Vapor, and from my first pass the '22 was a noticeable improvement. I think I'm pretty committed to Radar now in part because the skis continually evolve from their previous iterations, so I suspect there would be less adjustment time needed to keep upgrading to new Vapors as opposed to switching between brands every time. I figure, I get the excitement and improvement of new gear (I'm with you there as a gearhead!) but it feels more like just "an improvement" as opposed to "a change and improvement." Not that this is restricted to only Radar, this sort of thinking would suggest finding "your preferred brand" and then upgrading only within their offerings.

That said... the only other ski I've even tried is a C85, and I'm a 34mph, 15-28off skier, so I'm curious if someone who has more experience skiing and more experience trying various brands and models would agree with or refute my theory!

[Deanoski]

Imo A. Moass  ski always turns gets angle but not to much   Carry’s off the second wake and   Slows down   
 

 

[A_B]

Best average high score with the smallest deviation.  A ski that gets you a couple extra buoys inconsistently, won't help in this sport. 

As far as historical MOASS, the Goode 9100 likely would be high on the list, as it had one of the biggest  improvement factors across the masses.