Armada Stranger 2023 Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQKl2spzXvgSpecs and Tech

The Stranger has a 139mm tapered tip and a 100mm waist. That alone should tell you the sidecut is short, and it is 15.8m in the 180cm ski. It has a pretty significant tip rocker and tip taper that would look at home on any powder ski, somewhat reminiscent of the JJs in fact. The tail is squared off, with more or less full sidecut, and less rocker than the tip. The tail rocker is also very different from the tip, with a near-flat angle somewhat similar to some Surface skis. Armada calls the tech ‘springboard tail’.

On-snow

I mounted +2cm of recommended (-8cm from true) on the recommendation of Armada as a result, and I’m glad I did. After a few runs, the started to feel a bit more comfortable and I got to start playing around with turn shapes and flex. The tight turn radius and mounting point feel more natural when you turn aggressively than when you ski in a more relaxed position and with a more centered stance. The ski feels like it will make most turn shapes quite comfortably, though it does feel a bit twitchy at high speeds in longer turns. For shorter, more (and I can’t believe this sentence is going in a Newschoolers review) GS style turns though the skis linked up really nicely. They have a good amount of energy in the exit of the turn too, thanks to the moderate flex and poppy core. You can really flex the skis into the turn and bounce out of it.

Durability

I didn’t really put these through the wringer, being as I mostly skied them on trails, but they held up perfectly for my review period. They have the same construction as Armada’s ARV series as far as I can tell, so I would assume similar durability.

Profile & Base

Progressive ski design, merging carving with freestyle and freeride.

The goal was straightforward. Build a 15m radius ski that we can take to the groomers on an average day with friends, carve hard, trick around on, laugh and have a good time. No bottomless pow, no 80-foot booters, no racing gates. Make the most of average conditions at your local resort because piste skiing can be way fun with the right tools. 100mm under foot, featuring a straight-tapered, edgeless butterzone in the tip and a rockered Springboard Tail for endless wheelies and extra pop, the all new Stranger merges carving with freestyle and freeride attributes.