OVERVIEW
Line has come a long way in its brief history without ever straying very far from home. We can’t think of another well-distributed ski brand that began life making handmade skiboards, which in case you’ve forgotten, were the super-shorties barely long enough to contain a boot and a rudimentary, non-releasable binding. But Line wouldn’t be here today if Jason Levinthal hadn’t first decided to make a sliding device that was as easy to point backwards as forwards. All Levinthal had to do was elongate his platform and a ski brand married to the twin-tip concept was born.
If the idea of carving every inch of every turn remained as popular as it was in the hey-day of super-shaped skis in the 90’s, Line probably would have gone the way of the dodo. Despite being a fairly diverse brand today, they still don’t make anything one could seriously call a Technical ski. Happily for Line, the market shifted its emphasis to skis with better performance in soft snow and crud, which moved a good deal of the market right into Line’s wheelhouse.
Line is owned by the same people that bring you K2, yet the feel of the two brands on snow couldn’t be more different. Lines always feel light and playful, like puppies that can’t wait to chase a stick. They’re less interested in promoting technical proficiency than they are in permitting shenanigans like pivoting off your shovels; what other brand has a “Butter Zone” fore and aft of the binding?
If all Line made were spiffy Pipe & Park skis, you’d find no reviews of them here as that is not Realskiers’ domain. But Line makes some directional All-Mountain models that have a definite place in the mainstream market and their Powder skis are so much fun, kids shouldn’t be the only ones allowed to have them. Because Line tends to make thin-profile skis that are lightweight and easy to bend with minimal effort, their women’s models are well suited to the fairer sex.
The 2017 Season
The biggest news from Line in 2017 involves both product and personage in the form of Tom Wallisch and his new Pro model. Regarded in freestyle circles as the best at translating Pipe & Park maneuvers to environments as opposite as urban concrete and bottomless backcountry, Wallisch is the ideal ambassador for a brand that exudes fun wherever it goes. Realskiers testers who are into the Pipe & Park scene gushed over the Tom Wallisch Pro, like Scott from Sun & Snow who was “shocked such a short twin tip could be this stable. Great in and out of fast turns, solid off jumps and nice landings.” What more could a freeskier want?
Well, since you asked, a steal of a deal would be nice. That role falls to the new Honey Badger ($399.95 in most markets), a surfy twin that’s ideal for teens. Elsewhere in the 2017 Line line-up, its other signature-model athlete, Eric Pollard, has cooked up the Pescado, a 125mm-waisted surfboard with edges. Among skis more likely to find an audience among Realskiers’ readers, the redesigned Supernatural 92 gets our testers’ nod over the latest Supernatural, the 86.