Ski: DPS RP 112 Pure, 178cm, mounted +2 with Dynafit Speed Radicals, no brakes. Review below.
Me: 160 lbs, 5’6″, former racer, now backcountry skier, neutral stance, size 26 boots, aggressive style. The skis look Clean, light and aesthetic with the Speed’s. The yellow top sheets have a slight texture and do not accumulate snow sticking like my Dynafits did with the black smooth tops. The finish is clean, and they look well built, more like a Mercedes than a Ford. The tops seem to resist scuffing and scratching, but can get nicked if you whack them on a kick turn. They weigh 1800 grams each, which seemed heavy at first compared to my Manaslu’s but now, with the width for deep powder, don’t seem heavy at all. All the other light skis at 112 are at least as heavy including the Dynafit powder models. DPS makes their skis in the US from carbon fiber. The skis have low camber, slight reverse rocker at the tip in the spoon, and a side cut behind the whale tip. They are soft skis and flex well. They are 95% powder skis and do very well in ankle to waist deep powder. I skied them on BC hardpack, BC 1 foot settled powder, Hokkaido Japan waist deep powder.
Read the DPS site carefully on mounting instructions. The authorized dealer I bought mine from did not have a clue. He mounted them on center, and they skied like crap. They just slid on hardpack and would not carve. They chattered almost uncontrollably on hard windpack or ice, and were very difficult to ski powder. I had to lean way far foward in an unnatural manner, and if I got neutral, they would throw me back, and not allow regaining forward control. Turn initiation was very hard. So after almost selling them, I talked to a guide from Revelstoke who said, All the guys and shops there are mounting +2. I did, as 2cm is minimum for a remount, and its made a world of difference. They are now without a doubt the best powder skis I have ever ridden. They intiate turns very easily and have super control in tight trees. They can handle speed on the cream powder with authority. They carve on the piste with accelleration, but at speed wander on hardpack due to low camber and soft flex. They ski shorter than their length as the front has the modern spoon in front with the side cut starting about 1/4 way back from the tip, and the tip being a spoon. Floats great in waist deep blower pow and due to low rise tip forward resistance is low. Can ski backwards easily due to tail rise. Once I did ski into a drift at the bottom and the flat tips dove in, but only on the flats at the bottom of the steeps. They are easy to sit back and bring up the dips if the pow gets heavy. The tail feels a little long on the kickturns if you can’t bury your tail in the pow on the turn.
Get 2 or 3 coats of good wax on them before you go out the first time. World of a difference. The factory ptex has a texture on the bottom that might need to be stone ground out at the shop first and makes a buzzing sound. Wax really helps, much faster, much better turning.
I have G3 skins on them. The tails don’t have an indent for the skin clips, but I haven’t had a problem with them slipping off. They need a real good wax job out of the shop with trip wax to fill in the base grind texture. I think a full base grind would help avoid the new ski buzz due to ptex texture. The Ptex is hard. The edges go all the way around the tip and tail for good protection at a slight weight penalty.
These are a great 2nd ski for deep pow, but would require a narrower spring/ice ski. Great for a quiver. They are not very good on ice or hard hard windpack. Before I moved the binding forward I got bad chatter on ice and hard hardpack. Hopefully not so bad with the bindings, but I’ve only skied deep blower powder since the move. I did notice the guide in BC who had the Rossi S7’s also getting a lot of chatter on his skis on the steep icefall face.