Last season we opined in this space that this descendant of an off-trail brood looks out of place among carvers with an on-trail pedigree. Skis with a patently off-piste baseline have no business infiltrating the ranks of Frontside models, by definition the domain of deep sidecuts and highly arched camber lines. How does a ski whose Flipcore baseline is practically already bowing manage to mingle with the second cousins of true race skis? It still seems like the Brahma 82 is trying to crash a party hosted by club to which it doesn’t belong.
You see, Frontside skis are supposed to share a mutual obsession with maintaining a continuous carve, while the double-rockered Brahma 82 seems ill suited to the task. Where is the performance-enhancing binding interface, the elevated standheight, the wasp-waisted sidecut, the squared-off tail? It’s unadorned by rods or plates. How can it hold its own against a genre full of pumped-up trench diggers?
But just as in a Hallmark Network story, the scrawny little kid with hardly any shape and no racing pedigree turns out to charm everyone he meets. He goes along to get along, never objecting to changes in turn trajectory and readily responding to suggestion. Like the ideal manservant, the Brahma 82 does its duty without calling attention to itself, yet is always ready to serve. It has a sensitive side, too, for it has a feel for the snow some of the more macho Frontside skis don’t display.
In its quest to prove it belongs, the 21/22 Brahma 82 added another line to its resume. Last year its core design upgraded to TrueBlend, Blizzard’s way of micro-managing its poplar and beech laminates to produce the optimal flex pattern for every length. It bears mention that the rest of the Brahma 82’s lay-up is mostly made up of carbon and 2 ½ layers of Titanal, as rich a construction as you’ll find in the genre.
This year, Blizzard shaved the Brahma 82’s TrueBlend core profile down a skosh, so it’s even easier to bow into a clean, round turn, a trait that’s particularly beneficial in today’s hacked-up bumps. With its off-trail, Flipcore baseline, the Brahma 82 is one of the few Frontside skis that actually feels made for moguls. It double-rockered baseline slithers around in torturous troughs that many carvers can’t conform to. Even though it’s more than capable of holding its own on hardpack, it’s actually bred for the backcountry. It doesn’t look at moguls and crud as trouble city, but like a hometown playground. Not many other skis in the Frontside genre have this ability to perform at a high level in any terrain.
The dominant impression left by the Brahma 82’s top-shelf construction isn’t one of unbridled power, but of ease and entertainment. It feels nimble and responsive, as light and agile as a water-bug, but it’s actually a very substantial ski that seems incapable of missing an edge set. It’s one of the tiny fraternity of Frontside skis with a higher Finesse score than Power score. But don’t mistake the Brahma 82’s easy-going nature for weakness. As they’d say in old, sappy movies, this kid has moxie. “A ski that just makes you smile all day,” says Peter Glenn’s Ward Pyles. “Easy and fun, with plenty of energy to keep the chatter factor down.”
Because it practices energy conservation not just on groomers, but all over the mountain, we confer upon the new and improved Brahma 82 a Silver Skier Selection.
