2011-2012 Moment PB&J Ski: 2011-2012 Moment PB&J, 182cm
Dimensions (mm): 129-101-128 Symmetrical Flex, Camber underfoot, Rocker/Taper Tip & Tail Test Location: Brighton Ski Resort Days Skied: 1 Growing up I could only afford to own a single pair of skis at a time. Living in Utah I wanted to be able to ski deep snow as well as slide rails and hit jumps. Granted, this was before Park City had very big jumps, The Canyons biggest table was probably 30 feet, and there was no such thing as a pretzel. Twin tips were rare, powder skis even more so. Obviously, when I go skiing I still want to hit gnarly chutes, pillow lines, deep snow, double kink handrails, giant stepovers, superpipes, and whatever else you want to throw at me, I just happen to own different skis for different conditions. Fat skis for powder. Skinny skis for park. etc. But what about the skier that wants to do all that and more, but can only afford a single pair of skis? This has always been somewhat of a conundrum, but not anymore! Today there is an entirely new class of skis on the market aimed directly at those skiers, and in my opinion the Moment PB&J is one of the best crossover skis on the mountain. The pair I tested were a 182cm length ski. While this is shorter than a typical powder ski that I would own, and slightly longer than any park ski I would purchase, it made a great length for a ski of this type. I began my day on Mt. Millicent at Brighton. Snow conditions were 4" of heavy dust on crud. Definitely not deep enough to merit using a full on pow ski, but still really good conditions for testing out a ski of this type. The crud under the new snow was firm, but not quite crust. The first thing I noticed in these snow conditions was that the ski felt slightly fatter than 101mm underfoot. I attribute this to the rocker. Any rockered ski will float better in new snow than it's regular-cambered counterpart.
In addition to the rocker in the tip and tail, this ski has a slight taper in its tip and tail as well. I think all skis with rocker should have some sort of a taper to them, it really makes sense. More on that in a later article though. The benefit that the taper brings in this case is a lightweight swing-weight coupled with the ability to drive the ski through crud without it being deflected easily. Add to that a mid-stiff flex and the ski will get the job done all over the mountain. I definitely did not feel as comfortable opening this ski completely up through crud, likely because of the forward mounting position and shorter ski length, but it did feel like it could charge at a comfort level similar to the Rossignol S6. After a few runs on Millicent, I took the ski over to the park. I was asked by Moment not to slide any rails with this ski, since it was a demo pair that they would need to send to a few other people. Obviously this ski won't have the same edge control on rails/boxes as something that is 85mm underfoot, but 101mm is really not THAT fat and as long as you aren't worried about trying a frontside 360 swap to blind 450 out on a dub-kink..this ski will do just fine. 
Brighton's jumps are not the best in the world, and after a few weeks of skiing only powder, I wasn't feeling too comfortable in the air. I did however take a few laps through the park to see what these could do. As I have already mentioned the swing weight of this ski is awesome. They feel really light. You won't have problems getting your spins around on this ski. The rocker makes the ski feel slightly shorter than 182cm, so you won't feel like you are on a giant powder ski in the air. Many people fear a rockered ski in the park, due to the possibility of washing out on landings. That is likely true with a rockered park ski, but because this ski has a wide 101mm waist, you will be able to stomp your landings just fine. The rocker is hardly noticeable.
Brighton has an 18-foot halfpipe this year. I was able to take a few laps through it with this ski. I rarely get to ski a pipe with perfectly sharp edges, so I was excited to see what this ski could do. Obviously this is not going to be Moment's go-to pipe ski, but I can honestly say that my biggest airs of the year in the pipe thus far were done on this ski. It is poppy enough to boost, and still has enough sidecut to take you up the wall easily. Awesome! This ski has carbon stringers in it to help it maintain its mid-stiff flex throughout the life of the ski. The carbon stringers make the ski less poppy than it likely could have been, but I had no problem ollying or hitting jumps with the ski. It was definitely not the liveliest ski I have ever used, but because of its ability to ski hard in crud and powder it is a compromise you can live with. For my last run of the day I took this ski out to the backcountry and took a run through some untracked sun-baked snow. I was again surprised that the ski I had just used through the park was able to float so well in powder. The rocker really makes it feel fatter than 101mm underfoot, yet in the park it feels skinnier. It is an anomaly ... perhaps not ... but at the very least it is amazing. Would I ever personally buy this ski? Probably not. I ski enough that I want skis that are dedicated to doing that which they do best. This is not the best powder ski in the world. This is not the best park ski in the world. But if I could only own 1 ski, and I lived anywhere in the west (UT, CO, CA, ID, WY, MT, OR, WA) and I wanted to ski something like 30-40% park, 60-70% everything else (including powder) then this would be a ski that I would really have to consider. |
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