“This ski was a total surprise to me,” confessed Matt from Footloose.  “It gets my award for Best 97 Waist that skis like an 80-something waist.   I just wish it wasn’t a twin tip…”

We concur on all points. One of the bigger shocks of our 2016 test is that the Nordica Enforcer didn’t make our self-imposed cut line, but the less highly touted Soul Rider did. Our test crew doesn’t normally cotton to twin tips, and we don’t even report on the Pipe & Park category for which this feature was invented and where it remains ubiquitous.

But a turned-up tail by itself is no disqualification in our estimation.  It doesn’t have to denote a smear stick with too short an attention span to figure out which way is forward, just as the absence of metal laminates doesn’t doom a ski to second-class citizenship.  Nordica has been making some of the finest all-glass skis of the last decade, so it’s not like the Soul Rider’s relatively high marks for Power traits are an anomaly.

Other comments from the Footloose contingent reveal a ski that’s up for anything.  “It would be a great ski in any situation,” penned Jimmy G, “in the park or powder, male or female.”  Michael C summed it up in three little words:  “fun, nimble and stable.”  Sounds delightful.  Now if only it weren’t a twin tip….