These are a great ski, one of the best Line has made. If I had to pick one pair of skis to ski for the rest of my life it might be these. My most recent pair were centre mounted (and were my 3rd pair). I've also skied them at -2 which is better in pow but since I largely ride park on them, I prefer centre (more on that to come).
I ski maybe 70% park on these and they do a good job. The swingweight is low for such a big ski, they butter and surface swap like a dream and feel stable on jumps thanks to the wide waist. They obviously aren't as light as a 90mm ski but for most skiers they will be fine for all but the most technical of tricks. I filmed a couple of (chilled due to hernia) laps on them early this winter to show how they ride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRbNSw3RePw
Where these things really shine is general all mountain jibbing. They carve well for a rocker ski with little camber, but they are always willing to slash and butter with a little extra push. They have just enough rocker and width to land in the soft stuff forward and switch, flex enough to be easy to butter but don't wash out completely. For some people they will be too soft, but at 5'9 140lbs they have the perfect flex.
Surprisingly, deep snow is my least favorite place for these. Up to a foot they are pretty good but after that, less so. At centre mount they do ok but that is it. I've skied other skis at centre which feel far better. At -2cm they are better in pow > 1ft but honestly, still not that great. I'm sure this is partly due to the near symmetrical sidecut which makes the tails reluctant to sink. I actually preferred the Line Blend in pow, despite not liking it much elsewhere.
Feel free to PM me any questions.
I bought the Sir francis bacons as my first pair of pow skis and was blown away at how fun they were to ride.
i had them drilled at "eric's choice" which i believe is about 2.5cm back from centre, i was a little hesitant to mount a pow ski this far forward but having skied them for a season i can safely say id mount them at this point again.
I found the bacons had more than enough float in even the deepest days. They were super playful in open powder fields doing smaller, more poppy turns but when i opened up my turns and started to ski a little harder they stayed super stable. Even though i was skiing them in a 190 (I'm 6'1) i found that tight trees they were more than manageable.
On piste i found they held up really well. Once they were on edge they felt really stable and were more than capable of holding down some really long radius turns. I was never expecting to get any good shorter turns out of these but i was actually nicely surprised at how responsive they felt going edge to edge. I only noticed some chatter when i put this thing flat and skied really fast, but thats some what expected in a ski that is as playful as this. I also really liked how much fun these were when it came to jibbing around on piste, whether it was coin small butters or nollie/ollying over stuff.
I even took them into the park a few times. Because these skis have a nice amount of pop in them thanks to the camber under foot they felt really solid on medium and big sized jumps, perfect for throwing some nice mellow spins on. Although i never took them onto rails i know people who use these as their staple park ski, and to be honest i can understand why, if you're looking for a fatter park ski that isn't soft as anything this would be an awesome ski to go for!
Would recommend these as a 1 ski quiver or for somebody like me who wants a pow ski that is still going to be able to hold its own on all mountain and even take the odd lap in the park.
A very versatile ski here. Real nice in the pow, but performs surprisingly well in the park and on the piste.
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