Salomon have released their all new ski the BBR on the the UK market for winter 2011-12 and it is causing as much confusion as excitement amongst consumers. With it's radical new shape, which is very surf board inspired, and bright blue colour scheme we are already seeing people drawn to it in the ski racks at sail and ski in both our shops but more often than not the look of initial excitement at seeing such a wild looking ski then quickly turns to a look of confusion as to how the ski is for. Let me try an enlighten you from my own experiences with both the Salomon BBR 8.9 and the 7.9
Every March we take 10 of us away to Italy (Austria from 2012) to the SIGB ski test and get to ski everything on the market. Nice work if you can get it. The beauty of our test team is that it is not simply 10 awesome skiers but a complete mix of abilities for recreational to very advanced allowing us to get a great cross section of opinion on all of the skis. in the case of the BBR this test group was perfect
The Concept of the Salomon BBR
Actually quite simple really, A very wide nose gives float in powder, a normal 79mm or 89mm waist width keeps the ski versatile enough to ski all over the mountain, and the narrow tail allows the rear end of the ski to sink in deep snow giving the tip more lift but also allows the tail to be maneuverable under the snow as it is not pushing against a great amount resistance. Off-piste you have a ski that want to allow the tip to the surface and is very maneuverable in deep snow at lower speeds but it has allowed you to ski the groomers to get to your powder stash without being a really wide difficult to ski 110mm or more wide ski. The only other thing we noticed about the skis ability on piste is that as the tail is narrower than the tip by a big amount beginner to intermediates get on with it well as you can easily lean a bit further back and slide the tails of the ski around a bit more
The Salomon BBR 8.9 skis
My personal pick of the two but I am quite used to stiffer skis in the 90-100mm wide territory. Would suit all skiers from strong intermediate upwards and would be the one to go for if you are looking to a lot of off piste skiing
The Salomon BBR 7.9 skis
Officially the intermediate version of the BBR but we found that it really appealed to the women as well who don't need the same width as a bigger man or to the intermediate who wanted a ski with a "talking point" that is very forgiving and will allow for easy learning in the powder down the sides of the piste
If this doesn't set you straight then just give us a call at the office on 01743 363443 and we'll try an explain it a different way - but in conclusion the big question is would you buy a pair? For me the answer was yes, but it would be the 8.9 and half our test team agreed with this. A couple preferred the 7.9 for reasons explained above and a couple simply didn't like them. But hey, if we all liked the same stuff the world (and the mountain) would be a very boring place
