by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
The Blizzard Brahma underwent the same modifications this year as its big brother, the Bonafide, growing fatter at tip and tail. The new radius of the shovel brings a tipped ski in contact with the snow earlier, and the extra shape trims 2m off the turn radius in a 180cm. The net effect is an improvement in carving performance on groomed terrain without detracting one iota from the Brahma’s appetite for off-trail skiing. Its performance in moguls is as good as any ski in the genre, bearing in mind that mogul aptitude is a skill that depends more on the skier than the ski.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
Last season Blizzard pulled off a coup that was, as far as this ski journalist is aware, a singular one in the annals of ski sales: a women’s ski, the Black Pearl, emerged as the top selling ski in the specialty channel. The reason the event was unprecedented is that women make up at best 40% of the new ski market. To be the number one ski means the Black Pearl had to dominate women’s sales. What voodoo did Blizzard do to make the Black Pearl so supernaturally successful?
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
The newest Bonafide earned gushing accolades from veteran testers like Bob Gleason of Boot Doctors: “As the Bonafide has displayed for years, this ski is dynamically versatile. They play like a symphony at various speeds, terrain, and snow conditions. The subtle difference of the new Bonafide is the lengthened side cut in the ski’s forebody. The new Bonafide enters the turn earlier with stronger initiation. It feels like suspension tuned for charging into the turn.”
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
The Black Pearl is such a runaway hit that Blizzard applied the name to every model in its All-Mountain Freeride collection, rechristening the Samba as the Black Pearl 98. More than just the name is new: the Black Pearl 98 has considerably more shape than the Samba and the front rocker is made to connect a little earlier. These changes elevate the new ski’s hard snow performance without diminishing its natural predisposition to ski anything else but.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
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.
