The Dynastar Legend W 84’s position at the top of our panel’s favorite Frontside Finesse skis of 2020 illustrates an interesting phenomenon that sometimes occurs when a brand uses the same ski for both men and women, particularly when said ski doesn’t use Titanal in its stock recipe. The women’s skis garner higher points than the men’s, as has been the case the last couple of years with Dynastar.
If you’re familiar with Dynastar’s recent history, then you know the Cham series was conceived as a freeride, off-trail family. Given its bloodlines, the Legend W 84 has no trepidation about traveling off-trail, where it’s better at drift across broken snow than most in the genre. When it’s confined to corduroy quarters, its user-friendly baseline allows it to pivot or carve on command, and its tidy turn radius (12m @ 156cm) creates a lovely short arc. As one tester noted last spring, it’s “easy to carve medium radius turns yet also easy (and fun) to make short turns.”
Ever since Dynastar introduced the Cham series what seems like several centuries ago, the brand has moved metal in and out its model matrix, trying to find the right fit for its 5-point sidecut design. It first offered a metal-laden option for the flagship Cham 97 and its bigger bros, the Cham 107 and even the Champ 117. It soon became apparent that all that massive material in a 117 was overkill, and gradually metal also disappeared from the 107mm-width and, in due course, the 97 as well.
When Dynastar resurrected a modified Cham baseline and sidecut in the form of the Legend X and Legend W series, to keep the wider skis’ weight down it cut the metal out of the 106 and reduced it to an insert in the 96. The 88 had the perfect dimensions to handle the weight of two sheets of Titanal without feeling like an oil tanker to turn. The added heft and unique damping qualities of this aluminum alloy keep the Legend W88 calm on both boilerplate groomers and bothersome crud.
The Legend W88 is a Power ski that accessible to Finesse skiers. It relatively short contact area makes it easy to foot-steer, it has sufficient width to float and drift in powder and it a technical skier should tip it on edge, she’ll have the support of Titanal to keep her carving on a clean trajectory.
One of my ardently held beliefs about ski design, for which I have no statistical support, is that every model family has a star, a width at which all its other design parameters are optimized. For example, in Salomon’s QST collection, it’s the 106; in Kästle’s MX family, it’s the 84, and in Dynastar’s 4-model Legend W series, it’s the 96.
What makes the W 96 the belle of the ball? The Legend W series is directly descended from Dynastar’s Cham clan, an early adopter of the 5-point sidecut. The 5-point sidecut keeps the tip and tail from engaging with the cambered zone underfoot, effectively keeping them out of the turning business and helping the skis to roll over terrain rather than digging into it. This shape was made expressly for Big Mountain skiing; it’s at its best when it’s wide, and a waist around 96mm is about as broad as it can be without feeling sluggish.
Twenty years ago Dynastar produced a signature ski for Jeremy Nobis – then regarded as the game-changing big mountain skier of his generation – called the Inspired. The point behind this oblique introduction to the Legend X 106 is that the Legends of today aren’t made for the Jeremy Nobises of this world. Instead of being stiffer than the norm, the Legend X 106 gets its silky ride by deliberately softening the forebody so it will conform to irregular terrain when driven at recreational speeds. What makes the modern Legend X 106 more malleable than its ancestors is a 3-piece sidewall called Powerdrive.
Developed for its Speed Zone race skis – albeit with a different mix of materials – Powerdrive breaks up the bond between the laminates in the core and the rigid outer sidewall. Without heavy Titanal laminates to cast a cloud over its inherently peppy personality, the Legend X 106 feels quicker to the edge than the norm among Big Mountain models.
The co-author of Snowbird Secrets, “Guru” Dave Powers, skis on a Dynastar Legend X 96. Its entire forebody serves as a shock-sucking buffer, due to a 3-piece segment of sidewall that frees up the laminates in the core to sheer. This allows the ski to conform to terrain it would otherwise ram into, and is a particular pleasure in powder as it lets the ski bow without having to charge the fall line.
The absence of end-to-end Titanal laminates also plays to Powers requirements. (The Legend X 96 has a Ti insert underfoot to stabilize this critical zone.) No metal slabs means less weight onboard, means less stress on his ravaged knees. Absent the torsional rigidity of full Ti laminates, the 96mm Legend X skis narrower than it measures, which is a significant blessing for skiers with little to no cartilage left. For providing a smooth, easy-flexing ride that won’t buck its rider, we again award the Legend X 96 a Silver Skier Selection.
