Overview

For most of the 1970’s, 80’s and into the 90’s, Rossignol was king of the roost, the most recognized trademark in a market crammed with brands that did not survive this epoch. It built a race department that was the envy of all, with stars like Alberto Tomba and what seemed like every significant female racer in the world.   Eventually, maintaining its race stable became too expensive, other companies innovated while Rossi held eroding ground and Quicksilver’s brief flirtation with ownership did neither brand any favors.

To recover from the Quicksilver debacle, Rossi needed a star product or two to restore the brand to retail relevance. The rebound began with the core of the line, the Experience series, led technically by the ultra-powerful E98 and in sales by a model that remains a mainstay to this day, the E88. In 2013, the French brand re-staked its claim to carving excellence with the HP Pursuit. In 2014, it knocked the cover off the ball with the Super 7, Squad 7 and Soul 7.

It’s rare for skis as forgiving as the 7 Series to also deliver OMG performance, but Rossi has found a fresh way to deliver the stability only length provides without making a Big Mountain ski feel big when flipping edge to edge. With the Super 7, Rossignol restored the word “playful” to the Powder ski lexicon, a nearly forgotten attribute among these tanker-sized skis.

No sooner did the Soul 7 set every sales record for a Big Mountain ski than Rossi set about improving it, not just every few years, but every season. It followed its game-changing Carbon Alloy Matrix by reconfiguring its alluring Air Tip, integrating Air Tip 2.0 into the forebody and moving the contact point further forward.

Last season, this impulse to innovate was channeled into Rossi’s cornerstone Experience series. The latest Experience collection is more homogeneous, in both technology and graphic presentation, than the line it replaced. To review, the previous Experience generation altered construction with every step down the price ladder. In contrast, the 2019 Experience 94 Ti and 88 Ti shared the same story, Line Control Technology (LCT). LCT is a vertical, central ribbon of Titanal, shrouded in a shock-sucking elastomer and embedded between wood laminates. It’s called “Line Control” because its role is to keep the ski from counterflexing, thereby maintaining snow contact and trajectory.

For 2021, Rossi again took a scalpel to the forebody of the Experience flagships, trimming down the sidecut dimensions so the ski behaves more like a sedan than a sports car, particularly at the top of the turn. The new Experience 92 Ti Basalt and Experience 88 Ti Basalt retain the same technology package, so the choice between them is more about terrain ratios (e.g., 60/40 on-trail/off-trail) than skier talent level. The returning Experience 84 AI, while it sounds like it might do the skiing for you, is made for a less aggressive skier, substituting ABS for Titanal in its version of LCT.

The big story for 2021 is the arrival of Blackops as a full-fledged family and the concomitant conclusion of the legendary 7 series. We may never again see a Big Mountain model dominate sales the way the Soul 7 did, but you can’t ride the same horse forever. The Blackops collection represents a clean break with the past, but to tell its tale properly requires a quick review of recent history.

The 2021 Rossignol Season

The Blackops project began in 2016/17 in response to athletes’ requests for a powder ski that didn’t oblige them to charge the fall line at warp speed. They asked for something more playful, supple and above all, twin-tipped; the ability to land backwards was essential. Another key component was a deeper sidecut that would allow a 118 to cut a short radius turn if it were laid over. Thus was born the Blackops 118, or as it known now that its cover has been blown, the Gamer.

 

The next step in the 3-year development of the Blackops clan was the creation of the Blackops 98, rechristened the HolyShred for its public unveiling. Like its big bro the 118, the Blackops 98 was a twin-tip, but to upgrade its in-bounds behavior a Ti platform was added underfoot. Altering the length and width of the Ti plate allowed Rossi engineers to dial in the ideal flex for each size of the new Blackops. (Sidecut and baseline are also re-modeled for each length.) The development process that began with the secretive, athlete-driven Blackops 118 and the underground Blackops 98 led to the expanded lineup that debuts this year.

 

As Rossi considered its options for a full line of Blackops to replace the 7 series, it became clear that not every advanced, all-terrain skier expected to be landing his or her airs in reverse, so the twin-tip feature isn’t found elsewhere in the new Blackops collection. Among the new unisex Blackops models, the Sender Ti (106mm @ 187cm) is certain to excel in its genre.

 

There’s a 5-model Blackops series for women that mimic the design and positioning of the key unisex skis, although the women’s Blazer (98mm) has a flat tail while the men’s HolyShred retains the twintip design it inherited from the Blackops 98.

 

The new Blackops series represents a calculated choice to make a clean break with the recent past. The changes to the revised Experience 92 Ti Basalt and Experience 88 Ti Basalt are far more modest. Trimming down their tip width opened up the sidecut radius of the ski’s forebody, so it pulls more gently into the turn, without the sudden tug of a Technical ski. It helps make the new Experiences feel smoother, damper and quieter on edge.