I was mooching around at the SkiPress Demo at Whistler, generally being like a kid in a toy shop (what is that model? How much? Going to do any deals? etc - I am sure that you get the picture). I love Volkl but they were not going to budge on letting me try a pair of 07 Mantras, the Blizzard chap pipes up, saying he may have an addiitonal pair of 188cm that he may be willing to off load at the end of the week. I say that I may be interested if they are the right price (ie cost) and I can ski on them. I manage to blag an hour to test them on a particularly mixed day, there was vestiges of powder around but I did not quite have enough time ot get over to Harmony and try something a bit deeper. Franz's Meadow (high traverse) and VD Trees had to suffice, followed by another blast down the Red Chair with a friend.
What can I say, they turn like a long slalom ski, they dampen bumps, they rail on edge like a GS ski (well would if the edges angles were a bit tighter) but this is a powder/ big mountain ski after all. They are so much fun and I knew that I was hooked. I have to say that one of the advantages of being plain boards is that the bindings are mounted in a sensible position which helps their 'do anything' ability. So I bought them and they are so much fun on everything but hard icy crud (but then nothing is fun on that stuff).