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The 2015 Talisman was designed to rip in both the park and the rest of the mountain. This durable ski with tip rocker, die-cut bases, and carbon reinforcements is the ultimate tool for booters, butters, rails, park laps, and carving turns.
Sizes = 182cm, 176cm, 166cm
Turn Radius = 19.7m @ 182cm
Dimensions = 132-96-122
Weight = 8.4lbs/pair @ 182cm
Flex: Tip/Tail = 6, Waist = 7
Screenprinted TPU Topsheets
Poplar Core
Sintered, Die-Cut Bases
Full Edge Wrap
Cap Construction in the Tip/Tail for added durability, sandwich construction underfoot for improved performance.
Full length Carbon Stringers
Additional Carbon Reinforcements in Tip/Tail for additional Pop and Durability.
Discalimer: I did receive a slight product discount from Revision skis, HOWEVER, they did not ask me to write this review and I have done my best to be honest in my assessment of these skis, and provide information to those looking into purchasing the talisman.
Revision skis Talisman Review
Reviewer info:
Name: Matthew Wood
Height: 5’9
Weight: 155 lbs
Skier Background: 12 years a racer, I like to ski fast and hard. Switched from FIS level ski racing to full time big mountain skiing two years ago, love taking air, straightlining and making super g turns through crud, but also appreciate butters and surf style skiing. I backcountry tour and appreciate light skis, but expect my skis to hold up well. I have a history of breaking skis in my everyday skiing situations
Ski Setup: talisman 182 mounted with tyrolia aaattack 16 binding, paired with scarpa hurricane 130 boots. No detune.
First Impression: Damn these things are soft, the graphics are dope as hell, they feel longer than 182, and construction and camber profile seems spot on. Don’t judge these skis by the classic hand flex. The lack of stiffness was initially disconcerting, but after skiing them it seems sufficient for their intended purpose. They are light, extraordinarily so for a ski of this length with a sidewall. I like the tip rivets. The bases seem to hold wax well for such a reasonably priced ski, and they feel like a high quality product right out of the box.
Strengths: for me, these skis preform adequately in high-speed chop. The soft, rockered tip deflects well and allows the ski to work efficiently and effectively in dispatching with bumps and jumps. The non-rocker, slightly stiffer tail provides a good platform to stand on when you get bucked. These skis reward a balanced skier in an all mountain scenario. Get in the back seat and they can bite you in the ass. Their park performance is spectacular, with butters effortless and edge control very good. Pure park and pipe performance is wonderful and at least as good as smaller waisted skis (not quite as poppy as a more traditional park ski such as the Atomic Infamous, but the talisman’s all mountain performance blows the Atomic out of the water). In the pipe the width is noticeable but the sacrifice is slight and the gains in versatility are massive and worth the trade off in my eyes. Swing weight is on par with the standard today. They have held up very well to abuse, I have put approximately 20 days on them thus far and have not broken them yet, which bodes well for their construction*. Large, off piste jumps into chopped landings are a joy on the talisman. The light swing weight paired with the slightly longer than conventional size allows for easy tricking and solid, predictable landings. If you plan on using the Talisman for shredding outside the park, id suggest going a size up from your normally preferred length.
Weaknesses: being mainly an aggressive non-park skier, the talisman could be stiffer, and have a longer turning radius. When really charging, and dropping bigger cliffs they do have a noticeable speed limit. If you are buying these skis purely for charging, they are the wrong skis for you. I value the playfulness in the talisman and the top end trade off is worth it for me. Having skied pure charging skis, the talisman is infinitely more fun and infinitely more enjoyable to ski in an every day situation. I would love to see this ski with a more all mountain “tune†so to speak. It would be interesting to see it as a stiffer ski with a rocker tail, or if revision really wants to turn it up as a charging ski with a flat tail. The shape is pretty much spot on here, the character of this ski comes from the flex pattern, and I would love to see the playful demeanor of the talisman combined with a ski you can stand on a bit more when charging. Another note: if you are using these skis to rally around the mountain, the recommended mount point (true center) will not be what you want. Mount a set of schitzo plates or go 4-6 cm back from true center for best results. Of course that is a personal preference thing but -5 did the trick for me.
Conclusion: Revision skis nailed it in terms of making a ski you’d actually like to use. The Talisman is a wonderfully buttery, playful park ski that you can ride, and ride hard all over the mountain. The top speed suffers in the name of playfulness, but the tradeoff is absolutely worth it. I find myself enjoying these skis every day I ride them and consistently being surprised by the talisman’s versatility and ability in almost all aspects of skiing. For the price there is no better option in my opinion.
*Although the durability and build quality is on par I do think it warrants mentioning that since writing this review I have blown a sidewall on both my talismans and my subtractions. I do not fault Revision whatsoever on this, as both times were a result of dropping 20 foot+ drops onto rocks going mach chicken and would’ve blown out any sidewall on pretty much any ski out there, but in the spirit of unbiased reviewing I figured I’d include that piece of information even though it is not terribly pertinent or reflective to the build quality of the talisman.
So much fun just falling apart too quickly.
Ratings:I've been skiing these for about 9 days on Mary Jane in a variety of conditions (15 inches of powder- dust on crust). I had them center mounted (by accident sort of but oh well, hasn't bothered me yet) with pivot 14s and so far I've immensely enjoyed them.
They can handle pretty much anything but flat powder as long as you're ready to charge with them. They have a whole lot more pop and thus balance in the air than my old volkl bridges.
The flex is pretty spot on. They've been stiff enough to hold up to crud and they don't chatter much especially when on edge. At the same time butters haven't been overly difficult but I don't really ride soft skis ever so my opinion is perhaps tainted.
Haven't ridden them in the park much at all. But i'm pretty sure the edits and films we've all seen at this point have cemented this skis status as an extremely capable park option.
Great ski!
I took the leap to get these skis, I am thoroughly impressed with them! they have a good amount of dampening in them making them cruise through the bumps with that extra width aiding it as well, in the park they feel super playful and easy to whip around, the swing weight was minuscule to me. The nose has a really pleasant smooth flex pattern doesnt take a whole lot to get your heels up, same with the tail its pretty easy to take the tips to the sky yet still very poppy in the that tail. Rolled cap tips and sandwich underfoot has proved to be pretty darn durable to hitting your skis together. I am loving the 5mm camber on these skis makes for smooth transitions and fun carving on groomers, Now for jumps largest my resort has right now is 25 but taking it to the gucci plateau these have been pretty stable landing and take off wise. Got them up to 60mph, they hold edge extremely well and were not very chattery. Confidence inspiring not once did i question if these ski will take me there. Now for those of you concerned about the wood core becoming very soft and undurable i weigh 185-190 in gear and havent been worried about structural integrity. These skis do have 6 rivets 2 in the noses and 1 in the tail, on my first 2 days i popped 4 of the 6 rivets. Within hours revision had upgraded ones that get put in by screwdriver sent out to me. this has been the only problems ive encountered as of yet, and the next year model skis have fixed that rivet problem. All in all i am extremely happy with these skis and would recommend them to anyone that wants a playful camber ski that can go anywhere on the mountain.
Ratings:got to use my pair of talismans today... snow was not the best but pretty happy with the skis for the $179 they cost me. got them center mounted and detuned so carving was not the best, but I could still rip on them. they skied switch nice and the skis were real poppy and playful overall. Going from 88 underfoots on my last pair of skis to 96 underfoot on the revisions took a bit of getting uses to, both in the park and all mountain. It was fun skiing park with the talisman, they felt more buttery and pressy. locking my edge onto to rails for spins out was a more difficult with the wider skis, and just greasing rails on wider park skis in general didn’t feel 100%.... but I got used to it. Lip slides did seem easlier tho. Swing weight was decent for a larger park ski, tho I didn’t get to do a lot of tricks off the jump the hill had… (snow was slow). Durability wise the skis were fine, strong edges base and top sheet. The only problem is that the bottom of three out of six rivets popped out! Kinda disappointed but I know im not the only one who had this happen to them and hey shit happens when ur starting up a ski company. Customer serves is pretty reliable, Should be able to easily get some replacements that will hold up a bit better. Over all pretty pleased with the construction and performance of the ski, and I would recommend a pair to anyone interested. Good job Revision!
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