Having spent most of my lunch hour and some more work time, reading through all of the stuff on this and not just glossing over the first thing i found (which was the end part of the story and didnt tell me much about the wootest, which is what i did first) I now entirely understand everything wrong with most skis on the current market sold as "powder skis". Ski makers are far too worried about profits than actually giving the best ski for the job. they're worried about the average punter (who yes will spend the most money on getting skis) who will look at a ski with reverse/no sidecut and be scared as all they have ever known is the race influenced skis they have rode on. The JJ is a perfect example of this, and i see what they are saying that just for the minor improvement of stability of the ski on hardpack they are wasting what could be an amazing powder ski by having such a large sidecut.
I am now enlightened in the ways of real pow skis.
I now intend to build the pow skis for proper pow riders (without going into total water-ski territory). I'm not going to go full reverse sidecut or no sidecut due what was said about the inerrant difficulties when getting to or from those pow stashes to the chair on hardpack. they are going to have a little sidecut (i.e large turn radius) to give it a mathematical turning radius as i want to be able to ride them back to the lift after ripping the shit out of a line without looking like a total gaper, when i try and turn on the hardpack, plus have the ability to turn if i find a little spot of ice or whatever. its more of a ski for pow days in resort/side country.but could be mounted up with touring bindings if so chosen. With regard to camber im going to give them a bunch more rocker than i first had but still have about a cm of camber for the 40% of ski under foot for the same reasons as sidecut.
it still doesn't take away from the fact i need people to post the heights of your tip and tails from your pow skis to get an idea of what a regular amount of shovel is.