“Powerful GS turns,” purrs Pete from California Ski Company. “No speed limit. Felt stable at Mach ∞,” he notes admiringly. It’s not the raw speed per se, that’s so enthralling, but the ease at which the Stormrider 105 attains it and the uses it to fashion turns short enough to tuck into couloirs and long enough to ravage open bowls. “Killing it!!!,” exults the even more exuberant than usual Bob Gleason of Boot Doctors. “Surprisingly nimble ski for its waist size. The cross breeding of quickness, agility, and stability is in a class of its own.”
Brilliance on a high edge comes at the price of making a short arc, with the ever-accelerating speeds bigger turns engender. You’ll never get a ski with the 100 Eight’s sidecut to carve a tidy arc, but it has the solution on demand: a fully rockered baseline without a whisper of camber to interfere with a smudged slide. If you want to aim the other way RIGHT NOW, just turn your feet. No unpleasant contortions required.
At the heart of every lightweight design is carbon, and the Sheeva 10 has plenty of it, both in stringers in its glass laminates and in unidirectional inserts at tip and tail that help lower swingweight. Its signature feature is a Titanal laminate that runs nearly edge-to-edge underfoot but tapers to a blunt tongue that doesn’t quite reach either tip or tail. The intent is to add stability underfoot but keep the rest of the ski looser, so it can contort to absorb irregular terrain.
You won’t find another ski with a 112mm waist and 23.5m sidecut radius that would rather carve on a high edge angle than smear like a putty knife. It’s not that it won’t drift – of course it will – but it feels predisposed to carve on its razor-thin 3D.Ridge of compressed carbon. The V-Werks Katana was the test pilot for the 3D.Ridge design that has since permeated Völkl’s high-end All-Mountain and Frontside models. The V-Werks Katana proved that the concept could apply equally well to deep-sidecut carving skis and broad-beam powder surfers.
Our testers adore the Rustler 10, particularly for its Finesse properties. Here’s a sampler: “The mix of underfoot grip with ease at the extremities is unmatched. Another home run for Blizzard!” “Rustler 102 is playful, loose, poppy, yet still has that Blizzard feel underfoot. It’s going to be easier for more skiers to deal with.” “Centered and well balanced.” “Super fun in soft stuff, quite forgiving, yet good power on the groomed.”
