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
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
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
American skiers have been conditioned to think that a true all-terrain ski has to be at least 90mm underfoot, with an amply rockered baseline. Skinnier skis are fine for manicured groomers, but as soon as the surface devolves into a disheveled mess, it’s time to climb on a broader board.
As I’ve made a living divining the differences between one ski genre and another, it would be disingenuous at best to now claim that we don’t need as many categories as the market has chosen to populate. The new Völkl Peregrine 82 makes a strong case that the best Frontside skis shouldn’t be confined to the tireless tedium of carving up corduroy; they can handle whatever the backside of the mountain has to dish out.
There are reasons why this ski is so good. A ski can only do what its design allows. As is often the case with people, a good deal of the Peregrine 82’s brilliance is due to its genetic make-up; the Deacon 84 that preceded it in the Völkl line already used 3D Radius, Titanal Frame and its secret sauce, 3D Glass. All the hoopla about Titanal Frame is well deserved, but the 3D Glass design is every bit as clever. The bottom glass laminate runs up and over the sidewall, creating a lip that connects with a glass top sheet to create a torsion box. The 3-piece Titanal Frame allows the ski to bend more readily under a centered load, but it’s the 3D Glass torsion box that stores all this energy like a giant spring that instantly pops back into position.
There are two on-snow traits that elevate the Peregrine 82 from the rest of the field: one is the rebound energy I just described, and the other is the turn shape versatility inherent in its 3D Radius Sidecut, which essentially harbors a short-radius capability inside a long-radius chassis.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
In the fat ski genres where Americans buy the vast majority of their skis, Blizzard is riding a decade-long hot streak. If you only look at skis over 85mm at the waist, it seems like Blizzard hasn’t missed a beat since the launch of its Flipcore baseline. But if you take a step back and look at the world market, there’s a category or two of carvers, skis meant to execute perfect, technical turns on hard snow, where Blizzard is all but invisible, at least in the U.S. For whatever reasons, its Quattro series never captured the imagination of the American carving public. The only way Blizzard was able to penetrate the Frontside segment stateside was with a tiny-waisted, off-trail model (Brahma 82), which is sort of like entering the category via the service entrance.
Consider the problem solved. The Thunderbird R15 WB, introduced three seasons ago and given a modest upgrade last year, doesn’t try to mask its racing pedigree with a carbon overdose; the communication with the angled edge is crisp and clear. The Thunderbird’s snow feel is like HDTV compared to the Quattro’s low-def reception. One reason the T-bird R15 WB feels so sublimely connected is its TrueBlend core has been modified to fit the hard-snow environment. By re-positioning tendrils of high-density beech within strata of lighter poplar, TrueBlend creates a perfectly balanced flex for each size. This may sound like esoterica only an expert can feel, but it’s palpable, and it’s wonderful.
Complementing TrueBlend is a carbon platform underfoot to help muffle shocks without losing the precision of the ski/snow connection. With this combination of wood and carbon, Blizzard has finally found a way to make a carver that is both quiet on the edge and explosive off it. And boy, is it fun to drive.
