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PTO Review
We skied them. Here's how they stack up.
SL-JR PRO — a junior racer who is already training and entering slalom gates, and who has the strength and technique to load a metal race ski. Laser SX — piste skiers who want one comfortable, wide-range carver and prefer all-day ease to race-build effort. Check the radar chart below to see where each one wins.
Each row compares all skis on one dimension. 🏆 marks the highest score.
| Dimension | SL-JR PRO | Laser SX |
|---|---|---|
| Carving | 10🏆 | 8 |
| Park | 1🏆 | 1🏆 |
| Playfulness | 2 | 5🏆 |
| Forgiveness | 2 | 6🏆 |
| Stability | 6 | 7🏆 |
| Powder | 1 | 2🏆 |
A junior racer who is already training and entering slalom gates, and who has the strength and technique to load a metal race ski. It suits a family that wants the SL WORLD CUP's core recipe — ash-poplar, double Titanal, Marcel Hirscher's factory tune — in a build engineered around a kid's weight and boot rather than shrunk down from an adult ski, and that would rather buy a system already resolved (plate mounted, binding named by the plate maker) than assemble junior race hardware piece by piece. The racer's release value has to fit inside the Marker COMP 10 TCX, DIN 3-10, which is the build PTO stocks.
A child who isn't racing gates. Van Deer's junior lineup for 26/27 is this ski and the GS-JR PRO, both race-only, so there is no recreational or all-mountain junior model here to trade down to — a kid who skis for fun is better served by another brand entirely, and we will say so at the counter. It is also the wrong ski for a racer who doesn't yet have the strength and technique to bend a metal race build; nothing in Van Deer's language for it — explosive power, high speed, the podium — is written for someone still learning to link turns. A racer who needs a release value above DIN 10 is outside PTO's stocked build (the COMP 12 GW, DIN 4-12, is a special order). A GS racer wants the GS-JR PRO, and PTO has stocked no length of it. And a family hoping one ski survives two or three growth spurts should know what it is buying: each plate has a fixed boot-sole-length window, and the four lengths are separate radius-tuned tools (8, 10, 11 and 11 m), not one shape stretched taller — at $830, growing out of it in a season is the real risk here.
Piste skiers who want one comfortable, wide-range carver and prefer all-day ease to race-build effort. It suits medium-to-long-turn skiers at moderate-to-fast speed — the Laser SX runs the longest radius in the line — who value low-input, forgiving manners on groomed and variable hard snow over maximum edge bite. Stöckli's own brief calls it a genuine all-rounder among piste skis.
Powder and off-piste skiers: at 74 mm on a pure on-piste geometry the Laser SX has no float, and the wider range Stöckli talks about is range within the groomers, not off them. Short-turn and slalom-rhythm skiers: the radius bottoms out at 13.1 m, and quick edge-to-edge belongs to the Laser CX or the shorter Laser SL. Skiers chasing race-level grip and power: there is no Race Core, no carbon, and no racing sidewall here, and the 1.5° comfort base bevel is not the 1.0° race tune of the SC and WRT — that bite lives on those skis, not this one. Anyone who needs a published on-snow test before buying should wait: this generation is completely redesigned and no independent review of it exists yet — every existing Laser SX review is of the older, narrower ski and does not apply. And Stöckli lists no skier level of its own; read this as an intermediate-to-advanced piste ski, inferred from its mechanics rather than measured on snow.
The SL-JR PRO is best for a junior racer who is already training and entering slalom gates, and who has the strength and technique to load a. The Laser SX is best for piste skiers who want one comfortable, wide-range carver and prefer all-day ease to race-build effort. The right choice depends on your primary terrain, ability level, and riding style.
The Stöckli Laser SX scores highest in Stability at 7/10, making it the strongest all-mountain option. It handles groomers, chop, and variable conditions without losing composure, so it's the best single-ski choice for skiers who want one pair for the whole mountain.
The Van Deer SL-JR PRO leads in Carving with a PTO score of 10/10. Its edge grip on hard snow and groomed runs is the strongest in this comparison.
The Stöckli Laser SX is the most forgiving option with a Forgiveness score of 6/10. It doesn't punish imperfect technique, making it the easiest ski to progress on among these.
Not sure? Ask us.
