VaticDart
03-14-2006, 09:00 PM
So the Spruce 120s came in yesterday. Arrived undamaged and all that good stuff. Got home from work last night with them around 12:30am, set up the bindings, went to bed around 1:30 and got up at 6am to get up to Snoqualmie or a few hours of skiing before work.
First impressions, even before riding them, is just how LONG they are. If all you've ever seen or held is 100cm or shorter skiboards, the 120s seem absolutely huge. I leaned them against a wall next to my SnowJam 99s and my gf's old 99.9 Snowblades, and the Spruces made both look like kid boards. They feel solid, well constructed. People have griped about the plainness of the topsheet, but I like it, only I wish it was a darker blue.
The Spruce Riser Composite bindings aren't bad to set up, and I'm sure would be easy for anyone used to ski bindings. I wouldn't want to be constantly changing the bindings though.
After a a hot wax and some rub-on wax, did a few runs down the bunny slope at Snoqualmie Central and quickly felt pretty comfortable on the Spruces. They really do feel like skiboards; different than the one pair of real skiboards that I've ridden, the Nomads, but still very similar.
As has been said before, these suckers feel incredibly stable. When just letting them stretch their legs in the steeper parts of intermediate runs, the speed limitation, as with the Nomads, felt entirely psychological. Even flying over pretty severe crud didn't seem to phase the Spruces. I simply couldn't let them just go down the steeper parts, as I'd quickly hit a speed I didn't feel comfortable at and begin carving.
And this too has been said before, but it bears repeating after experiencing it: the Spruce 120s carve like you wouldn't believe if you've never been on them. They just feel unbelievably solid on very hard turns, and invite you lean way over and get way up on your edges.
As for the edges, I'm still debating whether the edges need to be sharpened. They feel sharp, but not as sharp at the SnowJams were when I got those (those were overly sharp). They are mildly painful to pick up if one grabs them from the base side. I say this because while carving the boards did exactly what I wanted them to except once, when my edges seemed to just lose their grip and I just came down on my side. And once while stopping I lost my balance and fell. I don't think the edges need to be any sharper, unless I plan on hitting some ice, but I'd like some opinions on that.
On a related note, on both of those falls, the Spruce/Salomon bindings released as they should have (since it was as twisting fall). Neither fall was very bad and probably wouldn't have resulted in an injury with non-releasables, but still good to know the bindings release when twisted like that.
I had one other fall off a jump where I ended up on my back, boards in the air, sliding. Still not sure how that happened, but there neither binding released. I also had a few shaky landings otherwise where the bindings didn't pre-release, so they seem to work as they should. My jumping skills are still pretty limited, but yes, these do feel incredibly forgiving in their landings.
One thing I noticed that I perhaps recall reading elsewhere is that while cruising just straight through a flat area, if I distributed my weight evening on my feet, the front of the boards would tend to chatter and jump around. Shifting my weight back to my heel, just slightly, seemed to entirely fix that.
Anyway, I'll post more when I get to ride the 120s some more, which should be this Friday, when I'm hitting up Grouse with my gf and couple of mutual friends of ours in Vancouver.
First impressions, even before riding them, is just how LONG they are. If all you've ever seen or held is 100cm or shorter skiboards, the 120s seem absolutely huge. I leaned them against a wall next to my SnowJam 99s and my gf's old 99.9 Snowblades, and the Spruces made both look like kid boards. They feel solid, well constructed. People have griped about the plainness of the topsheet, but I like it, only I wish it was a darker blue.
The Spruce Riser Composite bindings aren't bad to set up, and I'm sure would be easy for anyone used to ski bindings. I wouldn't want to be constantly changing the bindings though.
After a a hot wax and some rub-on wax, did a few runs down the bunny slope at Snoqualmie Central and quickly felt pretty comfortable on the Spruces. They really do feel like skiboards; different than the one pair of real skiboards that I've ridden, the Nomads, but still very similar.
As has been said before, these suckers feel incredibly stable. When just letting them stretch their legs in the steeper parts of intermediate runs, the speed limitation, as with the Nomads, felt entirely psychological. Even flying over pretty severe crud didn't seem to phase the Spruces. I simply couldn't let them just go down the steeper parts, as I'd quickly hit a speed I didn't feel comfortable at and begin carving.
And this too has been said before, but it bears repeating after experiencing it: the Spruce 120s carve like you wouldn't believe if you've never been on them. They just feel unbelievably solid on very hard turns, and invite you lean way over and get way up on your edges.
As for the edges, I'm still debating whether the edges need to be sharpened. They feel sharp, but not as sharp at the SnowJams were when I got those (those were overly sharp). They are mildly painful to pick up if one grabs them from the base side. I say this because while carving the boards did exactly what I wanted them to except once, when my edges seemed to just lose their grip and I just came down on my side. And once while stopping I lost my balance and fell. I don't think the edges need to be any sharper, unless I plan on hitting some ice, but I'd like some opinions on that.
On a related note, on both of those falls, the Spruce/Salomon bindings released as they should have (since it was as twisting fall). Neither fall was very bad and probably wouldn't have resulted in an injury with non-releasables, but still good to know the bindings release when twisted like that.
I had one other fall off a jump where I ended up on my back, boards in the air, sliding. Still not sure how that happened, but there neither binding released. I also had a few shaky landings otherwise where the bindings didn't pre-release, so they seem to work as they should. My jumping skills are still pretty limited, but yes, these do feel incredibly forgiving in their landings.
One thing I noticed that I perhaps recall reading elsewhere is that while cruising just straight through a flat area, if I distributed my weight evening on my feet, the front of the boards would tend to chatter and jump around. Shifting my weight back to my heel, just slightly, seemed to entirely fix that.
Anyway, I'll post more when I get to ride the 120s some more, which should be this Friday, when I'm hitting up Grouse with my gf and couple of mutual friends of ours in Vancouver.