HEAD REV 90 Ski Review - A Sleeper All Mountain Ski
Every year certain skis get all the hype - all the attention, while others seem to fly under the radar. The HEAD REV 90 is one of those skis - a faultless all mountain ski that's tons of fun both on the groomers and off-piste.
This ski is one of the reason's we decided to expand into HEAD's rec skis beyond the usual race skis we normally carry from them - it's a ski that sells itself with a day on a demo pair. That's because it really does nothing wrong - it's quick and playful while remaining damp and stable at speed, a rare combination of traits in any ski. Testers called it "effortless" and were stumped when asked what to put in the "cons" column after putting them through the paces.
Here's what SierrJim had to say:
On-piste, HEAD's racing heritage comes out in a smooth, well dampened ride with a shape that's equally happy making quick, short radius turns or long, GS-style turns at high speed. We'd call this a medium flex ski that doesn't flap around at speed but doesn't punish you if you make a little mistake either. If this ski has a preference, it's for quicker turns, but only just.
A little rocker in the tip and a shape that's wider in the tip and narrower in the tail compared to others in the category make it easy to pivot around quickly in the trees, and gives it a little better float than other skis in this width category. It's no big mountain powder ski, but it's a lot of fun at boot deep or less of the fresh stuff.
In crud this ski prefers staying light on your feet rather than trying to plow through like a semi-truck, but its well dampened ride keeps things sane.
A bit narrower than the popular 98 mm underfoot all mountain skis in Tahoe, the HEAD REV 90 still merits consideration as a quiver of one none the less, and makes for a great all mountain ski in any part of the country thanks to it's well balanced ride.
Philpug, one of our testers, had this to say over on epicski.com:
"Sorry, I don't like the graphics, but with a ski this good I can get over it - the REV's are damn fun skis. What I really liked was their playfulness - some skis are too serious, but HEAD did a great job with these. It's a shame a lot of people may not be aware of this ski."
We have happy skiers all the way from upper-intermediate to expert on this ski, and it's getting some of the best customer feedback we've seen this year.
Shop the 2013 HEAD REV 90 here: