Nothing to protest here, except a lack of powder. Coming to terms with the Praxis Protest means seizing joy when fire and brimstone align and it dumps powder. The Protest is a ski built to have all kinds of fun.
Praxis Protest: floaty at 139-128-132. “The Praxis Protest has been underfoot of the winner on the freeride world tour. It can do things I shouldn’t even consider doing even if I could and yet a skier such as myself can have a ton of fun on it. Maybe the most fun I’ve had on a pair of skis. Ever. On the Protest I am tempted to do things I shouldn’t. They just have me looking for the most fun line on the slope.”
The Basic Stats
- Weight (g)/ski in the UL build (187 cm): 1960
- Dimensions (mm): 139, 128, 132
- Available sizes (cm): 163, 177, 187, 192, 196
- Construction: Maple, ash and aspen core
- Sidewall: Full sidewall
- Mount/Stance behind center (mm): -80
- Tip height (cm): 7.5
- Tip rocker length (cm): 54
- Tail height (cm): 4.5
- Tail rocker length (cm): 33
- Price: $1050.00-$1200.00
The Goods
The High Route readers, beat up ice axes dangling from your packs, chiseled jaws set hard against the wind, quads of steel rippling beneath your 1989 Lifa longjohns, ideas about what makes a good ski etched like commandments in granite, I beckon you, though you may snort through your wiry lip-fur with indignation and contempt, please read beyond this next sentence. This is a review of the 128 underfoot, up-track of dread, behemoth of shred Praxis Protest in a tour build. It is big. Its weight is measured not in grams, but pounds baby, pounds.
I called Keith at Praxis skis to ask him about writing a review about the Protest. Keith is the most customer friendly, service oriented ski maker and sales person I’ve ever come in contact with. And he made it clear he definitely doesn’t care if I write a review or not. In fact, I think he’d prefer I didn’t. To paraphrase our conversation: reviews, (sub-text here, reviewers) are pretty annoying. He told me to just go and have fun on the skis.
So that’s what I’ve been doing. And I don’t mean to get all proselytize’y about it, but I thought I should let you know, it’s pretty easy to have an extremely fun time on these skis.
There is potentially some danger in looking to the world’s best skiers to see what kind of ski one should be using. I’m not even in the top three best skiers on my block, so should I be skiing the same skis Drew Tabke? Definitely not necessarily. At least I should not be skiing on them because he is. I touched on this in a review of the DPS Pagoda Tour 100 RP in the past, saying that DPS guys like Dash Longe are not in the videos landing massive backflips on the Pagoda line of skis. But most of us are not that fucking crazy, or, even in our most confident moments that fucking fast. Yet, the DPS Pagoda Tour 100 RP is a ski that a lot, a lot of skiers, would really get along with in a lot of conditions and this is not to say you cannot go very fast and land some good hucks on the Pagoda Tour 100 RP. Generally, if you can, it probably can too. It is a great ski.
I can say the same thing about the Line Vision 108. I love this ski. It is intuitive, I trust it, I can go very fast, I can go freaking slow, which is nice, and I can land some drops that are well below its capability. Yet…
The Praxis Protest has been underfoot of the winner on the freeride world tour. It can do things I shouldn’t even consider doing even if I could and yet a skier such as myself can have a ton of fun on it. Maybe the most fun I’ve had on a pair of skis. Ever. On the Protest I am tempted to do things I shouldn’t. They just have me looking for the most fun line on the slope.
According to Keith at Praxis it doesn’t really matter what skis are under your feet, skiing is just fun and powder skiing, especially is pretty rad. But he did go on to say, its nice to have some sticks with a little soul.
These skis are handmade in Incline Village, NV. They’re built to last, built to your specifications and you can pick some cool top sheet designs to boot. To me, that means something.
You can have any Praxis ski built specifically for you. Flex them stiffer, softer. Make them lighter, heavier. Add 10cm, or subtract. Talk to Keith about exactly what you are looking for. But the ski I have is not custom, it is the stock Protest ultra-light touring build. Spring often brings really good deals on Praxis skis so check the praxis site. Without hesitation I recommend the Protest to the powder touring enthusiast. It isn’t as versatile as Mariah Carey’s voice, but it hits the high notes like a boss and gets away with almost everything else with surprising aplomb. Yeah, skiing powder is pretty darn rad.
The Protest is 128 underfoot, 139 in the tip and 132 in the tail. It has significant tip rise and some tail rise too. To say it is built for powder is like saying Mike Tyson is built to punch your lights out – obvious even to the untrained eye. Nature’s clues can be a bit on the nose. The little bright blue frog, yeah, don’t eat that one.
So how much do you give up for powder prowess when the powder gives way to more uhhh realistic conditions? My first time out on the Protest was in an inch of slush on crust last late spring. I didn’t think I was setting myself up for success, and maybe setting myself up for ACL surgery, but I couldn’t resist. And holy shit! I had a blast! The surface was smooth and edgable, but not at all deep and the Protests could carve tight, carve huge, pivot and they were so stable landing the puny-ass jumps I do and rocketing straight down stuff too.
I was giddy! And then it became summer.
Then it was Winter
The wait was over this past October. It snowed. A lot. Oh what a joy. Oh blessed snow. Oh rocks! Point number one. The Praxis brand famously makes indestructible skis. Skis that will survive. Point number two. I am impatient. I don’t believe in postponing joy, if it can be helped.
This fall we got off to a roaring start to the season in the Wasatch. It was joyously deep and I got the protests out in their natural environment. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at terrain in the same way. The Protest is a ski built to have all kinds of fun. In the beginning conditions were quite safe and the Protests were pointed down some cool stuff. That changed as conditions became less a sure thing.
For those with an acute fear of death, storm days and the day or two to follow can be all about low angle pow. And low angle pow can be sort of fun, lots of fun, or psychologically murderous. When you know the steeper terrain in deep powder would be about as much fun as you can have on planet earth, and you are wiggling gently through that same powder on a mellow slope. It can be. Ok, for me it can be tortuous. But, I rationalize my desire to not die by telling myself I’m skiing this low angle shit because I have young kids. In fact, maybe I’m smart or I may just be a coward. But I do aim to come home.
The Protest is a ski that can (and has) won stops on the Freeride world tour. It can go faster than pandemic toilet paper, faster than you can fall out of an airplane, and what I am trying to tell you here is that it also can go slow. It can float that low angle pow without you leaning back like a fool sucker. This quality also lends itself well to skiing the narrow aspens, brush and gullies on the way back to the car. In soft snow the Protest makes this extremely fun, make the turn you want, the turn you need, wiggle, point it, slam on the breaks, laugh out loud.
There’s a lot of ways to have fun that have to do with skis; going far, going fast, going long, leaping through the air, falling off cliffs and landing right-side up, challenging yourself, seeing what’s over the next hill, getting away from it all and getting together with friends are some good ways. Some of these kinds of fun also lead to questions like, what the hell am I even doing out here!?
Are the Protests built to go super long. Not really. Are they built for ice or super hard snow, no. But while out skiing on them did I ever ask myself deep life and death questions? Not yet. Mostly its been pure wooohooo baby!
OK, these skis weigh what they weigh. I don’t feel like they’re that heavy, they skin well, they get me to the top so I can have my fun. I’m just stoked, and if you fall into the category of pretty stoked and out for a good time, these skis could definitely be your jam.
