One of the best reasons for becoming a really accomplished skier is you get to enjoy skiing a stick like the Head Worldcup Rebels i.SL.  Just point and go.

Our intrepid XXL tester felt he could maneuver with the same sinuous flow one feels on in-line skates, “even at slow speeds, if you’re willing to carve it. What a fun ride.”  The sensation of perpetual snow contact is palpable throughout the speed range, particularly on a firm, inflexible surface.

Of Head’s troika of super-charged slaloms, the i.SL falls in the middle: it’s not the fall-line-focused, FIS-approved i.SL RD (for Race Department, connoting it’s the real McCoy), nor is it the slightly rockered, more supple i.Supershape Speed, which owns an even more open-minded attitude when it comes to conforming to terrain and varied turn shapes.   The i.SL behaves like a true race slalom with excellent manners; it knows it can do more than its handler can, but it has the decency not to show it.