I currently own the first version of J Skis’ The Vacation ski.
I have skied it for three years as my daily driver and recently converted it to my touring ski. In this review, I will share my impressions of the ski and it’s best uses from my 100+ days on the ski.
Disclaimer: I own the first generation of this ski. I have not had the opportunity to ski the latest generation but apart from some dimension changes the personality of the ski is quite similar.
The Vacation
The J Skis Vacation is an all-mountain freestyle ski. As J Skis says themselves “it’s a departure from the traditional stiff freestyle ski and is made for throwing tricks all over the mountain”. I ski the 186mm version with 135-106-124 mm dimensions. For the majority of the time on the ski, I had them mounted at the center.
(Love Skiing? Learn how to be a ski bum here.)
On the Mountain Personality
The Vacation’s personality is exactly how J Skis describes it. It has a soft flex compelling it to pop off everything in sight and making it truly freestyle oriented. While I can’t spin more than a 360 the weight of the ski never limited my ability to spin. The soft tips and tails encourage you to butter and I enjoy tail pressing long rollers on them and trying the occasional nose butter 3’s.
All Mountain Performance
It has great all-mountain performance as well. It can hold a solid edge at slow to moderately high speeds making groomers a blast.
However, you can find the speed limit of these skis on the groomers and in mixed conditions. It’s something to be aware of but you can still push them very hard for a freestyle oriented ski.
Powder Performance
The Vacation also works well in small amounts of fresh snow. I enjoyed skiing them in storms up to 6 inches. I did experience tip dive and had to adopt a more back seat stance. My dead center mount did exacerbated this. I believe they will float better if you mount them more traditionally.
They maintained their playful characteristics in the fresh snow and are a blast to ollie and pop off of features. When skiing in chop you will get knocked around.
They are not a damp charger and you can feel that towards the end of a powder day. But it’s something to be expected for this category of ski. Do you get knocked around a lot in chop? Learn how to get stronger ski legs here.
Durability
The skis durability is great. The edges have worn, which can be expected from three years of heavy use. The graphic has not faded at all and the bases plus edges look like they can last you a lifetime.
J Skis – The Company
For the company itself, I cannot speak more highly of J Skis. They are a great company. I originally got the vacation in 180cms. After skiing on the ski for three days I realized my sizing error. J Skis let me return the skis for a full refund which I used to purchase another set of skis in 186cm.
With customer support like that, I believe that J Skis will have you back in any scenario. I would happily purchase J Skis again, in fact, I already have my eye on the new Hotshot set to release this winter.
The Vacations’ Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Lightweight
- Abundance of pop
- Great edge hold
Cons:
- Can be unstable in chop and at higher speeds
Take-Home:
When you dream of skiing do your dreams involve popping side hits, throwing 3s, and stomping butters under the lift? If so, the J Skis Vacation is for you. It’s a lively freestyle ski that works great as an all-mountain daily driver.
It does have a speed limit though. So if you are looking for a charger consider The HotShot, it has close to the same dimensions but with metal underfoot.
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