If you think of the Soul Rider 97 as a skinnier Patron, it’s appearance among our Recommended models for the all-mountain Finesse skier should come as no surprise. Its twin-tip design, a rarity among our Recommended models, descends directly from the double-rocker DNA of the Patron. The turned-up tail isn’t an invitation to ski backwards – the Soul Rider 97 is a directional ski – as much as a silent plea to be taken off-piste, where this poppy, playful ski is in its element.
The key to the Samba’s go-anywhere attitude lies in its Flip Core baseline that predisposes the forebody to ride over anything in front of it without disconnecting it from the rest of the ski. As soon as the Samba is laid over, the skier can depend on every centimeter of the ski supporting her. Secure enough on edge to carve all day, the Samba saves its best moves for soft snow, where it helps the uninitiated learn to mix smearing and steering into a lively downhill dance.
The most prominent impression left by the Venturi 95 is of smoothness that remains unruffled no matter where it’s led. It holds an edge even when there’s no surface to edge into. When all semblance of softness has been pounded away, the Venturi 95 doesn’t bat an eye but continues to spool off medium-radius arcs as easily as a Vegas dealer spins out cards.
The Venturi 95 pulls off this neat trick by using a proprietary design that adheres a matrix of shock-sucking elastomer covered in a fiberglass shell to both the tip and tail. This feature is to shock what black holes are to light.
Often “wider” translates as “less maneuverable,” but Atomic’s Vantage 95 C W confounds the conventional in more ways than one. The widest of the women’s Vantage series, the 95 C W manages to mask its width by being more effervescent, coming off the bottom of a powder turn as light as a Champagne bubble rising upwards to the surface of a flute.
Concealed behind Line’s devil-may-care attitude is a serious ski maker who manufacturers more traditional, cambered, directional models than they do center-mounted twin tips. Its Supernatural and Sick Day series are actually old-fashioned in their wood and fiberglass constructions, with just a touch of tip and tail rocker to qualify as off-trail tools.
The simplicity of the Supernatural 100’s construction contributes to its playful attitude and easy-steering properties. As a cambered, glass ski, the Supernatural 100 pops out of the turn even in powder, giving it a lively but controlled rebound that carries the skier into the next turn. (Note its highest technical score is for Rebound/turn finish, an unusual result that highlights this ski’s special property.)