You have to give Rossignol credit for persistence. The French brand has been trying to re-kindle Americans interest in carving skis for several product cycles, with about the same success as someone trying to feed a cat broccoli. I doubt one American skier in a thousand could name the product family the Forza series replaced. (Rossignol employees don’t count in this calculation.) This speculation isn’t a comment on Rossi’s competence – its fantastic (and deep) Hero collection demonstrates total mastery in how to blend finesse and power in world-class racing machines – but on the entrenched indifference of its target audience.
For the sake of all concerned, I’d love to see the Forza 70o V-Ti ignite a renaissance in American’s collective ability to carve a turn, but I’m not holding my breath. For starters, the name of the new Forza flagship might as well be in Morse code as far the mainstream U.S. skier is concerned. The “70o” reference is to edge angle, or the degree to which the ski will be tilted at the apex of the turn. I have no data to support my assertion, but I’d hazard a guess that 98% of homegrown Americans who aren’t recent graduates of a racing academy couldn’t get themselves into the position required to execute a single such turn, regardless of the inducements offered.
Okay, enough with the negativity. On the upside, the 70-degree reference turns out to be more an aspirational essence than a skills requirement. Unlike some of the power-obsessed avatars of the Carving clan that dominate the Technical and Frontside Power rankings, the Forza 70o V-Ti has a refreshingly open mind about turn radius. True, it’s 14m sidecut is made to cut a tidy corner when laid on edge, but a deeper dive into its sidecut dimensions reveals how its shape enhances the skier’s perception of its versatility.
Shape is the defining design feature of every ski in the carving class; of course, how the ski is constructed matters, too, but all the best carvers share a rich construction. Take a closer look at the sidecut dimensions cited at the top of this review. Note that there’s a 58mm differential between the widest point in the tip and the narrowest point at the waist. That’s a huge number, more than you’ll find on a World Cup Slalom race ski, and the main reason the Forza 70 impressed every tester with its ability to latch onto an edge at the tippy-top of the turn.
To provide some context, the next-largest differential between tip and waist width belongs to Head’s e-Rally at 54mm. The category benchmark Stöckli Montero AX measures a mere 44mm change in forebody width, and the tight-turning Montero AS sports “only” a 51mm difference.
But the tip-to-waist delta is only half the story. Look at the tip width compared to the tail, what in the olden days was referred to as taper angle: it’s a 24mm drop, which is also off the charts. In the Frontside category, where many carvers reside, a 14mm change isn’t uncommon and a 20mm difference in width, tip to tail, is about the norm. The deeper the drop, the higher the taper angle and the more the ski is disposed to flattening out as it crosses the fall line. Conversely, a relatively wider tail will want to hold onto a tight radius until the ski is travelling cross-hill and the skier releases the edge and simultaneously rolls into the next turn on a continuous thread.
By maximizing its pull into the turn and the facility at which it releases the edge, the Forza gives its pilot a lot of choices in turn shape. Because it begins on a tight trajectory, it’s easy to keep it on that path, but just as easy to let it fire back into the fall line. Veteran ski and boot tester Jim Schaffner was dazzled by the Forza’s range: “Precise, accurate, lively: what a fantastic tool! Balanced well fore/aft, so it has a large sweet spot. This ski would have a spot in my quiver,” he concludes.
I found the Forza to be as easy to steer as it is accurate on edge, nailing that elusive, balanced blend of Finesse and Power properties. Of course, it won’t float or drift as well as a ski with more surface area and less sidecut, but these limitations are inherent in all the best carvers in its category. For the easy manner in which it rolls on and off a steeply angled edge, we again confer upon the Forza 70o V-Ti a Silver Skier Selection.