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Tricia

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I have the K2 T:Nine skis, the puce colored ones (X model? 76mm waist). Quick to turn. They've seen a lot of seasons, but they're in good shape. Free to a good home. 152cm.


Still love my sparkly pink-eyed purple bulls, although the updated 2018 model would be sweet.
Its time for you to update, but we can make a sweet shotzski out of your beloved purple bulls.

Remember our Pack of Pearls at PowMow??!! I really regret selling my purple bulls. I sure had a lot of fun on them!
1891100_10202190756681818_1036803322_n.jpg
If you were to ski on your old Black Pearls and your new ones back to back, you'd know you made the right choice. :)

I don't understand what makes a women's ski a women's ski, other than it being lighter and easier to flex for smaller skiers?



I am perplexed. But I recognize that my perspective is that of a non-petite woman who doesn't need lightweight skis and hates "girly" graphics.
The original Black Pearl was the same construction as the Bushwacker, but many women's skis are really different, with a different swing weight and different flex patter, often less blocky under the foot.
As to your perspective of being "non-petite", I've sold women specific skis to women who found that the flex was easier to bend, and much more friendly in the learning curve, especially when it come to varied terrain.
@VickiK is an example of someone who is a little heavier than I am but she's more comfortable on a ski that is shorter than what I ski and has done really well.
*I'm not saying that you need shorter or softer, just an observation that "non-petite" can be relative to where you are on the learning curve and comfort on snow.
 
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Philpug

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The best women's ski name (especially in relation to its uniseks equivalent) is the Armada VJJ, I think.
I dunno.... Bad Dog/Bad Bitch vs. JJ/VJJ...thats a tough one.
 

VickiK

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More than "a little", but I appreciate it. ;) and they'd make an awesome shot ski. :martini:

@AmyPJ I think your first BPs were too short for you, but they served their purpose at the time.
 

Monique

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The best women's ski name (especially in relation to its uniseks equivalent) is the Armada VJJ, I think.

I believe you mean WORST.
 

Tricia

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I think VJJ was a brilliant move in marketing.
Some people laughed, some people cringed, some people didn't care, but you couldn't forget the name or how well they ski powder.
Definitely a ski for snowgasms
 

Monique

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My first new pair of skis was the K2 Power. I can't seem to find it on Google (!!!). They were red and black with a piezoelectric doodad. Was that before or after the T:Nine? Shop guy said they were the women's equivalent of the IV of the time.

I liked them, probably mostly because they were the first pair of skis I bought for myself, rather than hand me downs from my boyfriend. I don't think I ever triggered the piezoelectric doodad - when my boyfriend tried the skis, the doodad lit up red a lot. I also insisted on buying 178s because I couldn't quite believe how short "parabolic" skis were supposed to be.

I had the black and pink One Luvs with integrated bindings. They were nice and short and soft and confidence inspiring, and getting them coincided with me starting to take lessons again and growing as a skier.
 

Monique

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Ugh. The name could have been ignored, maybe, but the graphics on the original actually looked like a hairy, scary vagina.

A lot of us find the term "VJJ" annoying; then add it as the name of the ski ... maybe not every woman wants people to think about their vagina the moment they meet, or think about vaginas as the only important female characteristic.
 

DanoT

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Then I dread the new 132 mm Fischer powder skis: de Big Dicks...

132mm, that's less than 6 inches...just sayin, no I am not sayin any more.
 

AmyPJ

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**I won't take the bait** ** I won't take the bait**

I should have held onto my purple bulls just because they were such a cool looking ski. Would be fun to have around the house. Might be a good mogul learning ski, too.
 
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Philpug

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**I won't take the bait** ** I won't take the bait**

I should have held onto my purple bulls just because they were such a cool looking ski. Would be fun to have around the house. Might be a good mogul learning ski, too.
Yes, I have kept only a few skis in the recent years, one being the first Bonfide with the red bull.

I have had contact with @Betsyworld to see if these Bad Bitches are still around. It could be a cool pair of skis to add to the collection and fun for @Tricia on Retroday.
 

Tricia

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We have become frighteningly PC over on this side of the pond, so over here, Fischer will be re-naming them:

!!! Large Richard !!!
HAHA :roflmao:
 

Pat AKA mustski

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I think VJJ was a brilliant move in marketing.
Some people laughed, some people cringed, some people didn't care, but you couldn't forget the name or how well they ski powder.
Definitely a ski for snowgasms

It might have been a brilliant marketing move, but they were not women's skis. They were the JJ's with REALLY ugly graphics. And, I think they were darn lucky that Oprah didn't sue for the appropriation of VJJ!
 

ADKmel

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here's a ladies ski that I LOVED.. ahhh my Peaks.. My First ladies ski and first 'shaped' ski for me.. Mine are 185cm, no top speed...I still have them...
peak ski - Copy.png
 

CalG

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@Dave Petersen Artwork​
In our “Shrink It and Pink It” article last season, we talked about women’s skis and how some manufacturers produce skis actually designed for women and others take their unisex skis and slap pink graphics on them. Here, we will talk about some of the most influential women’s skis ever brought to market, in chronological order.

View attachment 30402
View attachment 30400
K2 LTP and Dynastar Elle

If you build it, they will come

This is where it all started, with the K2 LTP (Ladies Top Performer) and the Dynastar Elle. These skis showed that if you built women’s skis and marketed them correctly, they would sell. I am grouping them together because they came out about the same time in the late 1980s. They were "mom skis," good solid recreational skis intended to give mom (or sister) gear made especially for her and to eliminate any reason to not get out on the slopes. These two skis could have been the first serious women’s skis, serious in that they brought attention to the women’s ski market.

View attachment 30405
RD Bad Bitch
The first chick ski

Step forward into the late 1980s: the Bad Bitch wasn't just a women's ski; it was a chick ski. RD had decided to produce a complement to its top-selling ski, the Bad Dog, and call it the Bad Bitch. Oh, to be a fly on the wall during the marketing meeting when they came up with the name. No, I wouldn't be surprised if the conversation was alcohol-induced. (In fact, my money would be on tequila and the use of the words, "I double dog dare ya.") Was the Bad Bitch actually a good ski? I don't know, and I don’t think it mattered: I doubt anyone bought it for its performance. A woman bought it to make a statement that she wasn't just a gal who skied, she was a skier chick. In doing this, RD paved the way for Armada to name a ski the VJJ.

View attachment 30403
K2 T:Nine
The ski that took a stand

After the turn of the century, K2 made a stand and offered the T:Nine, the first women’s ski that was politically and culturally charged. The name T:Nine comes from Title IX, the legislation demanding in part that women’s sports were to be funded on the same level as men’s sports. Accordingly, the T:Nines were designed and built with as much thought and attention as their men’s counterparts. Before K2 even put pencil to paper in the design room, it built a team of the best women skiers of the day and not only asked them what they wanted and needed in a ski, but more important listened to the answers and actually built those skis. The women’s ski world was forever changed. The most popular ski to come from the T:Nine collection was the Burnin’ Luv, a ski that any competent intermediate to expert could use to ski almost any condition or terrain with control and confidence.

View attachment 30406
Völkl Aura
The first tomboy of a ski

Toward the middle of the 2000s, skis started getting wider. The Völkl Aura was the ski that said “anything you can do, I can do better” and empowered the best and most aggressive women on the mountain to ski a women’s ski when most of these women were skiing on men’s skis. These women were proud to ski the Aura. They embraced it even though they knew it was basically a Mantra with different graphics. The popularity of the Aura spawned two more significant women’s skis, the narrower Kenja and the wider Kiku. The Aura and Kiku have been calling cards of the best women on mountains like Squaw Valley and Jackson Hole, mountains where the men are men and the women kick their asses, drink them under the table, and still manage to act like ladies when they must.

View attachment 30399
Blizzard Black Pearl
The ski with rawr

As of today, the Black Pearl could very well be the best-selling women’s ski of all time. Granted, official sales numbers in the ski industry are not published, but for the 2016-17 season, Blizzard claimed that the Black Pearl was the best-selling ski in all specialty stores, for men or women. Since no one has stepped up to argue that claim, we will go with it. This is significant considering that it almost didn’t come to market in the form that we know it. The first year's graphics were bold -- a women’s ski with a purple bull on it? No woman would ever buy that, said the middle-aged men who order skis at most shops. Well, helped by the viral marketing of our own "Trekchick"(@Tricia), the Black Pearl hit the market with the fervor of bulls running through the streets of Pamplona and enabled Blizzard to build an entire collection that monetized and capitalized on the Black Pearl name.

View attachment 30401
Head Joy Collection
Light weight + function = performance

The current Joy collection is not the first series of skis designed exclusively for women, but it very well could be the best executed. Not only are the shapes of the Joys different from any of Head’s men's skis, but the construction is unique, unlike anything Head had ever built before. It is also the first time in recent memory that a design aspect was taken from the women’s to the men’s side of the wall, as Head used the mystery material Graphene in the Joy series before using it in its men's skis. Head viewed lightness not as a limitation but as a performance aspect and made the Joys some of the lightest yet still some of the highest-performing women's skis. The amount of technology and thought that went into the Joy series is on par with any men's ski.

I am sure there are other opinions on the most groundbreaking, influential, barrier-dropping women’s skis. We welcome your views; please share them with the class. We enjoy comparing and contrasting all of the skis, so have at it.​

I would be more than interested in just what makes a " women's specific " ski.

I recently was in a conversation with a proficient female skier who condemned a certain "women's ski" after having been skied out by same, but was still "too much ski " for an intermediate skier as a hand me down.

"get confusing" at times.
 

DanoT

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I would be more than interested in just what makes a " women's specific " ski.

I recently was in a conversation with a proficient female skier who condemned a certain "women's ski" after having been skied out by same, but was still "too much ski " for an intermediate skier as a hand me down.

"get confusing" at times.

A "woman specific" ski is a ski made for light weight skiers and marketed to women but also suitable for teenage boys and little old men.
 

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