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.
Dynastar draws no distinction between its men’s Legend X and women’s Legend W models, except that the men’s are predominantly black and the women’s white. The same construction that works well for guys is gangbusters for gals. Petite skiers are teed up for success by a 13m sidecut radius – a short radius to match a shorter skier – tucked inside a relative behemoth in terms of surface area. These contrasting traits give the Legend W 96 surprising agility for its girth and gobs of flotation for off-trail environs. The lighter weight is less fatiguing and makes Legend W 96 ideal for the advanced skier transitioning to a wide ski for the first time.
