u/Junglist_Massive22

I hadn’t ridden a terrain park for a couple decades and just started going in with my son recently. One thing that’s not clear to me is the line etiquette for hitting features.

In general I assume it’s first come, first served, but when it’s busy (which is often), it’s not that straightforward. You’ve got a bunch of people grouped at the entrance - some are waiting to drop, others are just standing around - and it’s not obvious who’s actually in line.

Also, most people leave big gaps between themselves and the person ahead. For example, a lot will wait until the person in front has fully cleared the landing before even starting their approach. I get not wanting to hit the jump if there’s any chance someone is down in the landing zone, but waiting to even start moving makes things really inefficient. It can be 20 seconds per person, and with 30 people there (and more constantly flowing in), it takes forever to get a turn.

It seems more efficient to keep a larger but reasonable gap - enough to bail if the person in front crashes, rather than waiting until they’re completely clear before moving. Obviously that depends on the size of the jump (bigger jump = bigger gap).

From my limited experience, it feels like you have to be somewhat assertive and take your window when it opens, rather than waiting for everyone who was there before you to go, or you could be standing there forever. That said, I don’t want to be the guy cutting the line, but it almost seems unavoidable if you don’t want to wait five minutes per feature.

Is this just how it works?

Hoping some of you guys have skied these 2 skis and can provide some insight. I am 5'11 190 lbs, advanced (not expert) skier that primarily skis Whistler. I am looking for an off-piste biased daily driver all mountain ski around 100mm waist width. I ski pretty aggressively and weigh enough that I need a relatively stiff ski. I already have a pair of Volkl Mantra M7's and Rustler 11's as my powder ski. I really like the Mantra's and ski them in a lot of conditions, but they aren't ideal in tight trees and mogul type terrain, so that's the gap I am looking to fill. I've heard a lot of good things about the Dynastar M Free 100 and that's what I was assuming I would end up buying. However, I recently demoed Rustler 10's and really liked them and considering grabbing a pair. On one hand, it would feel kind of weird to own both the Rustler 10's and 11's, but they felt different enough that I would feel comfortable owning both. I also demoed the Rossignol Sender 100, which was a solid ski, and quite similar to the Rustler 10's overall, but just lacked the character that I liked from the Rustler 10's.

The plan would be that the Mantra's are my daily driver when the conditions are more hard pack or icy, or if I know I will be skiing groomers more than off-piste, the Rustler 11 would be for any day with a decent amount of fresh snow, and the Rustler 10 (or M Free 100) would be for everything in between.

Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to demo the M Free's, although I could probably find a shop to rent them from if I really wanted to. The Rustler 10's definitely felt good enough that I would buy them regardless - but just curious to hear from anyone who has skied both to know if I should try to rent the M Free's before deciding to buy a pair of Rustler 10's.