Much as I hate to undermine my own methodology, I encourage you to ignore the niggling difference between the Santa Ana 93’s Power and Finesse scores that allowed it to migrate from the Power collective to the Finesse family this season. Its personality didn’t change over the summer, but a couple of new scores shifted it from one side of the Power/Finesse border to the other. The Santa Ana 93 still favors the strong, technical skier who is comfortable carrying speed, but it’s so good at off-trail skills like drifting and staying calm while crud-busting that it can’t help but earn high marks for Finesse properties.
The very fact that the Santa Ana 93 can slip so easily across the Power/Finesse divide tells you that it’s neither one nor the other, but both. One look at its double-rockered baseline reveals why it moves so smoothly from on-trail to off: the blunt tip bends abruptly upward, doing the job of riding over irregular terrain quickly so most of the ski can be fully cambered. It’s as if a high-powered Frontside ski were hiding inside a loose-tipped powder vehicle.
The fraternal relationship between Blizzard’s two All-Mountain East entries, the elder brother Brahma 88 and its upstart sibling, the Rustler 9, encapsulates the contrasting cast of characters that populate this crossroads category. While both skis belong to off-trail families, their personalities couldn’t be more different than, well, two brothers.
Put in Realskiers’ terms, the Brahma 88 is a Power ski while the Rustler 9 is a Finesse ski. The Brahma 88’s best scores are for performance criteria like carving accuracy and stability at speed; its GPA drops off for comfort qualities like forgiveness and low-speed turning. The Rustler 9’s marks reveal a model with a high aptitude for off-trail conditions with a peppy personality that’s easy to get along with. It’s not that it’s bad at edging, it’s just doesn’t care for the regimented lifestyle of a carving ski. It prefers life off-trail where it has the freedom to smear every turn.
Both the Sheeva 9 and the Black Pearl 88 are descendants of a line of off-trail parents; the template for the Pearl was the Brahma, the little brother of the mighty Cochise and Bodacious; the model for the Sheeva 9 was the Rustler 9, a spin-off of the Rustler 10 and 11. To better understand the nuances that distinguish the Pearl 88 from the Sheeva 9, it helps to understand the families they come from.
Distilled to its essence, the Pearl 88 has a smidgeon more aptitude for hard-snow skiing. Its Flipcore construction allows the forebody to join the rest of the ski on edge once it’s tipped and pressured, so the skier has the sense of riding the entire ski and not just a section of it. The front of the Sheeva 9 is made to be looser, to intentionally forego early connection to a fully carved turn. That it still feels solid throughout is a testament to the security imparted by a trimmed down top laminate of Titanal.
In light of its overall gentle nature and bias for off-road conditions, the Sheeva 9 is an ideal set of training wheels for the gal who is ready to get off groomers. Supple enough to slither through bumps and agile enough to dart through trees, the Sheeva 9 can give an off-trail newbie the confidence to try it all.
Twenty-five years ago, Jason Levinthal began making skiboards, skis just long enough to make room for a primitive, non-releasable binding. Because they were first, foremost and forever about tricks, they had curled-up tips at both ends. It wasn’t long before Jason graduated to making full-length twin-tips, which attracted the attention of kids who wanted to take skiing in a new direction. Little by little, Line infiltrated the mass market, not by adopting its rules, but by being change agents who would help redefine the sport.
Just how high Line has climbed in market share is hard to say since online sales bypass monitored retailing, but it’s safe to assume Line has been the most successful start-up since its inception. Because the kids who continue to be its principal patrons are all about breaking the rules and taking the party to the slopes, its communications focus on fat, smeary powder skis and terrain-park twins.
But Line might not have made it to 25 if it hadn’t been for skiers over 40. For several seasons it cultivated quite a following for its Prophet series, all-mountain tools with an oddly trimmed topsheet of metal that gave them power that a lightweight skier could engage. This same principle is what helps the Supernatural 92 strike a balance between Power and Finesse properties that tilts slightly towards the latter because of its off-trail personality.
As an all-terrain tool, the Legend X 88 is expected to perform at an elite level on groomers as well as off-piste. The basic design is already optimized for off-trail antics, so Dynastar elevated its hard snow chops by adding metal laminates for good measure. (The 88 is the only Legend X model so equipped.) The increases in horsepower allowed the Legend X 88 to slip in among our Recommended Power models.
While the inclusion of metal indubitably makes the Legend X 88 a better ski than its mates, it still shares with them a fundamentally easy-going disposition. “It’s a great all-around ski,” confides Bobo’s Theron Lee, an admitted Dynastar admirer. “Smooth and stable at speed, easy to turn. Tip does move a lot, but not as distracting as it sounds. 88 width makes it good in both firm and soft snow.”
