There has been a lot of talk about The Maven. Let's do some spotlighting on this ridiculously large ski. The Maven is fat. It's waist is 139mm. The Maven is aggresive. It's flex allows for play in the powder, but isn't so soft that you can't charge through the crud. The Maven is light. Considering it's size, it's surprisingly easy to lift--our own Kendall (aka Powstash) plans to put some touring binders on these babies and boast the fattest ride back down the hill with his trekking posse. The Maven is also pretty. Skier Jared Allen and partner, under thier company name, The Conveyer, fixed up the Maven graphics for us. I had a chance to collect some words from Jared about what inspired the design:
Once we got the die-lines and saw just how huge these boards were going to be, we realized we were going to have a large canvas to work with (which is pretty rare when working on ski graphics). The design concept takes a clean, yet complex look of the original District and pushed it a little further down that road. Much of the iconography depicts an empty, quiet world devoid of people, but not their creations. The Imagery is sophisticated and classic, but pulled together in a heavily layered and contemporary way.
There's also an understated eeriness to the imagery which we dig. It was a fun assignment and we're stoked with the final result.
Bluehouse gives a shout out to Jared and his team at The Conveyer (www.theconveyer.com) for the finishing touch they made with such a nice top-sheet design. The Maven is a ski that has come together nicely and will surely make many powder-hungry skiers happy this winter.
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Kendall, just out of
Kendall, just out of curiosity what binding are you going to throw on the Mavens? I was thinking of mounting mine with Dukes or Barons. Getting even more psyched with the updated information.
I think the Duke is a good
I think the Duke is a good choice, although a bit heavy for my taste so if you're trying to save a little weight but want the burl, the Baron may be the ticket.
But this ski as a touring rig for DEEP days may change your life - at least I'm hoping it'll change mine. I'll probably put some Freerides on mine to save a little weight as I'll be using them ore in the backcountry than the resort.
--Getting your pow one stash at a time
Here is my review of the
Here is my review of the Maven (I assume comment = review as well)
First the background. I am 6'3" 175 lbs. I am a pretty good tele skier but not a super strong alpine skier, though I do alright. I rode the Maven at Snowbird (alpine style) for an aggressive day of runs. The snow was variable, there were stashes of fresh (12+ inches) but mostly crud and some ice. I rode them in the bumps, steeps and some moderate terrain as well. So take my comments for what they are worth.
In the soft fresh snow the skis charged. They floated really well and at times it felt like they were doing a lot of the driving. I was really impressed with their float and the minimal effort required to move them in the soft.
In the crud they also charged. I was able to lean way over, get the skis on edge and let them go. However they were pretty hard to move quickly, once they were on course it was hard to change their mind.
In the trees they were again quite hard to maneuver. I felt 189 and 139 under foot was too much ski to be spry in the tight spaces. The same goes for bumps. I had to pick bigger lines through the bumps because I could not turn them in tighter squigglier lines.
Bottom line, in the fresh or crud on big steep mountains these skis are great. If you are going to be somewhere where you need to turn quickly and redirect the skis aggressively they come up short.
I felt they were pretty light for being such a big ski. I would not want to hike with them because personally I don't think pushing all that weight is worth it in the back-country. They are a good looking ski that plows.