If you had one run to demonstrate that you could maintain a continuous, uninterrupted, double-track carve in every turn radius from straight to 90o, what ski would you choose? Could you manage to keep pace with a world-class slalom? Could you even generate the G’s to bend a GS race ski? What ski will have the requisite precision without giving an advanced skier a hernia trying to get it to bow?
The Head Supershape i.Rally has The Right Stuff. (Farewell, Tom Wolfe, we’ll miss you!) It uses Graphene, carbon in a matrix one atom thick, in the ski center so it can make the core thinner in this area and easier to press into an arc. Any other ski maker in the golden age of Lighter Is Better would pocket the weight savings Graphene allows, but Head instead invested them in adding more Titanal to the mix, giving the i.Rally the stability and intensity of a battering ram. In a cage match with crud or crisp groomage, the contest is over in the first round. The i.Rally is better than whatever snow you throw under its gently rockered tip, and it imbues its pilot with its self-confidence.
Like all superheroes, the i.Rally has its kryptonite. Put two feet of powder in front of it and the i.Rally will dive in, but it won’t resurface without a struggle. Trying to pull its wide forebody (almost 60mm drop in width from tip to waist) up off the basement is like trying to boat a marlin with a fly rod. But once the powder turns to chop the i.Rally is back to acting bossy, bulling its way through the carnage as if it earned a commission for every drift it smashed.
As crud-capable as it is, this really isn’t the i.Rally’s milieu. This ski’s prime directive is to carve cleanly and carve a lot. Tester after tester praises its innate ability to find the next turn. “Ski turns on its own,” notes Nadine from Footloose. “Automatic turning!” trills Trey from The City Garage. “It turns itself on groomed slopes,” confirms a tester from Peter Glenn’s Atlanta store. “Loved it!!” echoes Bobo’s Steve Sheehan. “Always there for the taking,” is how he describes the i.Rally’s receptivity to skier input. Just tip and go; stop when you run out of gravity.