one lifes are awesome, definitely a super playful ski, which says a lot coming from me because i typically hate stiff skis, and these things are really f-ing stiff. but somehow their huge rocker makes them feel like a medium flexing, poppy, surfey ski. on hardpack the camber underfoot definitely makes them feel weird, (this is the one thing i dont like about them, they should have just kept it flat underfoot, i feel like they'd carve better and feel a lot more natural, im pretty sure this years are flat underfoot fyi)
anyway, once you get used to how you have to ski these things, they are f-ing amazing, you can still carve GS type turns on them and they actually carve pretty damn well on hardpack, but where they really get fun is when you ski them in a more slashy kind of way, especially when it gets chopped or powder. like build up speed and whip them sideways, with the aggressive rocker and stiffness, you can literally lean back and lean on that big rocker tail and ride out a big old sidedways slash on your tails, super fun over knuckles and rollers. they nose butter pretty well too, you can lean as hard as you want on the noses knowing its gonna be there, and the big rocker makes it easy to commit and actually butter them.
in powder the 179 feels a tad short, i think a 185 would be better, but regardless, they dont sink, float really well, you can ski them like a normal ski, and you can ski them like i said before, build up a bunch of speed and really slash the crap out of them. the harder you ski the better they feel. you cant push them enough almost.