I switched to Raptor after Nationals and my scores went up in the second half of the year. As lpskier says, it is really stable yet fast. I end up with more space in front of the buoy than previous skis. It gives a really quick turn with little effort even though it's a bigger ski. When you make a mistake, (which I am really good at) it keeps moving which allows for a chance at the next buoy. I came off a Quest which pretty much stopped when I broke form.