OVERVIEW
Nordica’s opportunities as a ski brand took a fundamental turn for the better when the Tecnica Group bought the Blizzard factory and shifted Nordica production over to their new, refurbished facility. Prior to this happy development, Nordica skis had endured a checkered history. It began when the self-important sweater-maker Benetton owned Nordica – an investment they would live to rue – and decided to acquire the venerable Austrian ski manufacturer Kästle. As Benetton managed to do with all their sport properties – it single-handedly destroyed the in-line skate market with its shred stewardship of Rollerblade – it drove Nordica and Kästle directly downward. By the time Nordica was re-acquired by its original ownership for dimes on the dollar, the Kästle brand had been euthanized and replaced with the first Nordica skis.
Nordica’s sustained importance as a boot brand allowed the ski line to survive a rocky adolescence. Now that it has a permanent home, it also has emerged as a major player. As Nordica developed as a ski brand, it earned a foothold in the Carving world with a series of exceptional Frontside models, then busted into the critical All-Mountain categories with the Steadfast and the Hell-and-Back, two of the best all-fiberglass skis we’ve seen in recent years. They proceeded to hit a series of home runs – technically if not commercially – with the Big Mountain models Patron, Helldorado and El Capo.
He who sits still gets run over, and so Nordica modified their all-terrain construction by adding a latticework of Titanal on top of their already torsionally rigid I-Core construction in the NRGy series introduced in 2015. In keeping with Nordica’s technical heritage, the NRGy models are strong skis that all but require the skier to drive them from a high edge.
Nordica’s ability to make lighter weight, non-metal skis gives the brand the inside track on making a great women’s ski. The eternal quest for a lighter structure has seen the creation of the I-Core, with one wood stringer replaced with foam, the WI-Core with 2 foam channels and the Balsa Core CA, with microlaminates of balsa wood as the ski’s central component. The persistent focus on weight reduction has won Nordica a faithful following among women of all skill levels.
The 2017 Season
2017 is shaping up as a banner year for Nordica. Last year the Enforcer earned an avalanche of accolades, prompting the inception of spin-off models, the Enforcer 93 for men and Santa Ana 93 for women. They join an already crowded field of Nordica models in the pivotal All-Mountain East genre, alongside the established NRGY 90 and the new NRGY 85 and Soul Rider 87.
At Realskiers, we don’t pay much attention to twin-tip models as they tend to be Park & Pipe specific, but Nordica’s Soul Rider models are all-terrain skis that happen to have turned-up tails. We regret that we didn’t see more cards on the Soul Rider 87 as we suspect it of excellence we can’t quite confirm.
Nordica has a strong following in the carving community attributable to several superior Fire Arrow models, setting the stage for Nordica’s newest carving implements, the GT 84 Ti EVO and GT 80 Ti EVO. Both models get their sublime power from the Torsion Bridge Titanal matrix first applied to the NRGY series of All-Mountain skis. The difference between the GT 84 and the retired Fire Arrow 84 EDT is deeper than a geologic fault line; the latter felt like being strapped to a missile, while the new ski is infinitely subtler and responsive without surrendering an iota of edge grip.
Realskiers is fortunate to have a high percentage of women readers, so it pains us to report we didn’t see any cards on Nordica’s new Sentra series of Technical and Frontside models. We’ll try to do better next time.
If you’re a Big Mountain skier, you may be wondering, whither the NRGY 107 or the redoubtable Helldorado? Gone the way of the El Capo and Vagabond, to that big powder field in the sky. The Big Mountain category is a second-ski market, so while it’s worth it to compete in the genre, overloading it with choices only diminishes the production run for each option. The Patron planted Nordica’s flag in this genre and its exceptional receptivity to hard snow skiing has kept it relevant in a category awash in swiveling planks.