The Frontside category has always been the province of Power skis, a truism that has never been truer. Out of 17 Recommended models, only two averaged a higher Finesse score than Power score. We padded the Finesse population with a couple of plausible candidates, so the other Finesse Favorites wouldn’t feel so all alone.
Of course, there are actually a great many Finesse Frontside skis made for skiers of lower skills and/or lower budget, but these models have a hard time competing against skis with more expensive innards. We also had a couple of 2018 Recommended Finesse skis fall out of favor and another, the stellar Nordica Navigator 80, didn’t garner enough ballots to qualify for what would certainly been another high finish.
If you recognize a lot of familiar faces, it’s because the Frontside genre as a whole was relatively undisturbed by change. Among a large field of Recommended models, only six are new for 2019, and two of those are from Liberty, a brand we’ve never reviewed before.