2025 Volkl Secret 88

This season, everything about the retiring Kenja 88 remains the same in the Secret 88 - except the name, and of course, the graphics. The reason Völkl changed the model name and nothing else was nothing else needed fixing. A fistful of evolutionary changes has been applied to the Kenja 88 in the recent past that collectively has elevated the Secret 88 - and its unisex counterpart, the Mantra 88 - into the first rank of the most competitive category in the ski market. Three inter-related design features give the Secret 88 its amazing performance range. First among equals is Tailored Titanal Frame, that breaks up the top Titanal laminate into three separate pieces. Breaking the Ti topsheet into three disconnected parts allows the center of the ski to be more readily compressed, so the skier can load up a fat fiberglass layer just below the metal bits. When the stored energy in the distorted fiberglass layer is released at the bottom of the turn, the skier is fired across the fall line and into the next turn. The second game-changing feature that elevated the Secret 88 above the ordinary is 3D Radius Sidecut, that works in conjunction with the ski’s double-rockered baseline to create a long-radius sidecut that harbors a tighter turning ski inside it. The cherry on top of this high-performance sundae is called Tailored Carbon Tips, a clever way of using carbon to neutralize shock in the shovel, where the ski takes the brunt of impact with the snow surface. The unisex All-Mountain East category is as chockful of options as the women’s field, and in this hotly competitive domain the Mantra 88 still rules the roost. It so happens that the Secret 88 and the Mantra 88 are essentially the same ski, which suggests that even the strongest female skiers, physically and technically, won’t over-tax the Secret 88’s assets.