V-Shape V6

The V-Shape V6 is a terrific value proposition for the first time ski buyer or for anyone whose ambitions don’t include high-speed descents or off-piste expeditions. Made to be as lightweight as is practical, it practically steers itself. Considering it comes in...

Total Joy

Head overhauled its Joy collection, eliminating the Great Joy and Wild Joy to clear the way for the Kore 99 W and Kore 93 W, respectively. All the remaining Joys – Total, Super, Pure and Easy – were run through the make-over machine.  New molds were cut...

Super Joy

The Head Super Joy, an avatar of the Lighter is Better trend in ski design, returns in 2020 with a slight tweak in its shape and composition. There’s Karuba in the core in lieu of Koroyd – still a super light substance, but substantial enough to be called...

Absolut Joy

Because all new skiers begin their ski lives on groomers, the Frontside category reaches farther down the price ladder than any other genre. Every major brand has a layered Frontside collection that offers a series of stepping-stone models that will take a never-ever...

Kore 105

The Head Kore105 is a very clever combination of some Old School principles, a few features that are de facto standards in the Big Mountain genre and technology that is on the cutting edge of ski design. Head is the only ski maker with a license to use Graphene, carbon in a one-atom thick matrix, which allows its engineers to stiffen or soften flex with minimal affect on mass. To maintain this weight advantage, the heaviest component in the core is a slice of poplar next to the sidewall; the rest of it is a synthetic honeycomb called Koroyd and a quotient of Karuba, an ultralight wood commonly found in Alpine Touring skis.

The Kore 105 gets its power and energy from the carbon, fiberglass and Graphene that are laminated around this exotic core. To further trim grams, the topsheet is a cap made from polyester fleece, another dampening agent that’s only downside is it’s difficult to decorate, which is why all the Kores look murdered-out.

This recitation of low-mass components makes it sound as though the Kore’s only selling feature is its lightweight chassis. There’s no question that the Kore design is laser-focused on keeping the ski light, but if that were its only accomplishment it wouldn’t be such a big deal. What makes the Kore construction remarkable is that it’s light but never wimpy. Once you ski it for a few runs you forget about the lightweight and just ski as you would normally, only with less labor and fatigue.