I'm happy to try new skis, but I've given up on buying any ski that does not immediately outperform what I currently have or give me a solid feeling that it will. Brent doesn't ski any more balls on his new ski than he did on his old ski, or the ski he had before that. He will though as long as he sticks with the gym. ( He regularly gets high-end coaching) Compared to previous years, I barely touch my setup now, and I'm skiing a full pass under when I was a tweaker. My focus for this year is the gym, and If I can get enough regular time on the water, I will do more fin tweaking, because one setting doesn't work for water that ranges from 45 degrees to 80 over the season. I'm skiing with Andy Mapple in June and with him setting up an Elite for me in that circumstance, I will know if it's a ski for me. At this point, that's the only way I want to try new skis, otherwise there is too much time wasted to end up where I was.