The Nordica Santa Ana 100 is easily the most torsionally rigid of our four Recommended women’s All-Mountain West models, usually an indicator of a higher Power quotient, yet it’s so easy to ski – for advanced to expert women – that its scores landed it on the Finesse side of the ledger. But as I occasionally stress in these pages, while the numbers are instructive, they don’t reveal as much about a ski’s character as the narrative. Listen closely to what a couple of our testers had to say about the Santa Ana 100 and you’ll hear suggestions that both these ladies thought the ski is, if anything, too powerful.
“Great all around ski,” is the general assessment of Jolee from Footloose, with this proviso: ”A little too much ski for hard pack, but for a woman who charges it’s terrific. Handles great off groomed snow,” she adds. Becca Pierce from Bobo’s test team skied the Santa Ana 100 in rapidly softening spring conditions, which Becca found it ideally adapted for. “These skis were meant for today’s conditions. A tad long for yours truly in the bumps, but assuming I were a stronger skier, I’d bet they’d be tits. Would be great in pow, and awesome control in this slop. Loved the stability.”
The 100mm waist width of the Santa Ana 100 makes it a dream to drift, and its twin Titanal laminates give the edge its bite when called upon to carve. Because of its torsional rigidity, its width is more noticeable on hard snow, so it doesn’t feel as quick edge-to-edge, dampening its enthusiasm for short-radius turns. But this isn’t much of a liability to the hard charger Jolee imagined on it, although it does suggest that lower skill skiers could find a more patient partner for showing them the ropes.
