by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Faithful followers of Realskiers’ ski selection methodology will notice that, strictly speaking, the Head Supershape e-Magnum doesn’t belong in the Frontside genre. Its 72mm waistline plants the Magnum – appropriately – in the Technical genre, where you’ll find the last remnants of the Carving category that once dominated sales in this country. I’ve overlooked this heresy because the Magnum has two Frontside siblings – the e-Rally and e-Titan – that are stars in the Frontside firmament; it didn’t seem right to review them without including the e-Magnum, which arguably is the best of the brood.
What elevates the Magnum above its brethren is its affinity for short, slingshot edge sets that are as secure as they are whiplash quick. You use the same skill set racers develop by dancing through a forest of slalom gates, repurposed to create your own line on the fly. It’s like riding a rollercoaster at Disneyland; you know you can charge with abandon because there’s no chance you’ll go off the rails. This is a form of exhilaration you can’t extract from a fat ski, which tend to be as lively as a wet noodle.
While short turns are its special sauce, the e-Magnum can be coaxed into elongating its arcs at its rider’s behest. The tip width on all the 2025 Supershapes has been whittled down a few mm’s, so the new e-Magnum isn’t as fixated on short turns as its only diet, without mitigating its ability to latch onto the tippy top of a turn. While it’s inherently quick on and off the edge, the e-Magnum is never nervous, it’s piezoelectric dampening system muffling vibrations and maintaining intimate snow contact until you stomp on the edge, loading up the Crossforce Carbon laminates in its guts so the ski springs across the fall line. By replacing a section of Titanal in the ski’s midsection with crisscrossed carbon, the latest Magnum is both lighter and livelier than prior generations.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
If you come from a race background, your favorite Supershape is likely to be the e-Speed or e-Magnum, but if you’re accustomed to a fairly wide all-mountain model, you’ll probably gravitate to the e-Titan. The common misconception that one needs 100mm’s underfoot to tackle off-piste terrain won’t survive contact with the e-Titan. Particularly when the off-trail goods are best in the trees or other tight quarters, a ski with a talent for tidy turns has all the versatility you need to subdue the untamed side of the mountain.
Head has been fiddling with the formula for the ideal all-terrain/carving ski for many product generations. For 2025, the tinkering continues, beginning with the sidecut, the most fundamental element in a carving ski’s make-up. The 2025 e-Titan lops 4mm off its forward contact point and loses 2mm at the tail, tamping down the carve-insistent personality of its forebears. The e-Titan is still very much a carving ski at heart, but now it’s programed to be more open-minded about turn shape. It’s divine in boot-top freshies, providing a stable platform that wraps into the top of a mid-radius turn, holds an edge with a python’s smooth insistence, and concludes with a burst of rebound energy that converts the exit of every arc into an effortless stroll in the park.
This effortless exuberance wouldn’t be possible without another important design modification. You can’t engage a ski’s sidecut if you can’t get it on edge, and you can’t release the potential energy stored in the ski’s mainframe if you can’t bend it.
One of the reasons the e-Titan can motor through cut-up snow like it was meringue is it’s loaded with shock-muffling materials like Crossforce Carbon, Graphene and piezoelectric circuits that convert disruptive vibrations into edge-gripping power. Tuned to kick in only when it’s calming powers are required, Head’s unique Energy Management Circuit delivers next-level imperturbability on edge.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Head was the first major ski brand to tie its fortunes to the success of the shaped ski revolution with its Cyber series. I remember being a guest at a major dealer event in Konigsberg, Austria in the 1990’s when the president of Head’s subsidiary muttered the brand’s new mantra in a funereal monotone: “Cyber is carving, and carving is Cyber.” You had to be there.
Point being, Head went all-in on the carving craze and never lost its passion for the genre, always working on the perfect tool for making a continuous, flowing arc on groomed terrain. When Head acquired a license to use Graphene, carbon in its most elemental form, it didn’t rush to apply it to its established Supershape collection, but did its homework for a few seasons, figuring out just where it belonged. In the end, the answer was of the “more begets more” variety, in this instance, more Graphene lightened the overall construction enough to allow Head to add more Titanal to its core quartet of carvers.
For 2025, the entire Supershape collection tacked in a different direction, again adjusting the balance between carbon and metal elements, this time cutting out some Titanal and subbing in carbon in the form of Crossforce Carbon in a mid-section patch. The net effect is a ski more responsive to pressure applied directly underfoot, creating a round turn with an energy boost at the bottom, propelling ski and pilot into turn after turn, without a break in the beat.
If this sounds like the e-Rally is the consummate, dual-track carving tool, well, it is. Even with a new, more svelte sidecut that slices through broken snow on a more even plane, the e-Rally still reserves its best behavior for the groom. All you have to do is tip it on edge and it will go find the top of the turn.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Over the last decade, the Frontside field has evolved to such a degree that Head’s Super Joy, the consummate carving machine, now looks more like an outlier than the norm. Over that time span, the Super Joy’s construction and shape have undergone a series of major alterations; it’s still focused on carving up groomers and it still enjoys the unique advantages of having Graphene in its make-up, but the last two upgrades have altered the Super Joy’s on-snow comportment considerably.
Just a few years ago, Head overhauled the Super Joy’s insides, kicking Koroyd to the curb and replacing it with an all-wood (Karuba and ash) core, supplemented by fiberglass for substance and snap, and more carbon for shock damping and snow contact. Head also adorned the Super Joy with its Energy Management Circuit (EMC) that converts vibrations into electricity, which it uses to stifle high-frequency shocks. As significant as these construction changes were, the improvements made to the Super Joy last year again raised its game to an entirely new level.
The most obvious change was in its skinnier sidecut, particularly at the tip, where Head lopped off nearly a centimeter. The narrower forebody won’t insist on tucking into the tippy-top of every turn, which is a major change in how the ski routinely behaves. While the new sidecut also entailed a longer turn radius, it still skewed to the short-turn side of the turn spectrum. It just cedes more control to the pilot regarding trajectory. Perhaps most importantly, the current sidecut makes the Super Joy far more amenable to off-trail conditions, so they needn’t always stick to perfectly manicured corduroy.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
The Kore 93 has been shattering preconceptions about what a lightweight, off-trail ski can do since its inception, and it’s only gotten better. In the most recent re-design, Head cut out the honeycomb Koroyd component in its core’s center section, replacing it with an all-wood mix of poplar and Karuba. Graphene remains the difference-maker, as Head can move it around the ski to change flex with virtually no effect on mass. Head tweaked its Graphene distribution across the Kore line in 2022, so that narrower models like the Kore 93 would have more bite on the firm snow they’ll be on half their lives, while fatties like the Kore 111 got an extra dose of drift and deflection.
Three seasons ago, I was blessed to hop on a 2022 Kore 93 just moments after dismounting a Kore 111. The conditions were hacked-up, wind-affected powder, nearly ideal conditions for measuring any ski’s off-trail chops. I was prepared for it to be very good; I didn’t expect it to knock my socks off.
Of course, the Kore 93 couldn’t match the flotation of the Kore 111, but it was otherwise so quick and stable I didn’t mind being a bit more in the snow than on it. Unlike the fatter ski, the Kore 93 was tight-radius friendly at all times, a real bonus in the trees where sudden cornering is critical. Back on the open trail, the Kore 93 was simplicity itself to guide from pillow to pillow in the track-riven slope.
I’d say the transition to the groom was seamless, as if there were no transition at all. At some point, you stop noticing how light the Kore 93 is and just enjoy the ride. There’s nothing to adapt to; you just ski. It’s the epitome of forgiveness and ease, the qualities for which it earned its highest marks.
The Kore 93 is able to serve skiers of all stripes because of its extensive size selection. Head is aware that the skier buying a 156cmm has a different bundle of needs and expectations from the guy who belongs on a 191cm, so the Kore 93 is calibrated by size to reflect this reality.
