Dynafit PDG Ski

I picked up this ski for the local skimo race series here in VT. It has been an awesome ski to start racing on, and is more than capable for big long days in steep terrain. The ski responded well to taking a beating. The plastic tip provides good protection bouncing off trees and couloir edges. Eventually the edges failed on my skis, but that was after hundreds of thousands of feet of vert and abuse. Personally, I think my next race/long day ski will have a more tip rocker as these skis don't "float" as well as some other race skis I have tried.

What would be the ideal releasable Dynafit binding you would recommend with this ski? Interested in light weight, but want something that will come off properly in a fall.

Is it any skins with tail attachment for this skies ?

Never going back....to "normal" downhill skis that is ;-). Somewhat tongue in cheek, but they ski so well in everything I've skied this year (no powder to be fair), I can't see why I'd want to lug heavy skis around anymore even if only to the lift.
Got these to slowly get into ski mountaineering racing and honestly to have a better set up to skin our local mountain. With snowmaking, it has consistent and predictable conditions. As an avid Nordic skier, our natural snow has been too inconsistent for solid winter snow time at the Nordic center.
Paired them with a PDG boot and low tech bindings and race ready skins, all dynafit. They float up hill of course, but a bit surprised how well downhill. Only a bit as other reviews gave me a clue. After The Taos Rando race a few weeks ago, I skied all of their blue groomers with my wife, with a goal of spending time with her obviously, but also to see how fast I could get these to go. As a Nordic skier who learned to ski with a giant slalom racing bent, I let them go and just rode the rails. Amazingly solid, super fast, very responsive from turn to turn. Just as good if not better than the decade old GS "style" skis I bought while skiing east coast tilled ice. And so light, I can carry them in one hand like Nordic boards.
Used them teaching my daughter to ski also. Spent a few hours in a dynamic snow plow pulling her reigns. Albeit light, they plowed through the AZ sun induced afternoon slush. They also plowed through that same slush as it started to harden during our local ski up/down event. A bit of chatter but friends of mine who skied the same crud with traditional boards complained just as much.
I appreciate also their ability to be abused. I was a bit over my head skiing a lot of the moguls, trees, and chutes at Taos during my Rando race there. I even slammed my pole tip into it during an errant double pole plant and they are holding up well.
Love the skis. Love the company. Buy as many of these skis as you can afford. Give them to your buddies.... Grow the sport. As a "last years" model, the price is cheap and supplies likely low

I've used this skis with TLT speed superlights for speed touring and racing. I have been impressed with their versatility given that they are a race ski.

The price is a good place to start handing out recommendations. At the price, only the Voile Wasatch Speed Project compares.

Next comes skiability: the stiffness in this ski makes it feel bigger than it is. The camber means that it carves. I mean Carves, much better than any other ski that I own.

The durability has been good. The PNW snow season was very low this year, so this thing has skied across gravel, rocks, and a lot of ice. With >100k on them for the season, I have yet to core shot them or compress an edge. The topsheet it also reasonably durable, and the tip guard is a nice touch. The tails are diminutive and prone to getting banged up and would also benefit from a little bit of rubberization.

They work very nicely with race style skins as far as attachment goes, but I have one suggestion: too much camber makes for a sub-par race ski. Under the right (stiff and technical) conditions, the camber can reduce the surface area of skin meeting the snow, or can necessitate more force for that contact to happen. A more neutral camber would work better.

All told, this has been an excellent ski. At the price, it's hard to beat. As a race ski, it holds its own at half the price. I've never bought a piece of gear so enabling.

I have used these skis for a little over one season and have been incredibly impressed. I used them as my primary ski all last year except for one powder day I just couldnt pass up and one day when my buddy complained that I was going to leave him in the dust and had to use heavy skis like him so he had a chance of keeping up. The days included a lot of lift service skiing with my kids including bumps, crud, packed powder groomers etc as well as regular backcountry usage from powder to crust to crud plus 4 skimo races which included some of the sketchiest snow conditions of various types one would expect to see in and around areas (trap door, steep ice, rock hard bumps, etc).

I should also add that Im 6'4".

Durability. I thought Id be too big for these skis and snap them eventually due to my lack of technique when exhausted in races and my size but despite plowing them into the sides of bumps and other abuse, they have held up extremely well. I have nicked them on rocks but without much more than superficial scratching and the edges stay sharp.

Cost. As A OK says, these are well worth the money and plenty of race ski for anyone but the fastest folks out there. There are not many skis this good in the 800 gram race ski category.

Skiability. Im a good skier and can handle most any type of terrain and steepness but may not be the first one down (just for a point of reference). These skis were made to be skied aggressively, weight forward, going fast. Do that and they rock. They carve great in hard or corn conditions and ski steep powder really well too. You can ski crust as good or better than you would expect with a traditionally cambered ski and a light weight boot. Get in the back seat though and I have found they just dont do well. Since they are a race ski and your pack is light, this seems no problem. The large shovel width seems like it helps keep these floating as much as possible and the pin tails as said by the other reviewers really are great for fast and easy transitions to your backpack for a boot pack.

On the uphill, these skis are easy to kick turn and they track well. On the flats they skate well. I have not had to deepen the tip notch any and have used them with both Dynafit skins with those rubber tip things as well as some CAMP skins with home made bungee tip rigs which also worked just fine with nothing more than a knot in the bungee material to hold it in the grooves.

When going at speed (as fast as Im willing to go anyway) on groomers, they are really stable as long as your boot is a good fit and you have really good control.

There is no real disadvantage to these skis as far as I can see for a race-specific ski and as Ive mentioned, it does well in a wide variety of conditions off the race course. It is also durable so you will get your money out of them. If you buy a pair for racing plus other fast and light endeavors, you will not be disappointed.

Since I already had a pair of ultra-light race skis, I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about in the 'half the price of the race version, for a few ounces of weight penalty' movement. I wasn't disappointed. Despite nailing about 20 rocks solidly during the slow snow start of the 2012-2013 season, I didn't get any edge compressions or dings worth mentioning. No core shots either. So, to my eye, durability seems awesome for a ski this diminutive. From Broad Fork Twin Peak to Bonkers and beyond, I took 'em all around the bc during the first half of last season.

I like the squared-off tip. Looks cool and seems to give the tiniest bit of tip-lift when hitting other material than groomers. As with many skin-tip designs, this cutout notch is a bit shallow, too. A quick file job can sort out the issue and prevent skins from coming off at the tip while mating uphill.

The triangular cut of the tails is genius when it comes time to put your tail-loops through your ski-carry strap on the backpack.

While not as stiff as a carbon fiber ski, these are no noodles. They are surprisingly stiff which keeps chatter to a minimum and edge contact to a maximum at speed. As for those extra few ounces per ski, which saves the consumer half the price of a full-blown race ski? Almost imperceptible. The experience is much the same as with the lighter race ski. I've never thought these needed to be lighter to make my day!

One thing to note likely concerns the stringers in the core of the skis. To make them light, it's not solid wood in there. One of the mount holes for my rear binding plate goes down into .. nothingness. That mount screw is essentially in contact with nothing inside the ski. Fortunately, a (carbon?) insert is built into these skis in the rear binding mount area (just beneath the top sheet graphics), and the screw seems to hold onto that without coming loose.

Whoever came up with the 'half the price of the race version, for a few ounces of weight penalty' movement hit it out of the park with the PDG skis!

This was (and is) my current skimo race ski. I've skiied it for one season. I've been very happy with it for what it is. I've been able to ski in all conditions with it and it's primary downfall is of course, breakable crust. Drop into the backseat and you can usually shake yourself loose. It's a surprisingly durable ski with the sidewalls surviving many hits by hidden rocks. The topsheet is fairly thin and subject to scratching, but why would I (or you?) care? I bought it to skimo race and it does that well. I really have liked the triangular tails as they do make it just that much easier to stash them quickly on my pack for a boot pack. I'd really like Dynafit to start producing various lengths of their race skis. 160 or 161cm is fine for racing and very appropriate if you're an elite euro, but I'm sure I'd take the very slight weight penalty that would come with an additional 10cm of length because I've on more than one occasion done full forward somersaults when landing even slightly forward on this ski.