With my last tournament of the year done I decided to try the Reflex off my trick ski on my slalom ski and give it a number of sets to see if it would help my skiing. I am coming off a Strada front. I made the modifications
@ShaneH outlined to my boot and mounted it up Monday morning. I went out Monday afternoon and fortunately our course was blown out so I made the equivalent of about 8 passes just free skiing. The first pass I couldn't have turned at 1 ball if I had to. Gradually I got to the point where I was making some easy turns and by the 8th pass I was pulling and making some turns.
This morning we went out and the course wasn't blown out so I decided to jump in the course and give it a go. I backed my opener up to 32/22 and ran that easy and felt fine so I sped up. 34/22 felt good so I figured what the heck and shortened it to 28. My 28 wasn't great because of a crappy gate but I was never in danger of missing it and I made a hard turn at 3 and 4 ball to stay in the pass so I decided to cut to 32 off. I ran a great 32 off pass in lots of backwash with one of the best 2 balls (my offside which I have been struggling with) I have had in a long time.
I took one stab at 35 and had a decent 1 ball but there was a ton of backwash at 2 ball so I just cruised it.
I am very optimistic after this morning's set. My offside felt a little better than it did on the Strada and I was able to turn my on side as hard as I needed to. The alignment of my foot is a little different on the Reflex than the Strada so that might have something to do with it.
I think I am going to be able to make this work.
I didn't make the change because I felt like the Strada was holding me back. I did feel some inconsistency in getting the Strada set the same way every time and I don't feel that with the Reflex.
Now if the water would go down a little so the backwash would go away and we could ski more than 4 passes without it becoming an ocean that would be great.
Comments
When The Going Gets Tough, Get Stoked !
@Waternut how do you change the rotation of the boot? I am not sure you can with the Reflex. The Strada boots have an easy way to do it on the bottom.
When The Going Gets Tough, Get Stoked !
P.s. reflex Rocks! I
I went back to 32 off and stuffed the tip in some backwash at 2 ball (I hate it when our water is high) and went out the front and released from the ski so I felt pretty good about that.
After two sets in the course I think I am going to like it. I definitely feel like I can turn the ski better on my offside which is what I had been struggling with. I might have gotten the same result if I had moved my Strada binding forward a hole. Right now I feel like I can turn my on side as well as before and the offside feels like it has more potential. I am still thinking about it a little bit as it is new but hopefully with another 6-10 sets I will settle in with it.
Yeah -- WOW is our backwash bad right now. After 4 passes, it was borderline dangerous even with longer line lengths. This must be that optimally bad water height. Last night on my 4th pass (before it became utterly ridiculous), I had a -38 going and was kinda thinking I might have a shot to get one in backwash when I stuffed the tip hard into a roller exiting 3 ball. Partial ejection and I realized that was enough of THAT!
Chef23
After my first OTF with Reflex and rtp,i told myself that this system was the best.A year later ,i still think the same way!