Deacon 72 Master
In many ways, the new Völkl Deacon 72 Master is a classic, wood-and-Titanal laminate, with all the virtues of this foundational design. But it’s where and how it departs from tradition that separates the Deacon 72 Master from the pack. The Deacon 72 Master can cut into the very top of a new turn despite a tiny bit of tip rocker because Völkl’s Tailored Carbon Tip technology frees the designer to apply carbon filaments at whatever angle is best for muffling shock.
Völkls also uses fiberglass more creatively than most. 3D.Glass connects the top and bottom glass laminates through the mid-body of the ski, creating an end-to-end glass spring that gives the Deacon 72 Master an extra surge of power coming off the edge. If you’d rather cruise downhill than slash cross-hill, just back off the edge angle and the ride will be smoother than a baby’s butt. The Deacon 72 Master has the accuracy and power of a Non-FIS Race ski without an NFR’s insistence on a certain turn shape.
Thunderbird R15 WB
Compared to other elite carvers in the Frontside genre, the R15 W stands out for its rebound energy. If you give it a little jab in the belly of the turn, it will lift you off the snow – a dual-track carving heresy – and air mail you across the fall line. The energetic response is largely due to the R15 WB’s fully cambered baseline; Blizzard alleges there’s 2mm of rocker at the tip and tail, but I defy anyone to feel it. If you want to corner like a cutting horse, get forward on the R15 WB and you can slingshot yourself cross hill to your heart’s content.
One reason its grip is so secure is the T-Bird R15 WB takes it two sheets of Titanal all the way to the edge, so it never wimps out, even when the snow is adamantium hard. Three millimeters of the topsheet are exposed, to help reduce chipping and dings. Strong enough to race on and even more fun to free-ski, the R15 WB will become a daily driver for a lot of proficient skiers.
BTW, while not many are likely to find rack space on American shop walls, there’s an R15 with a 70mm waist that makes a 13.5m arc in a 165cm, roughly the radius of a FIS slalom. There’s also a 4-model family of lower-energy, lower-priced Thunderbirds for all the Frontside skiers who are still developing their edging skills.
Disruption 78 Ti
As befits the brand that made “rocker” an enduring entry in the ski design lexicon, K2 hasn’t paid much attention to the ski market below an 80mm waist width – where cambered baselines still dwell – since the brand lost interest in racing around the turn of the millennium. In 20/21, K2 error corrected with a vengeance by launching the 10-model Disruption series of carving skis.
As is often the case in the world ski market, K2’s new carving collection straddles the Technical/Frontside divide, with the vector models landing on the skinny side, and the more versatile, less demanding models populating the slightly wider Frontside domain. In the Disruption series, the 78 Ti isn’t a watered-down carver, just a wider one, as it borrows the same construction and almost fully cambered baseline of the flagship Disruption MTi.
Both the power and forgiveness inherent in the Disruption 78 Ti derive from the same source, a single band of Titanal the runs nearly the entire length of the ski in a uniform width that matches the waist dimension. This creates an edge that holds firmly yet softly, as if its aluminum alloy guts were wrapped in velvet. On soft groomers, it feels like the edge is cushioned yet never loses contact, thanks in large part to a baseline that has zero tail elevation and only a smidgeon of early rise at the tip.
Mindbender 106C Alliance
The Mindbender 106C Alliance ties together several strands of K2’s DNA. One strand is K2’s pioneering history of women’s models; since K2 introduced its first women’s ski, I dare say they’ve marketed more women’s models than any other brand. Another spiral of its genetic make-up is K2’s early adoption of rocker, giving it a wealth of experience in mastering flotation and ease of operation in deep snow. The baseline of the Mindbender 106C uses a low, gradual rocker on both ends, so all that surface area can take care of job one.
The third embedded gene is K2’s integration of its Women’s Alliance test team in its product development, a process that has been going on for over twenty years. Kim Reichhelm has been a leader of K2’s Alliance since its inception, and continues to contribute every year. Last year she filed a review of the Mindbender 106C that provided peek behind the curtain at her role at K2.