The 2020 Technical Field
The Technical category isn’t completely dead, but it’s not exactly alive and kicking, either. Let’s call it suspended animation, as every 2019/20 Recommended model is a replica of its predecessor. To honor the category’s undisturbed tranquility, all the unisex reviews...2020 Women’s Technical
There are no women’s race skis made for consumers, only unisex skis in shorter lengths. Thus has it ever been so. If you calculated all the varieties of race models already being built at great expense by the brands committed to the category, you’d understand why...The 2020 Women’s Technical Field
Little by little, the women’s Technical category continues to add models to its lineup, offering a nearly full field of options to women who want elite hard snow performance. But expanding the market selection hasn’t substantially altered buyers’ interest, or lack...Insomnia
The Technical category is devoted to classic carving skis, a genre that remains robust in central Europe and is all but moribund in America. If you keep up with events in this obscure corner of our market, then you’re already aware that the mainstream European brands still take pride in their carving creations. No brand is more wedded to the concept of dual-track, continuous carving than Elan, and it shows in models like the Insomnia.
Elan’s signature – and singular – carving feature is called Amphibio, an asymmetrical baseline that’s fully cambered on the inside edge and modestly rockered on the outside so that the two skis will remain in perfect parallel as they pirouette down the piste. Short-radius turns are a particular specialty, as it’s always easier to coax a long turn out of short-radius sidecut (by reducing the edge angle), than it is to short turn out of long-radius shape without resorting to a partial drift.