Volkl Kiku Ski
February 12, 2009
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The buzz this year has been all about the Kiku, as evidenced by all the drool I had to wipe off the skis when the local patrollers saw them stashed next to the snow pit I was digging. OK, so I admit to adding a little drool of my own when I pulled the Kikus out of the box. And they deserve the admiration. These women-specific fatties look like powder boards, but perform in all conditions. The more I ski them the more I like them, and it’s a crying shame that my demo pair has heavy alpine bindings, because I’d love to schlep the Kikus to the backcountry and let ‘em rip in the real powder (which, sadly, we don’t have at the local resort here this year). But, as we know, I’m lazy, and the chances of me reaching for a heavy setup when I can take my superlight-can-be-lifted-with-a-pinky backcountry setup are pretty minimal. So I’ve tested the Kiku at the resort only. I wanted to hold off on this review until I could try these in deep powder, but it just doesn’t seem like this is the year. I’ll update the review with the report from the white room if I get that chance.
What I do know about the Kikus is that they’re a powerful, no-nonsense ski that can rip some serious big, fast turns. As the lucky recipient of knee surgery last year, I’ve been tentative about speed, but I had to just get over it when I got on the Kikus. They just do not want to do sissy little speed-shedding slalom-y turns, they want big, sweeping, wide, fast giant-radius downhill turns. Because it’s just not fun to wrestle with 105mm-underfoot skis to try to get them to do things they don’t want to do, I was forced to get over my post-knee-trauma hesitation and rip it up the way the Kikus are meant to do. And ever since then, I’ve liked them more and more.
I’ve read reviews criticizing the Kiku for being “soft” and to that I say “whaaaa?” This is not a soft ski. This is a powerful, stable, solid board, not a noodle. Beginners might not like it for this reason, and with my initial start-of-season hesitation, I didn’t like it either until I remembered how to ski with aggression. Usually I find Volkls to be a fairly forgiving, dependable ski, but the Kiku won’t do you any favors unless you ski with authority. This isn’t a downside by any means; the Kiku is very stable and has saved my bacon in a few sketchy chutes by holding the line when it really, really needed to be held. Once you learn the nuance of the Kiku, you can readily convince it to cooperate for short, tight turns, but the big-radius sweeps are where it’s at for this ski.
Because we’ve had such a lame snow year, most of my Kiku time has been on hardpack, chop, and crud. Yippee. But it’s still been fun, since this is a fun ski. My one complaint about the ski is that it chatters on hardpack at high speeds. I can’t believe I’m writing that, because ski reviews usually fall back on that standard complaint at some point, so I vowed never to use the phrase. But, there I was, straightlining it down the steep hardpack, and when I powered into a turn, it happened – chatter. But come on- it’s a fattie powder ski, can you blame it? Hardpack is lame. Personally I can forgive a little backtalk from the Kiku when it’s restricted to hardpack. What little powder I could find was completely demolished by the Kikus. My regular ski (also Volkl, by the way) is no skinny minnie, but the Kiku is so much wider I was tickled by how much higher I rode over the powder. I expected to lose a little speed in the 10″ of fresh but the Kikus just blasted through it, leaving me giggling inwardly and thinking “oooh, neat!” I usually return demos after I’ve posted the review, but I really want to hang on to these for a few more weeks just in case we get a powder dump at the resort. I suspect that 20-24″ of pow is where the Kiku will find its proper home.
Oh, I guess I do have one other complaint – the topsheets. They’re cream colored with red splashes with flowers. Not cool. I don’t let topsheets dictate my ski choice, but I do think this design could stand some improvement. They look like they’re supposed to form some sort of shape when put together, but I must be failing the ski Rorschach because I just can’t see it. If anyone can write in with a good explanation of what these topsheets are about, you’ll deserve a prize. In the meantime, ignore the topsheets and don’t worry – these skis are worthy. Enjoy.
Comments
6 Responses to “Volkl Kiku Ski”
lol as far as top sheet goes, to me it kinda looks like it forms a tree with some long grass next to a pond. The bushy part of the tree is near the tips. But that’s just me.
Hey, you might be right! You deserve a prize.
Lol I don’t need a prize, but maybe some advice would be helpful. I’m looking for a new powder ski to add to my quiver. I’ve been riding the k2 burnin luvs which have been a good all around ski but I want something that can handle some deeper powder. I’m looking for something with underfoot dimensions between 90-105. The Kikus sounded good, but from what I can gather, they’re really only good for deep powder in bowls, not so much trees. Is this right? Also, are there any other skis you might recommend? I was thinking either Line Pandora or Volkl Aura. Salomon Scarlet might be interesting too. Any other ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The other girls all yelled “AURA!” when I read your post to them, so that’s probably a good fit. However, I did really love the Kikus, and I’ll qualify my advice by saying there’s not a whole lot of tree skiing up here, so you’ll have to reconcile your idea of tree skiing with my idea of tree skiing, but I think the Kikus would do well. I usually ski on Volkls that are very similar in dimensions to the Aura, and I tend to make tighter, speed-shedding turns. Because of that tendency, I really noticed that the Kikus were definitely skewed to the big-radius, high-speed type of turn. Once I got comfortable on them, I LOVED them, mostly because they are so good in questionable conditions (mank, crud, heavy snow, etc). I had to work hard to crank short-radius turns out of them, and it wasn’t that fun, so I got used to the big, wide, sweeping fast turns that the Kikus are so good at. It’s possible to make tight turns with them, definitely, but it takes some very active skiing and a fair bit of skill. On the other hand, on every heavy powder day or day that I was skiing day-old chopped-up re-frozen powder, I was wishing I was on the Kikus. So I think it will depend more on the type of snow and conditions you encounter than the terrain on which you like to ski.
So after that kind of useless re-summary of the original review, I’ll say that the Kikus are GREAT but if you have doubts about whether they’re what you want, you can’t go wrong with the Auras. They are amazing and you won’t possibly regret that choice. I’ve never skied the Pandora; if you’ve demo’ed it, let me know what you thought.
Hey There… first time here. Thanks for the great review of the ‘09 Kiku. I’m starting my ski shopping for this year and I really can’t get enough information since I am totally split between the Kiku and the Pandora. Summer was a nice break to think about things OTHER than what ski to get. Alas, the question is back.
I skied for 1.5 days on last season’s Pandora at Snowbird. I’m a Volkl Girl, been on the Karma for a couple years now and another pair of Volkls before then. When I threw the Pandoras on I felt like I was cheating on my skis. BUT, this was overcome with sheer happiness and love for the Pandora. It was bouncy, fun, forgiving, easy to turn, it did phenomenal and floated so well in the 15″ of fresh we had, and plowed through the cut up stuff on the trail, and was very comfortable for wide turns on the groomers down at the base of the lifts. It skied trees quite well, we were in the trees all day.
I thank you for such detail on your Kiku experience, I wish you would have gotten some serious pow so you could tell me how they handled for you! My biggest concern with the ‘10 Kiku is that, while it’s considerably wider underfoot than my Karma, I’ll regret not going even bigger. But then I’m also a little concerned because, while I’ve been on a stiff ski forever, I wonder if the Pandora was so much fun because it was so forgiving, and if maybe I’m ready to be a little lazy and go with a softer ski.
Anyway, it’s a new season, we have new versions of both, love to see if you have any comments on the new lines. Still trying to decide. Yesterday it was the Pandora, today it’s the Kiku. Tomorrow it’ll probably be the Pandora again.
At least the Kiku top sheet is a little better this year!
I so agree with you about the topsheets! I just saw them yesterday and love them.
I used to ride the stiffest boards I could manage, but now I like a little more “forgiving” board, like you mentioned. The Kiku is stiff but transfers a lot of confidence despite it being a formidable ski. I am anxiously awaiting this year’s snow so I can take them out in the pow!
I haven’t tried the Pandora yet, but I can say that I think you’ll be happy with the Kikus if you go that way. Get ready for a little faster ride and bigger turns, but if you can hang on and go with it, the Kiku is a lot of fun. I don’t think I’d want to go too much wider unless I was sure to be skiing only pow; but hopefully I’ll have the chance to put that theory to the test this year on some new big boards!