Ski: Armada Kimbo

Reviewer height/weight: 5’9, 145lbs

Ski weights (per ski): 1873g/1847g

Length skied: 182

Actual length (with straight tape): 180.5cm

Dimensions: 130-95-121

Mounted: -2cm from true center

Bindings: Tyrolia Attack 17

Locations: Saas-Fee

Conditions skied: Park, groomers, ice, slush, dust on crust

Days Skied: 7

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Armada has one of the most stacked teams in the history of skiing. They also make a LOT of relatively similar park/all-mountain skis. For both of those reasons, I was somewhat surprised to hear about the new Kimbo ski in the Zero collection. Equally, given both of those factors, I think it’s sick that Kimbo is getting a ski. He's been with Armada for a long time now, and by his own admission, it’ll probably be his only pro model. As a result, he has spent a lot of time dialing it into his specific requirements, making sure it’s something he’s very stoked to put his name on.

As such, samples of this ski were late, and as far as Kim was aware, I was the first person to ski the final version other than himself, which was both a reminder of how privileged my position is and simultaneously felt like a lot of pressure. 182cm is the only size the ski will come in and I have no idea how widely available it will be, but it’s a lot of fun. Kim has spent the past few years riding the Stranger in the park but wanted something with lots of the attributes of that ski and a bit more of a traditional freestyle feel, which is how the new ski was born.

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Shape/Flex/Construction:

The Kimbo will definitely turn heads in the lift line with a unique look that clearly borrows from the Stranger. It’s narrower and more symmetrical than its inspiration, at 95mm underfoot and with only a 9mm tip/tail differential as opposed to 19mm on the Stranger. The mounting point is -2.5cm which is much more centered (Kim rides at -2cm for anyone who’s interested). It keeps elements of the Strange though with a similar turn radius and a squared-off tail, though the ‘springboard’ tail profile is mellowed out to a more normal rocker shape. It is squared off though and features a sick metal insert with the name of the ski on it.

The flex is more B-Dog than the Stranger and again, it's more symmetrical than the latter. They retain the character of the Stranger in that they aren’t particularly stiff underfoot, so they are easy to bend into turns and the tips and tails are softer than the bigger brother. The tail is a smidge stiffer than the tip, which is nice for landings but overall I’d say these are a mid-soft ski. It's not as soft as the BDog tip and tail but not far off.

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On snow:

Groomers/Resort:

The Kimbo is Armada’s take on a turny freestyle ski, it heads off in the same direction as skis like the Mirus Cor and even Line Blade, but it doesn’t go nearly as far down the road. It has the tight turn radius (and soft flex to make it bendable into even tighter turns), but foregoes the metal laminates. The result is somewhat predictable in that, in good conditions, these things absolutely crank. They are incredibly easy to ski, to turn tight turns and pivot in small spaces despite being relatively long for me in a 182 with moderate rocker. They are pretty energetic too and like to bounce from turn to turn and generally feel very ‘fun’ when cruising the resort on a good day or in slushy snow. However, the lack of metal becomes apparent when you try to drive the tips hard or conditions get icy or cruddy. These skis don’t have a ton of power to blast through and they don’t have that grippy feel of something like a Mirus Cor, which really bites when thrown on edge.

Soft Snow:

The Kimbo is a really fun slushy day ski. In fact, all-mountain cruising in spring snow with a bunch of park laps thrown in seems like its natural habitat. It has a decent amount of tip rocker and taper, so it feels decent in a little bit of pow, but you certainly aren’t buying these as a soft snow performer. If you’re looking for something similar but to do a bit of pow skiing as well, the Stranger would likely be a better bet.

Park/Jibbing:

My prime park skiing days are firmly behind me, and Saas-Fee didn’t have much of a rail line this winter, so I didn’t get to push these skis super hard in the park, certainly not enough to put them through the ringer durability-wise. But I did ski them mostly in the park during my test period and these are definitely something of a park ski in disguise. I expected them to feel like a narrower Stranger, and while they do have elements of that, my overall feeling on these skis was ‘this is a turny BDog in disguise’. They have a super playful flex, soft but also with a good amount of pop/rebound. Annoyingly, I didn’t really get a good chance to film/shoot a lot on these for this review but my main takeaway was that these are one of the best skis for modern-day park skiing that I’ve tried, even if there isn’t much modern about me these days. I really enjoyed landing on knuckles and bouncing out, popping directly into butter tricks, and swerving between features on these.

The radius also felt great to me carving off jumps, and the ski actually feels very composed as a jump ski for how soft it is. To me, it felt similarly playful to the BDog and not far behind the Vishnu Wet, but way more stable on landings and skiing around. If you’re an aging park skier like me, or just like a park ski that turns well, I think these skis are well worth a look. I spend a lot of my park days on the Line Blade these days, because I like turning between features and messing around more than I like trying to push my trick limits the Kimbo does a lot of what the Blade does but it’s way more buttery and fun. I think you’ll see a lot of Armada park guys migrating onto this ski when they can get their hands on them. I was expecting them to feel a bit long for me, but actually, I was pretty happy with the sizing. Sure, I could knock a few cm off them happily enough for pure park days but overall they felt great.

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Durability:

I actually don't really know the answer to this one. I feel kinda bad that I didn’t put these through the wringer but the park I was riding last winter had one rail. The construction is much the same as Armada’s other park/freestyle skis 2.5mm edge, poplar core, etc so I’d suspect durability would be on par with other skis in that line.

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Comparisons:

Vs Armada Stranger & BDog

This is where things start to get interesting. I expected the Kimbo to be a smaller Stranger, it looks a bit like one when you unbox it, but it isn’t really in that family. There are elements of Stranger in there but the Kimbo is far more freestyle oriented overall. It’s a softer, less directional and less aggressive feeling ski than the Stranger. To me, it feels more like a BDog for people who like to ski outside the park too. It has a bit less rocker, a bit more power, and turns pretty much more smoothly but feels almost as playful and to me, even more fun. To me, the Kimbo also felt lighter in the air which was my biggest gripe with the BDog when I tested it. I’m sure as shit no Phil, and I found the BDog heavy for a park ski. If you’ve skied both the BDog & Stranger and want to imagine the Kimbo, imagine blending those two skis into one, but slightly more in the BDog direction and you’re basically there.

Vs Simply Recreation:

The Recreation isn’t available in the US and as such, might be a useless comparison but these skis are oddly similar. They are both fairly soft, turny skis that struggle somewhat with ice and bad snow due to the flex, but are a riot to ski. The Kimbo is a little quicker edge to edge but a lot less grippy and energetic in the turn. It’s also much more symmetrical but they kind of hit a similar target market. If you’ve been looking at the Simply but can’t get them stateside, the Kimbo might be the ski for you.

Vs Season Kin:

The Kin is probably the closest ski to the Kimbo that you CAN get in the US (other than the other Armada skis already mentioned). The Kimbo is more stable on jumps and feels more comfortable skiing fast. At the same time, it doesn’t bite quite as hard or turn as well as the Kin (assuming you can ski the ski perfectly from the center which the Kin pretty much required).

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Conclusion:

So who is the Kimbo for? Well, it’s a tight turn radius freestyle ski designed to turn, butter, and play your way around the park. So it should be high on the bucket list for people who want a ski to make them smile, basically. It sits somewhere between a traditional freestyle ski and something more fun-shaped and I think a lot of people will enjoy these. If you’re a park skier but you’re not particularly trying to be the most technical park skier, these could be a great ski for you. It’s not that you can’t ski hard on these, clearly you can, it’s just that they are so fun to ride that they tempt you to look at the park less as straight lines and more as something to be explored. Put simply, I liked these skis a lot.

I’m not quite sure that Armada needs all of the EDollo, BDog, ARV 94, ARV 100, AND Kimbo. I can see that being somewhat confusing for both retailers and buyers. All of them are good skis but there’s definitely plenty of overlap there. However, the Kimbo is probably my favorite of the lot so if it fits you size-wise, I’d definitely recommend looking into these as a park/cruiser option. They probably aren’t for someone who primarily wants to ski all mountain and park comes second (the Stranger would fit better there) or someone who skis super powerfully and wants to drive a ski hard. But for the park skier who wants to go a bit beyond these are perfect. I’d say they are a 60-80% park kinda ski, perfectly suited for someone who likes to ski playfully and still wants to lay over some turns now and again.