The Head Wild Joy was the first model to be added to the original Joy collection since Head unveiled the first skis – men’s or women’s – to use Graphene. Graphene is carbon in a matrix that’s only one-atom thick, so it’s not the easiest material to industrialize and no one else was (or is) working with the avant-garde material. Point being, it can take designers a few swings at the piñata to how much to use and where to use it to best effect. By arriving after the first wave, the Wild Joy could benefit from all that Head engineers had learned about the nouveau material in the intervening seasons.

Graphene has a direct impact on flex distribution, so by controlling where it’s concentrated Head can fine tune the flex to match the snow conditions the model is made for: for on-trail carving skis, more Graphene goes underfoot; for off-trail purposes, Graphene is moved to the extremities. However it works, the Wild Joy feels stable on the edge and snappy off it. Its sidecut has a lot of shape for an off-trail oriented ski – note the 49mm drop from tip to waist – so it’s always up for carving. As Andrea from Sturtevant’s notes, the Wild Joy would be “great on a groomer day.”

Its inherent carving tendencies notwithstanding, the Wild Joy’s voluptuous, hourglass shape creates a huge platform. All that surface area coupled with the Wild Joy’s ultralight weight makes it a “great ski for powder!” as Dailen from Peter Glenn testifies. A fine, smear-able floater when you want it to be and a crisp, responsive carver when you need it to be, the Wild Joy is, in the words of one of the Squaw contingent, “fun, easy, lively and predictable.”

For its easy-turning nature and energy-saving, lightweight design we again award the Wild Joy a Silver Skier Selection.