The Dynastar Legend W 84’s position at the top of our panel’s favorite Frontside Finesse skis of 2020 illustrates an interesting phenomenon that sometimes occurs when a brand uses the same ski for both men and women, particularly when said ski doesn’t use Titanal in its stock recipe. The women’s skis garner higher points than the men’s, as has been the case the last couple of years with Dynastar.
The men’s and women’s versions of the Legend are up against very different competition. The Legend X 84 struggles against a men’s field stocked to the gills with souped-up system skis laden with Titanal. The gals’ Legend W 84 more than holds its own versus a field where the best skis are similarly soft-flexing and flat (i.e., not paired with its own binding). Every Recommended model in the women’s Frontside category fits this description.
The Legend W 84’s distinctive on-snow behavior derives primarily from its 5-point sidecut, Dynastar’s signature tech it introduced with the Cham series, when such shapes were rare. Today, every off-trail ski in Christendom is made with a tapered tip and tail à la Legend, and the shape is increasingly found in the Frontside genre. By also rockering the tip and tail, the effective length of edge contact is reduced, which has the effect of favoring short-radius turns.
If you’re familiar with Dynastar’s recent history, then you know the Cham series was conceived as a freeride, off-trail family. Given its bloodlines, the Legend W 84 has no trepidation about traveling off-trail, where it’s better at drift across broken snow than most in the genre. When it’s confined to corduroy quarters, its user-friendly baseline allows it to pivot or carve on command, and its tidy turn radius (12m @ 156cm) creates a lovely short arc. As one tester noted last spring, it’s “easy to carve medium radius turns yet also easy (and fun) to make short turns.”
As our top-rated ski for ease, the Legend W 84 again earns a Silver Skier Selection. For skiers looking for more power in a ski better suited to groomers should check out the Dynastar Intense 4×4 82, a new model that we regrettably didn’t get enough data on to review. We suspect it’s very, very good.
