Most of the skis in the Technical fraternity are body-builder strong, winning the war for your allegiance with conquest, not caresses.  The Elan Ripstick isn’t one of the burly bunch, but a sinuous smoothie who earns your affection with its yes-man acquiescence to your every wish.

Elan would probably tell you that the reason the Ripstick moves as naturally edge to edge as water flows downhill is their Amphibio design that rockers only the outside edge.  If so, its influence is so subtle it went undetected by our test panel.  What they could feel was a ski willing to make any turn shape from a high stance or a low, laid-over super-carve.

True to its carving heritage, the Ripstick Fusion likes to lay down rails, maintaining contact with the edge at all times.  To keep from going off the tracks, the Ripstick releases its energy in a gentle pulse, allowing the ski to form a round-bellied arc before slinking forward.   “Smooth as a Cadillac,” cooed Alive, my confrere from Bobo’s, who was “pleasantly surprised by its stability.”

We didn’t break out our Finesse Favorites for this genre, but if we had the Ripstick Fusion would have been on the podium.  It’s no noodle, with a substantial platform you can trust to grip hard snow at a high edge angle, but overall its ease outshines even its considerable power properties.