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.
As an all-terrain tool, the Legend X 88 is expected to perform at an elite level on groomers as well as off-piste. The basic design is already optimized for off-trail antics, so Dynastar elevated its hard snow chops by adding metal laminates for good measure. (The 88 is the only Legend X model so equipped.) The increases in horsepower allowed the Legend X 88 to slip in among our Recommended Power models.
While the inclusion of metal indubitably makes the Legend X 88 a better ski than its mates, it still shares with them a fundamentally easy-going disposition. “It’s a great all-around ski,” confides Bobo’s Theron Lee, an admitted Dynastar admirer. “Smooth and stable at speed, easy to turn. Tip does move a lot, but not as distracting as it sounds. 88 width makes it good in both firm and soft snow.”
The American skier’s ongoing infatuation with fat skis has so distorted our collective notion of what an all-terrain ski should look like that we no longer remember the days when the best skiers’ everyday ride was a race ski or something similar. As recently as the late 1990’s, a ski as wide as Dynastar’s Speed Zone 4×4 82 Pro would have been regarded as a powder-only behemoth.
Dynastar remembers that epoch because it helped re-define the all-terrain ski when it launched the original 4×4 in 1998. With a less exaggerated sidecut than the shaped skis of the era along with a wider waist, the first 4×4 was immediately recognized as a breakthrough ski in an all-mountain category that had previously been stocked with race ski spin-offs. I remember taking my first runs on them at a Solitude trade fair where I took them out first thing and never brought ‘em back. My belated apologies.
The all-new 4×4 is attached to the Speed Zone family, but it’s actually a separate breed. In keeping with the overall trend to lighter skis, the 4×4 82 Pro uses a multi-material core with laminated beech providing the primary structure and a band of polyurethane (PU) between the wood and the outer sidewall. The PU adds a dampening element as well as being lighter than the wood it replaces.
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.”
