Armada. Not always one of the big names in the ski industry. Certainly not in the eyes of the mainstream. Actually, I’d barely heard of them when I got my first pair of their skis. The model was the 06/07 AR6. In fact they were a bargain. A friend of mine from the Uni ski team had won them as a prize in some slalom racing. Ironically, they were freestyle skis and he was an out-and-out racer. I understand that he probably had loads of race skis, so another style of ski is no bad thing, but he had no need for them. So a brand new set of skis became available and he was happy to take far less than they were worth. After all, any reasonable cash was going to go quite a long way as the beer-fund for a Wednesday night in the Students’ Union. And he got them completely gratis!

I started skiing back in 2003 – at least a decade later than I would have liked. Naturally I was hooked! Before then I had been a rollerblader – mostly street but also some park. The discipline was known as Aggressive Skating. An odd label looking back. Anyway, I digress. The obvious step was to move from 40cm of rollerblade to over a metre and a half of freestyle ski. The first family trip was my initiation. I must confess that I was somewhat impatient during the first lesson and was definitely wanting to run before learning to crawl. This resulted in less-than-perfect technique yet parallel turns, early carving and a bit of backwards skiing before the end of the week. Private lessons as a group of two or three were clearly a good investment!

It’s no surprise to hear that I signed up for the Uni ski club not long after. And so began at least one week away each year and fairly regular trips to the indoor snow domes across the UK. After buying my own boots and renting some twin-tips during the first Uni holiday (Salomon Thrusters), I decided to invest in some more gear when I got back. The AR6s came up and there we are. Some Rossignol Scratch bindings and my first pair of ski poles completed the package. I was ready for play-time.

Actually, the AR6 was a good all-rounder. They were fairly stiff compared to some of the skis I tried. The Thrusters really flapped! I could carve when the piste was good and I was in the mood. But with a centre-point set-up and the general architecture of the ski, they would change direction in any way I liked. Great fun for 360s, 540s, some big airs and a few grinds down the plastic pipes on the freestyle course. These skis were perfect for the skiing I wanted to do and the skier I was.

Many years later, I find myself living in the Alps, my local resort closer than I was living to the indoor centres. In many ways I don’t feel I’ve changed all that much. I wouldn’t have said it was all that long ago. Shock, horror upon realising those Uni club sessions were already a decade ago. And the extra years are clocking up at what appears to be warp-speed and counting! Upon reflection, perhaps it isn’t all that strange that my desires have changed a bit. I still love mucking about on the snow and I don’t ski like your average piste-user. Yet the ‘adult’ mind-set of having responsibility and dependants means I’m actually concerned about injury. I like to reduce my risk where I can, but it won’t stop me skiing. To this end, I decided to undertake a new challenge – it was time to really focus on technique, to enjoy the best of modern piste skiing and a few other avenues. I’ve realised that it’s just as rewarding to improve anything you enjoy doing and then to maintain a high level. So no longer do I need to throw myself off huge kickers and keep raising that particular bar.

It was therefore time to invest in some new skis. The trouble was I knew very little about ‘normal’ skis. A quick visit to my local rental/sale outlet was clearly needed. I rented three pairs of new skis to do my first back-to-back ski test. Surprise, surprise, the cheapest ski (that I actually wanted to buy) didn’t feel as good as the mid-range ski. And that didn’t feel as good as the best of the three. I ended up deciding that the Salomon BBR was for me. A great piste ski with great carving ability. It felt stable at speed and seemed to respond to my style. Since I bought the skis, my new friend didn’t charge me for the rentals. Perhaps he knew I’d be back later that season – but more on that later!

So the BBRs were my new favourites. For piste skiing, there was no contest. The AR6s were quickly relegated to the corner of the store-room, soon to gather a few cobwebs. Although I didn’t have quite the same control skiing backwards and the binding location meant spinning etc. wasn’t quite so balanced, I didn’t miss the tricks as now I was enjoying the speed. The speed, the acceleration during carving, the ability to really lean on an edge and push off it to change direction. Fantastic!

Yet no matter how good the BBRs are, the AR6s weren’t forgotten. I’m a bit sentimental. Not so much a hoarder, but I like to keep my old things if they are still perfectly useable. I was interested to see how the old ones felt, now that I was completely dialled-in to my current gear. Oh, and the snow-park had just opened at the local resort. It was time to dust off the AR6s and have a go. What a strange result.

Although my AR6s felt very familiar, what was once a very agile, yet still stable, ski now felt really loose, far too keen to turn. I could still lean the skis over and carve, but the edges wouldn’t hold so well on the harder, icier snow. Before, I could enjoy mucking about on them and still carve my way down the piste at speed. I no longer felt so stable at speed. And here is the interesting thing. The skis haven’t changed. Certainly, I’ve become used to a different style of ski, perhaps putting more effort into making it turn when I wish to slide the tails round. So muscle memory and the scale of the habitual movements have clearly evolved. But I think my concept of speed has been re-calibrated. When I first tested the three sets of skis, I couldn’t believe how hard I could push off the edges and the accelerations. I’ve clearly got very used to this as I no longer feel the same buzz from the BBRs.

So sadly the AR6s are no longer a ski that I want to use for an entire day. They have been relegated to a few runs when I fancy a play or a session in the park. I’m now getting much more from skiing faster on the piste and keep the jumps simpler – just a nice hop off flowing rollers or an opportune ledge. They are still a great ski, just not for the skiing that I now enjoy the most.

Since the re-appearance of the Armadas, I’ve been back to my friend in the ski shop. Some big blue BBRs had caught my eye. Wide versions of the current skis, better-suited to some off-piste, these seemed like just the ticket for the powder day in question. But more of that story another time…

NF