Newschoolers Gear Week at Sunshine Village has become an annual fixture at this point. We have a fantastic crew of testers, and thanks to our pals @sunshinevillage, 100% Eyewear & Dissent Labs (and perhaps most importantly the benvolent snow gods) this year was the best yet. We invited Powder Magazine along for the ride, and we changed up our format too, creating longer form videos with more in-depth ski feedback. We're really stoked with how it has all turned out, and we hope you are too.
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1096760/--YouTube
The parks at Sunshine have it all from an abundance of rails to big jumps and more creative features, allowing us to push all aspects of the test skis in this regard. We don't categorize skis before testing them, so anything we were sent could technically win an award as a park ski. Some of the park skis we were sent, ended up winning All-Mountain awards based on our tester feedback and at least one ski that might normally be considered 'all-mountain' took a gong in the park.
We told all the brands to send over skis with progressive mounting points, no more than -2cm from center, and all the park skis came detuned so we could hit rails without dying and see how the skis held up to a week of getting smashed onto metal. In the video, as in this article, we roughly arranged the winning skis from 'most playful' to 'most stable', although it's hardly a fine science. For all these skis, click the title or image to go to our gear guide page for the ski which features banger shots from the test and much more In-Depth feedback. Without further ado, our Best of Test park skis are:
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The two modern day Line Chronics are VERY closely related. It's a clear industry trend to have 'families' of similar skis under the same name, but some, the ARVs and Revolts for example, are actually quite distinct. The Chronics however are truly the same ski, just different widths. The slimmer of the two is quicker on rails and edge to edge, while being slightly more prone to torsional twisting when a lot of force is put through the ski. Both have a solid underfoot and softer tips and tails and both are very versatile park skis capable of jumping, buttering and everything in-between. Read more.
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We're not 100% sure on this, but we think the Reckoner/Reckoner W 102 (same ski, different topsheet/sizes) is the softest ski flexing ski on this list, especially in the tips and tails. However it also contains a shitload (technical term) of carbon. Not as much as the Karl Pro model but a lot more than the outgoing ski making it super poppy. K2 have also beefed up the ski in attempt to fix the durability issues that plagued the otherwise extremely fun outgoing version. Our guy @curt_ has been riding these a lot and they are holding up great, and he's a big boy who skis hard. Read more.
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Same ski as the 94, just a bit wider. The Chronic 101 adds a little all-mountain versatility to the Chronic package thanks to a wider footprint that floats a little better and twists a little less on edge. By and large though, we'd pick between these skis based on the kind of tricks you want to do. If you really like to spin, you'll likely be happier on the 94. For more casual park skiers, or those who prefer pressing and surface swapping, we recommend the 101. Read more.
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Can you tell we like wide park skis yet? The ARV/ARW (same ski, different topsheet) 106 was our favorite of their lineup this year and not just because of the width. We really enjoyed the 94 but its more of a jump ski in our eyes, while the 100 is fairly soft and butter oriented. In terms of flex, the 106 splits the difference and we liked the balance. The tip and tail are softer and definitely accessible for butter tricks but the underfoot platform is still pretty stompy for sending jumps. These are a properly balanced ski, that can do a bit of everything when it comes to park skiing. Read more.
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Occasionally, we have to listen to our more old school testers (*cough* @Dr.Zorko ) and include a properly strong ski now and again. The Super Black Ops 98 has had more names than a mafia boss in witness protection but it still fucking rips. Its pretty stiff, an absolute monster on jumps and still has enough looseness from the rocker not to ski like it's stuck on train tracks. You could definitely call these an All-Mountain ski, and they can rip turns, but we loved them most on jumps. Read more.
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Check out all of the best 2024/25 goodies in our Gear Guide. Our other best test videos are live on YouTube, with articles dropping here in the coming weeks.
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