Dynastar has been a major player in the race world with many Olympic and World Championship medals as well as World Cup titles in their long history. This racing pedigree really shows in the Dynastar Speed Course TI. The Course TI wears race graphics, carries a racing binding plate, and shares the wood/metal construction characteristics of the World Cup skis. Despite this, it is in fact a pretty different animal than a pure race ski.  A wider waist width and rounded tail are the first visual clues that this is not just another race ski. The Course TI has a tight 15m turn radius in the 171 size and it is available in sizes as short as a 159 and as long as 183. This is a very good dual event race ski for non-FIS level competitors and also makes a great “cheater” GS ski for Masters racers. The Speed Course TI is even more than this though. This is a very good ski for someone that doesn’t race at all and is looking for a hard snow biased ski for everyday use.

The first runs I took on the

Influence 115:

The Influence 115 for 2012 is a modified version of last year’s Prophet 115. The new version comes with a slightly softer flex and a bit more pronounced rise in the tip rocker section. These are important changes as the Prophet was a little too stiff to really shine in light, deep snow and it was a little too wide for the preferences of many big mountain skiers for a daily driver ski. The changes have clearly benefitted the new Influence 115 and made it a much better powder than it was last year.

I tested an Influence 115 on two different occasions during March of 2011 when Tahoe was getting heavily pounded by big storms. Both times I noted that the 115 floated well and turned readily enough when in the deeper snow but it just wasn’t as nimble or maneuverable as softer double rise skis. On the other hand, when I skied out of the deep stuff and into shallower crud or back onto the groomers, the Influence was one of the most solid feeling skis in this width category. The Influence

It is safe to say that the Rossignol S7 has taken the world of powder skis by storm over the last two years.  This is the model that has been the highest in demand and shortest in supply during that time.  It is also safe to say that the S7 started out in the market a little slowly.  There was not much marketing behind the S7 at first, Rossi didn’t have a real high “cool factor” at the time, and it also looked very different than most of the other powder skis available at the time.  The current huge demand for the S7 came about slowly at first and it was mostly word of mouth.  Later, the S7 received a #1 ranking in a magazine review.  After that, it was the ski that everyone wanted but after early December (or so) nobody could get.  So, One might wonder……what is all that about?

At the time the S7 came out, there were not very many innovative designs available in the world of powder skis.  For sure, there were a few groundbreaking designs already on the mainstream market

Click Here to see the updated Volkl RTM 84 Review

The entirely new Volkl RTM 84 is the successor to the long running line of AC 4/AC 40/AC 50 skis that date back several years.  Those past models were pretty stiff at the start and got continually stiffer as the years passed.  Recent skis like the AC 50 may have been dubbed “All Conditions” but they were not much good outside of firm, packed slopes.  The RTM 84 changes all that and does so in a big way, this is not just an incremental change to an existing model.  At first glance, the raised shoulders and top deck geography look fairly similar to past skis of the AC group but when you pick one up and flex it, it feels very different.  The flex of the RTM 84 is still pretty firm but it is much more balanced and somewhat softer than in the past.  In addition, the RTM 84 uses Volkls’ ELP full length rocker.  This is a continuous tip to tail rocker profile and is one of the very few skis in the narrower widths that uses rocker

Seasoned ski racers and ski professionals understand the importance of finding skis that bring out the best of their individual style while mitigating some of the potentially unproductive aspects of their skiing and racing.  Ski testing is necessary in order to identify which ski most enhances performance, and Mt. Hood, Oregon is a great place to figure out which race skis to purchase for next season.  Below are some key considerations to ensure a productive and accurate ski test.

When is the best time to test 2012 race skis?

In a perfect world, ski testing would be done on winter snow and in winter temperatures.  The reality is that next season’s race skis are not typically available to test until April or May.  As a result it is difficult for the Eastern and Midwestern skiers to test on home turf.  In the West you have greater opportunity to test.  For example, in California there is still very good snow at Squaw Valley and Mammoth Mountain.  For summer skiing, Mt. Hood

The Blizzard Bonafide comes in at 98mm at the waist and features the “Flipcore” construction of the Freemountain line.  The Bonafide has conventional camber in the center section of the ski with modest tip and tail rise and 2 ½ sheets of metal.  This construction with layered metal laminates allows Blizzard to build a ski with a thin profile.  This thin profile along with a lightweight center stringer in the core allows the Bonafide to be much lighter than expected for a ski with this much metal.

My first experience on the Bonafide was at Squaw Valley in early January on very hard snow.  The layered metal gave the Bonafide near ice-pick grip in the conventional cambered section and the ski was remarkably damp on the near bulletproof conditions.  Rolling in and out of varied turn shapes, it was easy to see that that the Bonafide changed turn shapes easily and would finish turns smoothly regardless of the radius.  The even flex blends the rockered sections into the overall construction

This 2011 season turned into one of the most powder filled seasons in the history of skiing.  The “Season of Powder” continued long into June, with local skiers still getting face-shots on the 6^th of June.   Needless to say, the Volkl Shiro was the perfect tool to for those insanely deep days we had Squaw and across the country this year.

My first day on the Shiro was in February during one of the biggest storms of the season.  To put this into perspective I’m 6’5” and the snow was above my chest.  Although the Shiro is not the widest powder ski on the market it provided an unrecognizable amount of float.  The tips of these skis are nearly impossible to burry!   This ultimately is due to the tech that Volkl has associated with the Shiro.  Volkl has brought together the best tech within powder skis to build the Shiro.  So let’s brake this down the Shiro has fully rockered construction, giving you maximum float without feeling “planky”.  From there Volkl knows that taper

***UPDATE: See our blog with a new Salomon BBR 10.0 Review***

Every few years, something comes along in ski design that captures the imagination of the skiing public so completely, that it revolutionizes the market.  This doesn’t happen very often but when it has happened in the past, the concept has often been the brainchild of Salomon’s Bernard Bertrand. Bernard who is often known as Beber is not just a ski engineer or a marketing guy.  Rather he is an imaginative designer with roots that deeply embedded in both surfing and skiing.  Beber has always strived for ways to make skiing easier and more accessible to the market and some famous designs of his include Salomon’s X-Scream and Pocket Rocket.  Both of which dramatically altered the landscape of ski design.

Beber’s newest creation is the new Salomon BBR model for 2012. This ski model looks so radically different from other ski designs that it warrants double takes in the lift line.  The most noticeable difference in the

The Pon2oon is the second generation of the venerable Pontoon model; the brain child of the late Shane McConkey.  This is the first major redesign of the ski that arguably popularized the trend toward big, rockered skis for powder.  While there is no doubt that the Pontoon set the trend, the original design has become a bit dated.  Newer designs have brought some serious competition to the genre and the new Pon2oon addresses the market very well.  The Pon2oon has a much longer conventional section in the center of the ski along with lower rocker at both tip and tail.  The result is a ski that retains most of the near magical powder performance of the original, but with dramatically improved stability when the snow is not waist deep.

I first skied the original Pontoon some years back on a day when it had rained over an 18” storm, not your ideal powder day.  The Pontoon handled the thick heavy snow with ease and it really showed me what the concept was all about.  In the years

“Legend Pro” is a name that has become……well……uhhh…….legendary among western big mountain skiers over the years. That name drew its following from several Dynastar big mountain skis that really epitomized the category. For the 2011 season, there was a ski called the Legend Pro 115 but that was (and is) really more of a powder ski than the versatile big mountain performer the prior Legend Pros had been. For 2012, the big mountain ski is back in the form of the Legend Pro 105. This is a ski with the wood/metal layup and medium-firm flex of the older versions but with the addition of a moderate amount of tip rocker. This upgrade really makes this the most versatile of all the Legend Pro skis.

I first tested the LP 105 at Mammoth during a period when there was not much new snow. The result was a good groomer skiing but mostly firmish conditions off trail with some chalky soft spots and some horrible refrozen crud. The Legend Pro 105 is a big ski with plenty of stability for high speeds both

When Blizzard built the new Freemountain series for 2012, they really threw out the rule book on ski construction. Most skis have their camber and especially their rocker shaped via heat and pressure in the molding process. This creates the shape, but it also creates stress in the core which translates to uneven pressure distribution when the ski flexes. The Blizzard “Flipcore” skis take the opposite approach by using a core that is basically built upside down. The molding process then does not have to place stress into the core when the rocker is shaped. The effect is a more even pressure distribution from tip to tail. The result of the Flipcore technology is a group of skis with remarkably even flex characteristics and a flex pattern that marries perfectly with the sidecut and the rocker profiles. The Flipcore models from Blizzard were the skis most universally accepted by our staff as personal favorites. When we select our personal winners each season, it is seldom that there are several

Even if you are not a National Team athlete, the right fit can be just around the corner for you. I caught up with Thor Verdonk, the Rossignol Alpine Technical Product Manager to get the low down how you can achieve your best results this season AND get the best boot fit possible.

Let’s start with the big concepts – your goal as an athlete is have your boots fit in the same way that an F1 driver has his seat fit. An F1 seat is designed for a driver pulling well over 4g’s in all directions (and over 20g when they crash), so comfort, performance, and safety are critical. No one wants to be sliding around in their seat when they drive at over 300kph, and you don’t want to be moving around in your boots as you hurtle down the course at 120kph. The secret to the concept lies in creating an equally minimal distance between you and the plastic of the boot, with a dash of padding thrown in for good measure.

One of the methods boot brands use to help get you started on the right foot is to create