This fits the space alongside many other similarly mid-fat all-mountain freestyle skis.
An ever-increasingly popular width for park riding is commonplace for that hybrid park/all-mountain ski shape.
The Dirty Bear XL is a good-looking ski with lots of potential.
So lets dive in!
In terms of flex, the Diry Bear is pretty solid underfoot with a playful nose and tail.
Other features are a full sidewall construction sintered bases and some pretty chunky edges, I’d guess 2.2mm.
Its a fairly beefy ski and not super light.
I like to throw my skis sideways a lot and play with slashy turns more than long edgy ones.
I found myself fighting this a lot when I first got on the ski.
venture to ignore the window winding…
The float was good and the only issue I had here was choosing to mount forward of recommended.
Mounting at +2cm from rec is always going to hinder performance in deeper snow.
If using this as a pure all-mountain ski I think the recommended mount of -4cm would have been preferable.
Theres always a tradeoff here and I think -2cm worked for park riding.
One of my favorite jump shots, possibly ever.
During springy slushy laps, the big shovel-y nose shone and plowed through all things soft.
Driving the shovels hard could cause them to fold a little, point Kartel here too.
The Dirty Bear thrived when being pinned straight and putting in large turns on choppy steeper terrain.
I didnt ride these so intensely on rails but they did hit a fair few in their time.
The Bear is a bit of a beast.
