Among elite consumer products, it’s hard to imagine a more hard-luck case than that of race skis in America. A mere 25 years ago if you had any pretensions at all of being an expert they were the only game in town. Now they’re not even considered in the discussion of...
The battle to make the best race skis never calls a ceasefire. Just because the ski in the catalog doesn’t change from one year to the next doesn’t mean the R&D department has hit the snooze button. It doesn’t make sense to re-tool every year for a market as...
The Stöckli Laser SL doesn’t suffer from an identity crisis. It was born a slalom, it lives to make slalom turns and because it’s a Stöckli, it will probably never die. A test card from South Lake Tahoe’s Powder House paints a telling portrait of the Laser SL’s...
A good ski tester, like any conscientious critic, ought to retain an emotional detachment while on duty, but we’re only human. Try as we might to submerge our feelings, on occasion we fall hopelessly, exuberantly in love. One spin around the dance floor with the...
You expect a race slalom ski to be whippet quick, and the Völkl Racetiger Speedwall SL UVO doesn’t disappoint in this signature department. What you don’t expect is the grace to accept longer turns when requested and a ride so polished it feels like the ski is doing...
