As an ex-marketer myself, I have to admire how Line puts a memorable spin – and hence an aroma of ownership – on a design feature as common as egg rolls at a Chinese-American restaurant. When one reads, “Magic Finger Carbon Filaments,” the mingling in the mind of coin-operated motel beds amid ropes of carbon derails the brain’s critical capacities. Just what modern marketing hopes to achieve.
I mention Magic Finger Carbon Filaments because they’re the key to what’s new in Line’s popular Sick Day series. As skiers must be sick of hearing by now, carbon’s high strength-to-weight ratio allows designers to take out heavier fiberglass. So the 4 new Sick Day models (88, 94, 104 & 114) are palpably lighter than their predecessors. (Actually, the Sick Day 88 is all new and unequipped with Magic Fingers, the better to fit the youth market’s need for a less expensive option.)
The Sick Day line-up isn’t one ski in four different shapes, but a different animal in every instance. The Sick Day 114, reviewed below, is substantially more rockered and less cambered than its smaller kin, a progression that continues incrementally down the line. Retail price points descend as well, in $100 increments, from the $699 Sick Day 114 to the $399 Sick Day 88.