Line Sakana set up for tele?

[MJ_Ramsay]

They might still be too new on the market for anyone to have tried this yet, but it’s worth a shot:

Anyone out there mounted tele bindings on a pair of Line Sakanas perchance?
If so- how did they do for telemarking?
And any binding mounting position recommendations?

I have not found anyone that has tried them for tele, but I’m liking the geometry, flex, radius, construction, and reviews on evo and elsewhere.
See here, if interested:
https://www.evo.com/skis/line-sakana

Thanks in advance for any info.

[Woodserson]

Did you ask the question on Evo about tele? Ha!

"We do not recommend tele at this time" -said the ski industry

Good luck... They look awesome. 15m radius! Impressive. I'm intrigued. I bet I would love the 174. I bet the T4 could drive it if it's as soft as they say. That might be really interesting ride. Have you been able to get your hands on them?

I had a pair of Sick Days 94s last year and they were sweet, but very soft with the rocker, so the tip sometimes would feel like it was folding in half in deep snow.

[MJ_Ramsay]

Thanks for your reply Woodserson.

I did ask evo and they have no reviews or experience with such a set up.
I emailed Line directly too and have not heard back yet.

That is interesting to hear what you found to be the case with soft flex and rocker in powder. These do have quite soft flex and rockered tip, but reviews indicate that the wide tip width stays up well in powder.

Currently I ski on size 181 K2 Side Stash with 22 designs Axl bindings for powder days and my old 174 K2 World Piste for hardback or groomer days.
I am looking to buy a shorter length (174), mid-fat, rocker/camber-ski because I find the 181 a bit too long for me, (even though they have a rockered tip and therefore supposedly shorter effective edge length).

I’ll let you know if I ever do try out tele on these Sakanas.

[bigtexas]

Any update on this? I'm very curious how this ski would tele, have you gotten a chance to ride it yet?

[MJ_Ramsay]

Hi bigtexas,
(do you tend to ski at Crested Butte perchance?...when I lived there many Texans came up to Gunnison)

Yes, I have set mine up (174cm, 2019s) with 22Design Axl bindings and I ski in Garmont synergy boots just FYI.

I’ve had a season and a half on them now and absolutely love the set up. I love the performance in virtually all conditions. Fun flowy skis, shapely, graceful turning; quite forgiving and stable in variable conditions. Buoyant in deep pow;no issue with what Woodserson said elsewhere in this thread re: sensation of folding. I’d say they truly excel in pow.

I’ve been committed to using mostly a one ski quiver for a while now with mid-fat, rocker-camber skis for 90% of my skiing time (last ski was K2 Side Stash), so, I aim to only ski fresh powder, packed powder, tracked pow, or semi soft, side country stuff. I say this b/c admittedly, these are not ideal on icy hard pack or bulletproof wind blown conditions, but I aim to avoid those as much as possible. (they are perfectly fine on corduroy tho’).
On the rare occasion that I do go out early season, or we haven’t had any new snow for a while and I plan to just lap at-speed on groomers, I bust out my old 2003 K2 World Piste.

The other conditions they are not great in is bumps or situations needing many short radius turns, but one wouldn’t really expect them to do so well in those situations given their geometry.

I like how much lighter the Sakanas are compared to my Side Stash; also enjoy the softer flex, tho’ less ‘springy/poppy’ (due to less stiff/less cambered’.

Re: split fish tail, honestly, I don’t really notice it one way or the other as a pro or con. If anything, occasionally I get my tails crossed up and snagged on one another, but that probably has more to do with my skill/technique/fatigue level in such moments than the design itself.

Now, I had one issue that concerned me, but later sorted it out and it was a bit weird:
When the shop first mounted the bindings, I got dimples on the bases at some of the screws’ locations. At first this freaked me out on my brand new $900 skis, but the shop later shortened the screws a bit, put the skis in a hot box and clamped/flattened the bases without having to grind them at all.
It turns out that there is a raised Line logo (the one with three squares logo) right in the area of the binding mounting holes that caused this effect due to slightly different thickness of material, which based on my experience is arguably a slight design flaw (note to designers: don’t put an embossed feature under foot!) I wrote to Line about it and showed them photos, so maybe newer Sakanas don’t have it anymore, I haven’t checked.

My home mountain is Whistler/Blackcomb, and it’s been fun to occasionally hear cheers, hoots and hollers from folks that are fans of the Sakana: they are certainly unique.

My final advice: go for it!! They make for a great tele set up, provided you accept the inherent limitations of their design under certain conditions (noted above and that really ought to be no surprise to anyone), and choose your conditions wisely, or I might say: choose the ski if it aligns well with your typical skiing habits & conditions.

[Woodserson]

Thank you for returning and writing this fantastic review... Very problematic... because now I neeeeeeed one!

I'm glad it doesn't fold up on you. 15m radius and 105mm underfoot?! I love this concept so much.

Thanks again, really great writeup

[Woodserson]

I wonder if the swallow tail let's you mount more forward to help with turn initiation, but allows the tail to sink.

[Woodserson]

One more question: how much do you weight, how tall?

[MJ_Ramsay]

Hmm, sorry for the ‘problematic’ review
(but not sorry: you wouldn’t regret it)

I’m 5’7” 155

[bigtexas]

I'm actually from Michigan lol... just a nickname that stuck when I was skiing with all the older guys as a kid.

Thanks for the review! I have Liberty origin 90s as my tele ski right now and would be looking at this for soft/fresh snow conditions. Sounds like it would be a solid ski to add to the quiver. I haven't been able to see the ski in person yet as my local shops don't carry them or haven't ordered any. The 150 nose just seems so huge lol