There’s a misconception about short-radius skis like the i.Magnum (13.1m @ 170cm) that they won’t do a long turn without getting wobbly and lose all composure off-piste. Poppycock. Of course it’s not a Powder ski, but the i.Magnum is no more perturbed by common off-trail conditions than it is by blue-tinted boilerplate. It will eat whatever you feed it. If you want a little more stability at speed and a slightly longer radius arc, don’t be shy about stepping up to the 177cm.
It’s considered axiomatic that a ski that bends more easily is best suited to lower skill skiers who need the help. While it’s probably true that the new, softer i.Titan is more accessible to the average punter, don’t imagine for one second that it isn’t also an ecstatic epiphany for the expert.
For here’s the truly brilliant element of the new design: when Head engineers added Graphene to the i.Supershape construction, they didn’t reduce the amount of metal in the ski, they increased it. A lot, as in wall-to-wall, tip-to-tail thicker sheets. There’s your power plant, the reason that once the i.Titan is tipped on edge, there’s not a trace of shimmy in its soul.
Head built its Joy women’s line from scratch, without borrowing so much as a gram of Titanal from the hundreds of men’s models it might have cloned and declawed. The weight reference is apt, for Head’s undeniable advantage of being the first and only ski brand to use Graphene™ – carbon reduced to its single-atom essence – gives its women’s skis amazing snow feel. Its one thing to experience the already significant joy of skiing powder; it’s another whole level to feel the Big Joy as it transmits the pearly brush of snow on its bases to your arches, as if you were skiing barefoot.