John,
I'd been looking to demo these since hearing about them back in December from Chris and Harald who said they had a more slalom feel than the SS.? I got my chance a week ago at the Northeast PMTS gathering at Pico where I borrowed a demo pair of 170cm Icon TT 80 from Mac for several runs.? Conditions were firm and irregular since it had rained the day before and then refrozen.? Since the shop tune skied like a dull 1/1, I was cautious seeking angles and tight carves.
I was on supershapes before and afer skiing the Icon 80.? For me, the Icon's shovel starts to bend with noticeably less input than a supershape 170cm (even less than an im78 171cm) but is otherwise almost the same longitudinal stiffness -- a distinctly nonlinear response.? As a result, if you just flex a little on moderate blues they make sharp short turns.? They release quickly from a carve compared to a supershape, presumably because of the different tail design.? In fact, the biggest distinction I perceived between the two skis was during my first run back on supershapes when I felt this big tail cutting into the snow behind me.? I didn't miss it when I put on the Icons, but I sure noticed it when I switched back.? Mac and I both felt they would be good in bumps, but the upper lift was on windhold so we couldn't test this.? To me, the Icon 80 is easygoing compared to the SS and requires somewhat less fore-aft effort to achieve comparable results.
1)? I bet your demo pair was tuned 0.5/3 with sharp edges knowing where you probably got them.? And I know you had some icy conditions.? How was the edge hold compared to supershapes, your progressors, and the new "supershape RD" ?
2)? Did you also experience a very soft initial tip response, or is this a reflection of skier size (I'm 220 #) ?
Todd
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