The Nordica Dobermann GSR isn’t interested in bolstering your self-esteem. Its attitude is, if you want to feel better about yourself, take a lesson. Or better yet, hire a coach. For the Dobermann GSR is like a street-legal race car: it’s been detuned for civilian use, but not by much. If you don’t take control of it, the GSR will most definitely take control of you.
When you look at the Non-FIS Race category as a whole, most models have been defanged to the point that they could serve an expert as an all-terrain ski. Not the Dobermann GSR, which could care less about pandering to non-racers. It’s built on the straightforward assumption that it’s as elite a race ski as any blessed by the FIS, it just doesn’t conform to the dimensional limitations imposed by racing’s sanctioning body.
The tip-to-tail camber line on the Spitfire 80 RB creates an instant connection at the top of the turn and releases energy at the bottom with a peppy pop. “A great dynamic performer,” assesses Start Haus’ Jim Schaffner. “I could have a blast all day on groomers with this one.”
The Spitfire 80 is available either flat or with its own plate and binding. This is not an idle choice, as the plate version doesn’t just change how the ski feels underfoot, it stabilizes the entire ski, as if the plate were full length. You might think a race-style plate would make the Spitfire 80 an unmanageable hellion in low-depth crud, but the opposite is true. If your plan for the Spitfire is to crush high-speed groomers in the early morning and you have the skills to commit your hips to the turn, the plate defangs all vibrations that might perturb your blazing descent.
To get full value out of the Spitfire 80, with or without the plate arrangement, it pays dividends to be skilled. Pay heed to the remarks of Corty Lawrence, who is the epitome of the strong, technical skier: “80mm is a good width – versatile yet still agile and playful. Like all Nordicas, you need to be lord and master,” by which he means you better be in charge or else the ski will be.
If you don’t know how to engage a ski at the top of the turn, and don’t care to know, you might as well stop reading about the Nordica Dobermann Spitfire 76 RB right now. It has the cleanest, highest, earliest connection to the next turn in a category in which this particular trait is prized. But if you’re still lingering on the downhill edge when you should already be tilting in the other direction, you’ll miss the moment. Don’t worry if you do, for the Spitfire 76 will find the edge as soon as you give it a chance. But part of what makes this review an unblushing rave will pass you by.
If you’re hooked on the G’s generated in a short turn, you’ll feel right at home on this cobra-quick stick. It has the reflexes of a fencer, moving unerringly into the center of the arc where it ignites and, as it says in its name, fires the skier across the fall line. The Dobermann Spitfire 76 RB has all the qualities a strong skier expects in a race ski, just de-tuned a red hair so it’s more fun for freeskiing. Jim Schaffner from Start Haus, a big man with an engrained race technique for which the term “powerful” seems inadequate, wrote of the Spitfire 76, “I felt like I could do anything on this ski. It’s fun, lively, snappy, with a dash of the Dobermann race heritage feel.”
Based on its brand marketing over the last twenty years, you don’t expect K2 to show much interest in the Technical genre, much less produce a first-rate entrant. But the headliner of the new Disruption series, the MTi (the M stands for Mid-radius) shot to the top of a genre K2 has been successfully ignoring for decades.
Not only is the Disruption MTi a graceful carver, its slightly softer edge gives it a forgiving quality that’s a K2 hallmark. The main reason the Disruption MTi feels different on edge from, say, an e-Magnum, is because its Ti I-Beam metal laminate is only as wide as the thinnest section of the ski. As the ski widens at tip and tail, a gap grows between the Ti sheet and the edge. This allows the edge to give a little, which creates a cushioned ride on a firm surface.
To be clear: the edge doesn’t give out or wiggle around – despite its name, the edge grip is never disobedient or disorderly. If anything, the mildly less aggressive grip feels easier to trust in a fully-laid over carve. As testament to its most distinctive trait, the Disruption MTi earned higher aggregate points for Finesse properties over Power traits, an inverted ratio in the Technical field. Due to its markedly mellow character in a category dominated by brutes, we award the Technical genre’s lone Silver Skier Selection to the Disruption MTi.
The 20/21 Cochise represents a return to its traditional values by cutting back on some of its beefier elements without scrimping on the 2 ½ layers of Titanal that give the Cochise its indomitable determination to teach crud a lesson it won’t soon forget. The new Cochise whittles away at the tip and waist width and plumps up the tail, reducing the sidecut radius by 3m in a 185cm. While this encourages the rejuvenated Cochise to finish its big, banked turns, quick, little arcs are still not part of its repertoire.
To get the 20/21 Cochise to feel more like the original, Blizzard tinkered with several possible core changes. Bear in mind this re-design comes after several years of Rustlers, Blizzard’s softer, gentler Big Mountain collection that uses Paulownia, balsa and ISO-core alongside the poplar and beech laminates that have been used in the Cochise’s clan forever. Blizzard attempted to modify its new TrueBlend core for the Cochise, but its added width meant more mass, inhibiting the maneuverability the R&D team was trying augment. So the 2021 Cochise core added Paulownia to its matrix, lightening the load and improving its responsiveness.
The cumulative changes to the Cochise 106 contribute to a general improvement to its on-trail comportment so it’s truly an all-terrain ski, as it was conceived to be. Even though it has changed, it hasn’t contorted into something its not: it’s still the same Power ski it always was.
