BoggedDown
Wes Boggs
- Location
- Columbia, SC
So after 5-6 months I finally finished my build and had the ski out all weekend and it was one hell of a fun weekend. This ski exceeded all my expectation from the start to finish. Id like to give a thorough review of my experience, abilities and setup.
The look
My phantom is the fiberglass model which is 4k and i paid an extra $150 for the lime green gel coat. The fit and finish of the hull is top notch. The hull was packaged and crated extremely well and didnt have a single blemish on it, i thorughly inspected it. NO dimples, shards of glass, gel coat defects, etc. The ski was mint with beautiful lines and perfect finish.
The build
The build part was easy other than me finding the time to put towards it.. I have the 155 pump shoe in with a 148 torrent pump. The pump lined up perfect and sat tight against the shoe. The midshaft area is recessed so you dont have to use the a/m spacer. The motor and everything else went in extremely easy. The engine bay is wide and gives you plenty of access to wrench when needed. There is a huge amount of space in the rear of the engine bay. All the thru hull tubes are aluminum and sealed from the inside so no need to cake the hell out of the outside of the tubes with 1500. Keeps your ski looking nice and clean. For the intake grate there is a aluminum block inside the glass so you can drill and tap your holes as the cast intake grates can vary slightly. Hardest part for me was making sure my handle pole straight when i drilled the mount holes. On a side note i texted or talked with josh everytime i had a question and he got back to me typically within 30 min to help me through.
My ski background
Im 6'1" and weigh 190. Like most i started on some kawasakis then bought a sj and never turned back. I rode sj's for about 3 years heavily modifying them until it wasnt enough to sarisfy me. I then went on to buy 4 different a/m hulls 2 more surf based and 2 flatwater. I liked the surf hulls because they rode failry flat. One of the flatwater hulls was extremely nose high to the point I just couldnt enjoy it and it would wear me down after a short run. I had never ran big motors over 800cc in these skis. My skill set was could spin about 270 degrees but wasnt consistant on landing but mainly just chased boats and jumped as high as i could off the wakes. I have never flat water flipped. I ride every chance i get on the weekends.
The ride
Soon as i took off i felt very comfortable on the ski, the most comfortable i've felt on a a/m ski. The ski rides like it long but it is a short ski. Initially i was slightly concerned about the xmetal comp pole being to short for my liking but pulled the trigger anyway. I rode pretty much standing up with a slight bend in my knees and the nose doesnt ride high at all, thank god. The comp pole worked out perfect. On the setup wake the ski lets you turn quickly and stay hooked up to get back to the wake. Ive rode skis that either slide to much or hook up too much and not let you get back to the wake Idealy. The ski is stable, which really helps me when i try aerials to recover and ride out. I cant tell you how many f'd landings i had and still was able to ride the ski out. After three days of riding i was landing 360's full rotation and riding out. I finally mustered up the balls to go for the backflip a couple hours before i was heading home. I got about 5 attempts in and was landing nose into the water. Im pretty sure i could have landed one but on my last attempt when i went under and the ski was upside down and came up jamming the poop out of my neck ending all riding. I want to be fair and note I have a tpe964 in the ski so the power obviously helped as well. To sum it it my skill set progressed in 3 days what would normally take months.
Service
As good as the phantom looks the service may even be better. I probably annoyed the hell out of Josh but he answered all my texts or called me resloving any questions i had, there were no issues just many questions from me. He sent pics during the build, updated status of the ski and helped me AFTER the sale.
I couldnt be happier with the ski, im not here to sell phantoms but my experiene has been great and hope this write up helps someone. Great to have a company that produces a quality product at a more than fair price which looks and rides excellent with matching customer service.
The look
My phantom is the fiberglass model which is 4k and i paid an extra $150 for the lime green gel coat. The fit and finish of the hull is top notch. The hull was packaged and crated extremely well and didnt have a single blemish on it, i thorughly inspected it. NO dimples, shards of glass, gel coat defects, etc. The ski was mint with beautiful lines and perfect finish.
The build
The build part was easy other than me finding the time to put towards it.. I have the 155 pump shoe in with a 148 torrent pump. The pump lined up perfect and sat tight against the shoe. The midshaft area is recessed so you dont have to use the a/m spacer. The motor and everything else went in extremely easy. The engine bay is wide and gives you plenty of access to wrench when needed. There is a huge amount of space in the rear of the engine bay. All the thru hull tubes are aluminum and sealed from the inside so no need to cake the hell out of the outside of the tubes with 1500. Keeps your ski looking nice and clean. For the intake grate there is a aluminum block inside the glass so you can drill and tap your holes as the cast intake grates can vary slightly. Hardest part for me was making sure my handle pole straight when i drilled the mount holes. On a side note i texted or talked with josh everytime i had a question and he got back to me typically within 30 min to help me through.
My ski background
Im 6'1" and weigh 190. Like most i started on some kawasakis then bought a sj and never turned back. I rode sj's for about 3 years heavily modifying them until it wasnt enough to sarisfy me. I then went on to buy 4 different a/m hulls 2 more surf based and 2 flatwater. I liked the surf hulls because they rode failry flat. One of the flatwater hulls was extremely nose high to the point I just couldnt enjoy it and it would wear me down after a short run. I had never ran big motors over 800cc in these skis. My skill set was could spin about 270 degrees but wasnt consistant on landing but mainly just chased boats and jumped as high as i could off the wakes. I have never flat water flipped. I ride every chance i get on the weekends.
The ride
Soon as i took off i felt very comfortable on the ski, the most comfortable i've felt on a a/m ski. The ski rides like it long but it is a short ski. Initially i was slightly concerned about the xmetal comp pole being to short for my liking but pulled the trigger anyway. I rode pretty much standing up with a slight bend in my knees and the nose doesnt ride high at all, thank god. The comp pole worked out perfect. On the setup wake the ski lets you turn quickly and stay hooked up to get back to the wake. Ive rode skis that either slide to much or hook up too much and not let you get back to the wake Idealy. The ski is stable, which really helps me when i try aerials to recover and ride out. I cant tell you how many f'd landings i had and still was able to ride the ski out. After three days of riding i was landing 360's full rotation and riding out. I finally mustered up the balls to go for the backflip a couple hours before i was heading home. I got about 5 attempts in and was landing nose into the water. Im pretty sure i could have landed one but on my last attempt when i went under and the ski was upside down and came up jamming the poop out of my neck ending all riding. I want to be fair and note I have a tpe964 in the ski so the power obviously helped as well. To sum it it my skill set progressed in 3 days what would normally take months.
Service
As good as the phantom looks the service may even be better. I probably annoyed the hell out of Josh but he answered all my texts or called me resloving any questions i had, there were no issues just many questions from me. He sent pics during the build, updated status of the ski and helped me AFTER the sale.
I couldnt be happier with the ski, im not here to sell phantoms but my experiene has been great and hope this write up helps someone. Great to have a company that produces a quality product at a more than fair price which looks and rides excellent with matching customer service.
. Interesting to see a 155 shoe with a 148 pump, but great news bc you made it future proof. I'll have to get details on that 
