When Rossi pushed the reset button on its cornerstone Experience series last season, it flipped from what was essentially a Frontside collection to a more off-trail orientation. The change is most noticeable in the tip, in part because Rossi’s Air Tip design catches the eye and because its pulled-back contact point and amply rockered forebody (30% of the total ski length) loosen up the tip.
Because of the Experience 84 AI W’s soft and compliant forebody, it rolls into the top of a turn as long as the pilot keeps pressure on it. Like its ideal pilot, it prefers its snow soft and its speed held in check. Its tidy, 12m radius sidecut is a short-turn specialist. Skiers whose carving skills are still in utero will find that its relatively short contact area will allow them to swivel their turns with impunity.
Last year Völkl resurrected its beloved Mantra by concocting a new technology called Titanal Frame; this season, Völkl applies the Titanal Frame touch to its Frontside family. The new pater familias is the Deacon 84 and like the M5 Mantra, it represents a return to traditional Völkl values.
Compared to the RTM 84 it replaces, the Deacon 84 has more edge-gripping power, more energy out of the turn and an overall bigger performance envelope. It’s not just better than its predecessor; it out-scored the entire Frontside field in the primordial technical criteria of early turn entry and short-radius turns, as well as earning the top Finesse score in category, not bad for what is inherently a Power ski.
What is it about the Deacon 84 that allows it be all skis to all (Frontside) skiers? It’s the alluring combination of a fiberglass torsion box and tactically placed Titanal parts that nullify shock without stifling the glass structure’s naturally springy nature. It’s exceptional rebound – it will lift you right off the snow if you punch it – derives from the Deacon 84’s 3D Glass, top and bottom glass laminates that come together above the sidewall to create a torsion box. The 3-part Titanal Frame anchors the forebody and tail while allowing the center to react to pressure, so the glass can compress and load up energy for the turn transition.
There’s a trail of clues that would lead a ski behavioral therapist to believe that the new Völkl Deacon 80 is the inferior in the relationship with its bigger brother, the Deacon 84. For starters, there’s its price, which works out to $100 less at retail. Price is usually an indicator of the cost of goods, and sure enough the Deacon 80 uses glass for its 3-piece top laminate instead of the Titanal in the 84. And the Deacon 80 is, of course, narrower, which among carving skis can sometime indicate that it’s geared slightly lower.
While these indicators are all true enough, the reality on snow is that the Deacon 80 is definitely in its brother’s league but it offers a different bundle of sensations. It’s more of a step laterally than down the product quality ladder. It uses the same structure as the 84’s Titanal Frame, with glass in lieu of metal. The 80 copies the 3D.Ridge and 3D.Glass construction of the 84, it has exactly the same size splits (ranging from 162cm to 182cm) and while it’s slimmer, it’s thinner by the same 4mm everywhere, so its sidecut radius is also identical to the 84’s.
Did you ever have a ski dream where everything was perfect? You can’t tell if your skis are an extension of your being or visa versa. You flow from turn to turn expending all the energy of a passenger lounging on a high-speed train. The scenery blurs as your speed climbs steadily until you reach a zone where time warps, aging is reversed, and still you’re totally connected to the snow by forces that feel at once magnetic, emotional and gravitational.
I can’t guarantee that you’ll arrive at this transcendental state the first time you step into a Kästle MX84, but you will if you keep trying. For if you’re not a beautiful skier before you encounter an MX84, in time it will make you one. This claim probably sounds optimistic, if not delusional, yet several testers claim that the MX84 essentially coached them into making better turns. Rather than dismiss it as New Age hogwash, I suggest you reconsider the hypothesis that a great ski invites great skiing.
You can tell a lot about a ski by its immediate family. Rossi’s Hero Elite Plus Ti is closely related to the Hero Elite LT Ti and ST Ti, both legit non-FIS Race models, even though the Plus Ti’s plus-sized shape (78mm) is many mm’s more ample than the 71mm waist of the LT Ti and 68mm midriff on the SL Ti. The Hero Elite Plus Ti not only uses the same construction as its gate-bashing sibs, its sidecut radius is the same as the ST’s in the167cm size preferred by slalom specialists.
Last year Rossi converted all of the Hero Elite clan to a new damping system, Line Control Technology. (LCT). Instead of using horizontal sheets of Titanal, as has been the case for decades among race models, LCT uses a vertical Ti laminate down the center of the ski so the forebody is more resistant to deflection. Torsional rigidity is softened a tad to allow the deep sidecut to engage gradually and progressively as the ski is tipped and pressured. “Stable and forgiving into the turn,” assures Scott Sahr from Aspen Ski and Board, “without compromising edge contact.”
