The Armada BDog is one of those skis that’s not only special in itself, makes the brand special too. Armada is, and has always been, extremely committed to their athletes. BDog, or Phil Casabon, has been one of the most influential park skiers over the past couple decades. While his career has spanned many different aspects of skiing, these days, and most famously, he’s known for his urban skills, unique style, and impeccable control over his skis and edges. In order to achieve such incredible results, he needs a ski that supports his vision, and this is exactly that.

The BDog is an almost-symmetrical ski with a bunch of rocker in both the tips and tails as well as some substantial early taper. The shape is quite interesting, but construction is equally important and is perfectly balanced to support the shape concept. On paper, it’s not complicated, but the resulting performance is quite specific. We get a poplar and ash wood core, which is common among Armada’s twin tip skis. Aside from that, there’s not much else in there. Perhaps the most important and most interesting aspect of the construction is how Armada mills the core to different thicknesses and supports it with their step-down AR75 sidewall. This creates softer flex patterns in the tips and tails, which corresponds with the rocker and early taper, essentially creating butter zones for presses, ollies, nollies, etc. It’s a huge reason why Phil can do the incredible tricks you’ve seen on these skis. Of course, another huge reason is his incredible skill on skis, which is harder to package into a product you can buy, but with the BDog, at least you won’t have any major excuses.

We touched on shape briefly, but it’s an important part of this ski’s performance and deserves its own section here. From a rocker/camber perspective, this is very close to a symmetrical ski, which is supoorted by the recommended center mount point. The sidecut dimensions, however, aren’t quite symmetrical, per Phil’s preference. We get about a 5 mm difference between tip and tail width, so it’s closer to symmetrical than most, but by shaping the ski this way, Armada is retaining a reasonable amount of versatility and all-mountain performance for a relatively focused ski. While it’s not the best shape for directional skiing, it certainly will work, especially for a skier with a more new school, modern attitude and expectations. In fact, we really like that it’s not perfectly symmetrical, as that would really pigeon hole this ski to a certain application.

If you’re a skier with a jibby mentality, the BDog should be right up your alley. You should probably care more about your nose butter 360s than your carving turns. That said, you should also probably care more about your nose butter 360s than big jump tricks. While the BDog is an excellent park ski for a lot of skiers, it’s not specifically designed for going massive. Phil doesn’t do that quite as often as he used to these days, and Armada has some better choices for skiers looking to go to the stratosphere. On the other hand, the BDog is for those who want to get technical. It’s quick, it’s agile, it’s incredibly easy to manipulate into presses, butters, ollies, nollies, nose blocks, or whatever other progressive maneuvers you have in mind. While it’s certainly not for everyone, we’re so glad skis like this exist.