Next season's kit previewed: SkisIt's what you've all been waiting for
The 2011 range of hardware is revealed for buyers to, hopefully, buy. As ever, Fall Line is in the thick of it, bending skis, enquiring about what the strange acronyms mean and complaining that we don't like brown.
Find your way through the splurge of next winter's gear:
Snowboard line for 2011 unveiled in Manchester – first previews at Slide in Manchester
What to expect next winter – kind of like an intro
What to expect next winter: trends – start the journey with a dip into reverse camber
What to expect next winter: trends – getting on an eco tip
What to expect next winter: Forum, Special Blend, Foursquare
What to expect next winter: Protect your noggin – a little expose on helmets
Next winter's gear: snowboards, boots and bindings
Next season's kit previewed: Goggles
Next season's kit previewed: Skis
Overall trends are in three directions: rocker is spreading from fat, powder oriented skis right down to beginners. Backcountry is still big and getting bigger (especially in boots) and 75mm-plus pistey-looking all-mountain carvers are more widely available for strong skiers who aren't into twin tips. And as if to prove where a huge market still lies, here's...
...Armada
Being a full-on freeski brand, it seemed about time that Armada went out of it’s way to create a directional piste ski. The Triumph is the first ski they have made without a twin-tip and is built to take on skis like Nordica’s Hot Rod. It’s going to cost around £500 and we’ll let you know if it’s any good once we’ve been out to the ski test in a month’s time.
Black Diamond
Ski-wise, BD are freshly enthused about the uphill and are using their superlight construction to make some suitably wide uphill models – we like the Aspect with its 90mm underfoot and 18m sidecut. All very convincing.
Blizzard
Gaining ground in the UK, Blizzard are looking useful in the piste and all-mountain categories. This year there are a couple of big stories, the main one for UK buyers being that prices are DOWN by around £50-£75, making them properly competitive. The other deal, for all you speed merchants out there, is the suspension module dropped into three top-end skis. The 72mm underfoot G-Power and the 87mm M-Power are fruity prices – around £850 but specced to the max with a damper like a car under the boot. More relevant are the G-Force Supersonic IQ and Magnum 8.1 IQ; the first is for blasting pistes and the latter for mixing it up all over the hill. There are some solid women’s models – the Viva Sonic IQ is a lightweight piste ski with full sidewall construction with some metal in it for extra punch.
Dynastar, Lange and Look
One of last year’s favourite skis gets a bigger model – the Legend Sultan 94 sits above the 85 but maintains a shortish turn radius of 18m. It’s aimed squarely at the freeride market, with beefy sidewall construction, a fair bit of metal and enough sidecut to deliver an engaging piste experience. Further up the scale is the 6th Sense Slicer with 98mm underfoot for backcountry float and twin-tip activity, and then the 115 Pro Rider, which is a much straighter proposition for the couloir-hooners out there. Picking up on a strong season for women’s skis is the Exclusive Legend Idyll, a 78mm wide ski with full wood core construction and a lively, short radius of 14m.
Fischer
Fischer have a range-topping series of shiny-looking C-Line series skis, including the Progressor 10 (£700 with adjustable binding plate which increases or decreases the stiffness underfoot), RC World Cup (£750), Viron 8.8 (£600) and ladies My Style (£550). Prices dropped between the UK and the European trade shows. The hugely popular Watea and Loa all-mountain and freeride skis get a new 98mm rockered model with the boat-shaped nose found in the 94 and up; otherwise they stay the same with a graphic update, and the piste-biased all-mountain Motive range offers sidewall construction and effective power for around £450 and up. The Progressor boots, with Fischer’s take on the offset stance (called Soma Tech), are gaining popularity in both men’s and women’s (My Style) versions. With a mid-width 100mm last and a good heel fit they work for a lot of bootfitters.
Head
The Peak series of all-mountain and freeride skis needed pepping up looks-wise to spark interest in what was a sound series of products. It's now lost the Teutonic graphics from last season, gone fluoro and picked up what Head are calling variable rocker, or Flowride. Essentially it's cutout near the tip of the ski with two rubbery damping blocks in the gap, the intention is to allow the tip to flex more when in softer conditions, creating a rocker effect. It's a novel idea and we'll be interested to see how it works compared with either a conventional or rockered ski. We’re thinking the Peak 82 (£525 inclusive of a DIN 12 binding) and Peak 88 (£550 inc) look strong while the £310 Peak 74, still with Flowride, looks like an all-mountain bargain.
The other tech gizmo is called KERS - Kinetic Energy Recovery System - based on Head's proven Chip piezo-electric system, where movement is turned into electric impulses. In the existing Chip system skis, this electrical current is fed back into fibres in the ski which stiffen or soften acording to the feedback, and damp vibration. What KERS is bringing to the party is the ability to store some of this energy and then release it at the appropriate moment, which on a powerful piste ski would be as you're coming out of a turn. We thought that KERS in Formula 1 involved a flywheel and mechanical devices, but since there's clearly no flywheel on any of the skis we've seen we'll have to settle for the electrically-based system. Anyway, the ski we thought was most interesting featuring KERS was the Titan (£570 – good value for a performance piste ski, let alone one with a gizmo), which is a wide-bodied (76mm underfoot) pistey-looking number with a 16m turn radius.
K2
“K2 have put rocker on everything.” It’s all we heard for weeks. We had no reason to disbelieve it; the Americans have pounced on new tech as fast as anyone over the years and often gone bigger, faster than any other manufacturer – they were the first to have every ski in their live with defined sidecut, back in the day. They were also first to market a twin tip (but it was a bit rubbish). Not much chance of this lot being skip-fodder; K2 have been delivering benchmark products for years and they’re explaining the rock-fest logically in line with different skiers’ requirements. The full run-down will have to live online because there are six versions of the technology. To précis, the lower end (like the new Force) use lift in the nose to avoid it catching when you’re not on an edge. At the other end, the lifted tips and tails of powder and big mountain skis like the ever-wider Hellbent – now 132mm underfoot from 122 last year - is proven to make life easier. For fatter skis like the Obsethed and last years Fall-Line Ski of the Year Kung Fujas – again wider underfoot for next season – rocker makes them more wieldy on groomed runs, takes the sting out of landings and makes powder a doddle.
Oh, and the long-running Apache series of all-mountain skis and the bedrock of the K2 range has been junked for the all-new AMP (All Mountain Performance with Rocker – geddit?) models. We thought you’d like to know, since loads of you love the Apache Recon and Crossfire. You’ll be looking towards the Aftershock at 84mm and the Charger at a pistier 74mm underfoot to replace your old models. With plenty of metal and tapered sidewalls with weight sliced out of the extremities but retaining beef underfoot they look suitably effective. Prices are within a tenner of the models they replace, so around £570 for the Aftershock and a bit less for the Charger.
Line
Despite making a name for themselves in freestyle, the UK loves Line for its freeride offerings. With Fall-Line technique Editor Andy Bennett riding them for years, we know they work. This year we’re looking closely at the new Prophet 115 with a touch of nose rocker, or Early Rise as they like to call it. The Prophet 100 is one of the most useable fat skis but some people want even more float. The women’s version, the Celebrity 100, looks to be a fairly powerful freerider for charging women. Jibbers get the Step Up alongside last year’s skate-deck-construction maple-veneer Afterbang; the Step Up gets a carbon ollie band for more pop.
Movement
Most important model for the Swiss freeriders is the Jam (£425), which has lost a little weight this season to aid its proven nimbleness and all-mountain/freeeride credentials. With some rivals increasing in price it looks more viable than ever. The Zip is a new model, updating last year’s slightly pister-than-the-Jam Hype. A pronounced sidecut offers a 15m radius on a 80mm platform. Otherwise the potent (but not too mad) Sluff gets new graphics; maniacs will be delighted that the Goliath remains available in case one turn is too many.
Nordica
The phrase ‘frontside’ keeps cropping up and Nordica have made a couple of piste-oriented punky-looking numbers to attack te slopes. The Fire Arrow 80 (£650) is a true eyeful and with middling to short turn radii of 13.5-16m, 80mm underfoot and plenty of wood and metal in the construction it’ll suit experienced blasters who fancy the odd foray off-piste. The Hot Rod range sticks around, with the Igniter delivering the piste-biased all-mountain pleasure at the value end of the range. The piste range based around Fall-Line favourites the Spitfire are now so insanely 80s in their colourways that we like them even more, and the excellent Enforcer stiff freeride number remains in the range ready for discerning (and strong) skiers.
Rossignol
They’ve relaunched the ski range with wood cores throughout. There's now a simplified freeride range which looks like it means it and a truly brutal-looking Zenith range with squared-off tips, no complicated Mutix changeable radius faff and a wideish-bodied top model - the 85 - (£650) that should charge like the Light Brigade, though hopefully not delivering a glorious but untimely end to the rider. We like the sound of the intermediate-friendly Alias, priced from £300, again with rocker for ease of use. It's skis like this that persuade people to buy their own.
Salomon
Ski-wise, there’s the Enduro super all-mountain skis – a beefy, sidewall model with excellent wood-look graphics for go-everywhere types who don’t dig twin tips. The ski on the right is the new Sentinel, which sits above the Lord - 2009 Ski of the Year - with just sub-100mm waist, stiffer flex and a tad of rocker in the nose. Looks convincing, despite being brown.
Scott
New models were focussed on the touring and backcountry freestyle area, but we’re most interested to see what’s happened to the Mission. Scott’s best-seller (and Fall-Line benchmark) has been slightly beefed up this season to give it more pop. It’ll be interesting to see if the sheer useability of the Mission for decent intermediates and up is changed. One area that has changed is pricing – where everyone else is holding or coming down, Scott are going up by around 15%. That could limit availability in the UK.
Scott does take the “Best-looking ski of the show” award for the Pure; gloss white with tiny colour pops, a swallowtail and clear varnished area to see the core. The whole range was stunning, it has to be said.
Storm
The UK ski maker is having a hectic time, with owners Andy and Chris racing around the world’s shows with their increasing range. There’s certainly no intention of limiting themselves to one niche; with the Inferno piste series delivering very high performance, they’ve softened the idea down to produce the Blaze for a wider audience. Last year’s freestyle Rage was criticised for being too stiff and all-mountainy – this year there’s a poppier FS version for jibbier types. The area they really got right from the off – freeride – has been extended from the Devastator to a couple of twintips. The Blast and Strike are at the all-round useable end, and the Twisted Sista is the heavily-rockered, pintailed powder monster. The Storm folk certainly gt off to a solid start; it’ll be interesting to see what part of the range grabs attention next. Prices are in line with the competition.
Volkl
From waxable sidewalls to a new freeride ski based on the outstanding Mantra but with less thigh-burning punch, Volkl have tweaked their range carefully with a mix including the eyebrow-raisingly unusual – another way of adjusting the stiffnes of your ski, anyone?
The latter is the speed-oriented Psi system which a shop can set up a ski to take into account weight, ability and age. It’s a tensioning system adjusted by inserting a key into the tail of the ski; what it allows is for a skier who knows what they want to select a length they prefer and adjust the ski’s characteristics to suit them. It’s on the Racetiger; that’s where you’ll also find the new Speedwall edges. Since racers and fast piste skiers lean over so far, it makes sense to make the outer layer of the sidewall of base material. If you’re doing that, you might as well wax it. And now you can!
At a different end of the spectrum is the new Kendo freeride ski, slotting in just below the Mantra in the range. There are a lot of skiers out there who will be very grateful; the Mantra is an outstanding freeride ski with genuine all-mountain performance, but it is a bit of a beast. If your leg strength or technique is less than perfect, the new, slightly narrower Kendo looks like the answer.
A the lower end of performance there’s another tuneable technology called PROGRESSive, available in the new Sensor piste ski and the AC Unlimited all-mountain model. As you get better you can tweak your ski to make it more responsive. Volkl prices have remained on a par with last year, making them increasingly good value for the performance.
Find your way through the splurge of next winter's gear:
Snowboard line for 2011 unveiled in Manchester – first previews at Slide in Manchester
What to expect next winter – kind of like an intro
What to expect next winter: trends – start the journey with a dip into reverse camber
What to expect next winter: trends – getting on an eco tip
What to expect next winter: Forum, Special Blend, Foursquare
What to expect next winter: Protect your noggin – a little expose on helmets
Next winter's gear: snowboards, boots and bindings
Posted by Online Editor - Wed, 17/02/2010 - 5:55pm
It's what you've all been waiting for
The 2011 range of hardware is revealed for buyers to, hopefully, buy. As ever, Fall Line is in the thick of it, bending skis, enquiring about what the strange acronyms mean and complaining that we don't like brown.
Find your way through the splurge of next winter's gear:
Snowboard line for 2011 unveiled in Manchester – first previews at Slide in Manchester
What to expect next winter – kind of like an intro
What to expect next winter: trends – start the journey with a dip into reverse camber
What to expect next winter: trends – getting on an eco tip
What to expect next winter: Forum, Special Blend, Foursquare
What to expect next winter: Protect your noggin – a little expose on helmets
Next winter's gear: snowboards, boots and bindings
Next season's kit previewed: Goggles
Next season's kit previewed: Skis
Overall trends are in three directions: rocker is spreading from fat, powder oriented skis right down to beginners. Backcountry is still big and getting bigger (especially in boots) and 75mm-plus pistey-looking all-mountain carvers are more widely available for strong skiers who aren't into twin tips. And as if to prove where a huge market still lies, here's...
...Armada
Being a full-on freeski brand, it seemed about time that Armada went out of it’s way to create a directional piste ski. The Triumph is the first ski they have made without a twin-tip and is built to take on skis like Nordica’s Hot Rod. It’s going to cost around £500 and we’ll let you know if it’s any good once we’ve been out to the ski test in a month’s time.
Black Diamond
Ski-wise, BD are freshly enthused about the uphill and are using their superlight construction to make some suitably wide uphill models – we like the Aspect with its 90mm underfoot and 18m sidecut. All very convincing.
Blizzard
Gaining ground in the UK, Blizzard are looking useful in the piste and all-mountain categories. This year there are a couple of big stories, the main one for UK buyers being that prices are DOWN by around £50-£75, making them properly competitive. The other deal, for all you speed merchants out there, is the suspension module dropped into three top-end skis. The 72mm underfoot G-Power and the 87mm M-Power are fruity prices – around £850 but specced to the max with a damper like a car under the boot. More relevant are the G-Force Supersonic IQ and Magnum 8.1 IQ; the first is for blasting pistes and the latter for mixing it up all over the hill. There are some solid women’s models – the Viva Sonic IQ is a lightweight piste ski with full sidewall construction with some metal in it for extra punch.
Dynastar, Lange and Look
One of last year’s favourite skis gets a bigger model – the Legend Sultan 94 sits above the 85 but maintains a shortish turn radius of 18m. It’s aimed squarely at the freeride market, with beefy sidewall construction, a fair bit of metal and enough sidecut to deliver an engaging piste experience. Further up the scale is the 6th Sense Slicer with 98mm underfoot for backcountry float and twin-tip activity, and then the 115 Pro Rider, which is a much straighter proposition for the couloir-hooners out there. Picking up on a strong season for women’s skis is the Exclusive Legend Idyll, a 78mm wide ski with full wood core construction and a lively, short radius of 14m.
Fischer
Fischer have a range-topping series of shiny-looking C-Line series skis, including the Progressor 10 (£700 with adjustable binding plate which increases or decreases the stiffness underfoot), RC World Cup (£750), Viron 8.8 (£600) and ladies My Style (£550). Prices dropped between the UK and the European trade shows. The hugely popular Watea and Loa all-mountain and freeride skis get a new 98mm rockered model with the boat-shaped nose found in the 94 and up; otherwise they stay the same with a graphic update, and the piste-biased all-mountain Motive range offers sidewall construction and effective power for around £450 and up. The Progressor boots, with Fischer’s take on the offset stance (called Soma Tech), are gaining popularity in both men’s and women’s (My Style) versions. With a mid-width 100mm last and a good heel fit they work for a lot of bootfitters.
Head
The Peak series of all-mountain and freeride skis needed pepping up looks-wise to spark interest in what was a sound series of products. It's now lost the Teutonic graphics from last season, gone fluoro and picked up what Head are calling variable rocker, or Flowride. Essentially it's cutout near the tip of the ski with two rubbery damping blocks in the gap, the intention is to allow the tip to flex more when in softer conditions, creating a rocker effect. It's a novel idea and we'll be interested to see how it works compared with either a conventional or rockered ski. We’re thinking the Peak 82 (£525 inclusive of a DIN 12 binding) and Peak 88 (£550 inc) look strong while the £310 Peak 74, still with Flowride, looks like an all-mountain bargain.
The other tech gizmo is called KERS - Kinetic Energy Recovery System - based on Head's proven Chip piezo-electric system, where movement is turned into electric impulses. In the existing Chip system skis, this electrical current is fed back into fibres in the ski which stiffen or soften acording to the feedback, and damp vibration. What KERS is bringing to the party is the ability to store some of this energy and then release it at the appropriate moment, which on a powerful piste ski would be as you're coming out of a turn. We thought that KERS in Formula 1 involved a flywheel and mechanical devices, but since there's clearly no flywheel on any of the skis we've seen we'll have to settle for the electrically-based system. Anyway, the ski we thought was most interesting featuring KERS was the Titan (£570 – good value for a performance piste ski, let alone one with a gizmo), which is a wide-bodied (76mm underfoot) pistey-looking number with a 16m turn radius.
K2
“K2 have put rocker on everything.” It’s all we heard for weeks. We had no reason to disbelieve it; the Americans have pounced on new tech as fast as anyone over the years and often gone bigger, faster than any other manufacturer – they were the first to have every ski in their live with defined sidecut, back in the day. They were also first to market a twin tip (but it was a bit rubbish). Not much chance of this lot being skip-fodder; K2 have been delivering benchmark products for years and they’re explaining the rock-fest logically in line with different skiers’ requirements. The full run-down will have to live online because there are six versions of the technology. To précis, the lower end (like the new Force) use lift in the nose to avoid it catching when you’re not on an edge. At the other end, the lifted tips and tails of powder and big mountain skis like the ever-wider Hellbent – now 132mm underfoot from 122 last year - is proven to make life easier. For fatter skis like the Obsethed and last years Fall-Line Ski of the Year Kung Fujas – again wider underfoot for next season – rocker makes them more wieldy on groomed runs, takes the sting out of landings and makes powder a doddle.
Oh, and the long-running Apache series of all-mountain skis and the bedrock of the K2 range has been junked for the all-new AMP (All Mountain Performance with Rocker – geddit?) models. We thought you’d like to know, since loads of you love the Apache Recon and Crossfire. You’ll be looking towards the Aftershock at 84mm and the Charger at a pistier 74mm underfoot to replace your old models. With plenty of metal and tapered sidewalls with weight sliced out of the extremities but retaining beef underfoot they look suitably effective. Prices are within a tenner of the models they replace, so around £570 for the Aftershock and a bit less for the Charger.
Line
Despite making a name for themselves in freestyle, the UK loves Line for its freeride offerings. With Fall-Line technique Editor Andy Bennett riding them for years, we know they work. This year we’re looking closely at the new Prophet 115 with a touch of nose rocker, or Early Rise as they like to call it. The Prophet 100 is one of the most useable fat skis but some people want even more float. The women’s version, the Celebrity 100, looks to be a fairly powerful freerider for charging women. Jibbers get the Step Up alongside last year’s skate-deck-construction maple-veneer Afterbang; the Step Up gets a carbon ollie band for more pop.
Movement
Most important model for the Swiss freeriders is the Jam (£425), which has lost a little weight this season to aid its proven nimbleness and all-mountain/freeeride credentials. With some rivals increasing in price it looks more viable than ever. The Zip is a new model, updating last year’s slightly pister-than-the-Jam Hype. A pronounced sidecut offers a 15m radius on a 80mm platform. Otherwise the potent (but not too mad) Sluff gets new graphics; maniacs will be delighted that the Goliath remains available in case one turn is too many.
Nordica
The phrase ‘frontside’ keeps cropping up and Nordica have made a couple of piste-oriented punky-looking numbers to attack te slopes. The Fire Arrow 80 (£650) is a true eyeful and with middling to short turn radii of 13.5-16m, 80mm underfoot and plenty of wood and metal in the construction it’ll suit experienced blasters who fancy the odd foray off-piste. The Hot Rod range sticks around, with the Igniter delivering the piste-biased all-mountain pleasure at the value end of the range. The piste range based around Fall-Line favourites the Spitfire are now so insanely 80s in their colourways that we like them even more, and the excellent Enforcer stiff freeride number remains in the range ready for discerning (and strong) skiers.
Rossignol
They’ve relaunched the ski range with wood cores throughout. There's now a simplified freeride range which looks like it means it and a truly brutal-looking Zenith range with squared-off tips, no complicated Mutix changeable radius faff and a wideish-bodied top model - the 85 - (£650) that should charge like the Light Brigade, though hopefully not delivering a glorious but untimely end to the rider. We like the sound of the intermediate-friendly Alias, priced from £300, again with rocker for ease of use. It's skis like this that persuade people to buy their own.
Salomon
Ski-wise, there’s the Enduro super all-mountain skis – a beefy, sidewall model with excellent wood-look graphics for go-everywhere types who don’t dig twin tips. The ski on the right is the new Sentinel, which sits above the Lord - 2009 Ski of the Year - with just sub-100mm waist, stiffer flex and a tad of rocker in the nose. Looks convincing, despite being brown.
Scott
New models were focussed on the touring and backcountry freestyle area, but we’re most interested to see what’s happened to the Mission. Scott’s best-seller (and Fall-Line benchmark) has been slightly beefed up this season to give it more pop. It’ll be interesting to see if the sheer useability of the Mission for decent intermediates and up is changed. One area that has changed is pricing – where everyone else is holding or coming down, Scott are going up by around 15%. That could limit availability in the UK.
Scott does take the “Best-looking ski of the show” award for the Pure; gloss white with tiny colour pops, a swallowtail and clear varnished area to see the core. The whole range was stunning, it has to be said.
Storm
The UK ski maker is having a hectic time, with owners Andy and Chris racing around the world’s shows with their increasing range. There’s certainly no intention of limiting themselves to one niche; with the Inferno piste series delivering very high performance, they’ve softened the idea down to produce the Blaze for a wider audience. Last year’s freestyle Rage was criticised for being too stiff and all-mountainy – this year there’s a poppier FS version for jibbier types. The area they really got right from the off – freeride – has been extended from the Devastator to a couple of twintips. The Blast and Strike are at the all-round useable end, and the Twisted Sista is the heavily-rockered, pintailed powder monster. The Storm folk certainly gt off to a solid start; it’ll be interesting to see what part of the range grabs attention next. Prices are in line with the competition.
Volkl
From waxable sidewalls to a new freeride ski based on the outstanding Mantra but with less thigh-burning punch, Volkl have tweaked their range carefully with a mix including the eyebrow-raisingly unusual – another way of adjusting the stiffnes of your ski, anyone?
The latter is the speed-oriented Psi system which a shop can set up a ski to take into account weight, ability and age. It’s a tensioning system adjusted by inserting a key into the tail of the ski; what it allows is for a skier who knows what they want to select a length they prefer and adjust the ski’s characteristics to suit them. It’s on the Racetiger; that’s where you’ll also find the new Speedwall edges. Since racers and fast piste skiers lean over so far, it makes sense to make the outer layer of the sidewall of base material. If you’re doing that, you might as well wax it. And now you can!
At a different end of the spectrum is the new Kendo freeride ski, slotting in just below the Mantra in the range. There are a lot of skiers out there who will be very grateful; the Mantra is an outstanding freeride ski with genuine all-mountain performance, but it is a bit of a beast. If your leg strength or technique is less than perfect, the new, slightly narrower Kendo looks like the answer.
A the lower end of performance there’s another tuneable technology called PROGRESSive, available in the new Sensor piste ski and the AC Unlimited all-mountain model. As you get better you can tweak your ski to make it more responsive. Volkl prices have remained on a par with last year, making them increasingly good value for the performance.
Find your way through the splurge of next winter's gear:
Snowboard line for 2011 unveiled in Manchester – first previews at Slide in Manchester
What to expect next winter – kind of like an intro
What to expect next winter: trends – start the journey with a dip into reverse camber
What to expect next winter: trends – getting on an eco tip
What to expect next winter: Forum, Special Blend, Foursquare
What to expect next winter: Protect your noggin – a little expose on helmets
Next winter's gear: snowboards, boots and bindings