Line Chronic or Line Blend and what bindings?

Go with the blend, lot of people use it in the park too,it does very well there, but its still better for powder than the chronic.

Do you think 185 is too big? I know a lot of people ride on big skis here, but I want something that's fun and easy to maneuver,

You should be fine on the Blend, and that's what I'd recomend. 185 for sure. The Blend will do powder/crud/groomers better than the Chronic can, but a lot of the Line athletes also use it in the park, on rails/jumps, and again, it can take you all over and back again.

Like said before the blends are the one ski quiver so they can pretty much handle everything, i think you will be fine with your griffons as far a bindings go(u might have to get a new brake), but if you were willing to spend a little more then you could get the jesters

if you are looking for more park than pow go chronic but if you are going to ski more pow than park go blends, i love mine

Ok, thank you very much everyone. I just need to work out now what I'm going to do more of. I'm definitely leaning towards Blends.

If it was 185 Chronic vs 185 Blend it would be a bit harder to decide, but I think on someone your size the 178 Chronic will be a bit hopeless in powder. Go with the Blends.

Oh and one more thing, have you tought about the marker schizo bindings? I dont have any experience with them, but i would quess you could have a good use for them, since its your 1 ski quiver. So basically you could move the binding more centered for park, and then move it back for groomers and pow.

Can you get Line Bacons from the same shop? I think they would fit your needs better than either personally.
178 Chronic is too short so forget those, they'll be hopeless out of the park.
185 Blends will be nice in pow and in the park with a -2cm mount but they are really soft, too soft to really mach it on hard/icey groomers I've found so far (I currently ride the 178s).
184 Bacons are similar to the Blends but just a more solid ski all round. I had a pair of last years and they carve better and are more solid on jumps/drops than Blends. The Blends have some advantages, they are lighter and easier to spin, they also ski better in pow centre mounted than Bacons did*, but if you mount Bacons at recommended that advantage will disappear.


(* Disclaimer, I do know what I'm talking about. If you centre mount Bacons, which are near as makes no difference symmetrical, the tail doesn't want to sink any more than the nose, so they don't actually float all that well. The Blends have a noticeably narrower tail than nose, the tail therefore sinks more willingly with a centre mount and so they feel a bit more natural in pow even though they are a bit narrower. If pow is your priority, mount further back and the Bacon will be better but I rode both as park skis with the occasional soft day and that's what I've found).

Thank you all very much for the words of wisdom everyone!

You definitely want the 185. I ride the 178cm Blend and I'm 5'9 135lbs.

I don't think they'd make your Mantras obsolete though, they are very different skis. The Blends are really soft, manuverable and playful but they aren't that good at high speed. Do they only stock Lines?

Yes, they only stock line unfortunately. I'd look in other shops, but I'll be paying full whack for them. In this store the guy basically makes up a price off the top of his head ha ha.

Have you tried the Chronic Blends, its the combo ski that I use for every condition here in Washington, works all over the mountain for all snow conditions, big deep days you kinda sink but for the most park they have lots of float and are utterly bombproof, mine are mounted pretty traditional but they do work in the park as well.

The what now

Blends and Mantras are very different.
The mantras are much stiffer throughout the ski and it has much less tail than the blends. The 185 won't have more tip, just more tail.
As far as making the Mantras obsolete thats completely up to you. I find the Mantra to be much more fun to ski on groomers than the blends, but thats just due to the racing nature of it. But the blends will still be fun.
I'd go with a Jester if you can din into it

OK why choose when apparently you can have both in one ski?

I googled them, they're an obsolete 2007 ski with a narrower waist than the current Chronic.