What distinguishes the Nordica Enforcer 100 from the other benchmark models in the All-Mountain West category isn’t its poplar/beech/balsa core nor its two sheets of .4mm Titanal; it’s the length and flex of its traditional camber line that instill it with power, precision and pop off the edge.
Most skis 100mm or more underfoot don’t have a lot of camber built into the baseline, so they’re easier to push around in soft snow. The Enforcer 100 isn’t drinking this Kool-Aid; it’s made for skiers who know how to stand on a ski and drive it. If you look at a pair base-to-base, you’ll notice that the while the tip and tail are amply rockered upward, they’re stubby in length, a shape Nordica aptly names Blunt Nose. The rest of the ski is arched considerably, assuring as long and secure an edge connection as you can find in a double-rockered baseline.
In its longer lengths, the Enforcer 100 is a strong skier’s salvation, able to respond forcefully to pressure. Jim Schaffner of Start Haus, a big man who skis with a racer’s innate aggression, hails the Enforcer 100 as “really, really fun and these conditions, which consist of 16 inches of slightly compact powder which is starting to get chopped up. Found this ski to be really versatile, moving smoothly from the chopped-up stuff into fresh pow. All in all, a very good ski for conditions today and I can see its versatility would extend to other conditions, as well.”
The Dynastar Menace Proto F-Team floats so high it doesn’t encounter much resistance no matter how you choose to turn it. The Menace Proto’s ability to levitate despite its heft – an inevitable consequence of so much width – makes it particularly easy to swivel around trees and old tracks. Because it’s so easy to rotate, you can charge the fall line, knowing you can toss them sideways in a heartbeat. Once all the powder has been plundered you can ride the edge almost as if it were a carving ski. It even has a lively kick off the bottom of its preferred long arc, which makes it feel lighter through the turn transition.
Much as I hate to undermine my own methodology, I encourage you to ignore the niggling difference between the Santa Ana 93’s Power and Finesse scores that allowed it to migrate from the Power collective to the Finesse family this season. Its personality didn’t change over the summer, but a couple of new scores shifted it from one side of the Power/Finesse border to the other. The Santa Ana 93 still favors the strong, technical skier who is comfortable carrying speed, but it’s so good at off-trail skills like drifting and staying calm while crud-busting that it can’t help but earn high marks for Finesse properties.
The very fact that the Santa Ana 93 can slip so easily across the Power/Finesse divide tells you that it’s neither one nor the other, but both. One look at its double-rockered baseline reveals why it moves so smoothly from on-trail to off: the blunt tip bends abruptly upward, doing the job of riding over irregular terrain quickly so most of the ski can be fully cambered. It’s as if a high-powered Frontside ski were hiding inside a loose-tipped powder vehicle.
The Nordica Santa Ana 100 is easily the most torsionally rigid of our four Recommended women’s All-Mountain West models, usually an indicator of a higher Power quotient, yet it’s so easy to ski – for advanced to expert women – that its scores landed it on the Finesse side of the ledger. But as I occasionally stress in these pages, while the numbers are instructive, they don’t reveal as much about a ski’s character as the narrative. Listen closely to what a couple of our testers had to say about the Santa Ana 100 and you’ll hear suggestions that both these ladies thought the ski is, if anything, too powerful.
“Great all around ski,” is the general assessment of Jolee from Footloose, with this proviso: ”A little too much ski for hard pack, but for a woman who charges it’s terrific. Handles great off groomed snow,” she adds. Becca Pierce from Bobo’s test team skied the Santa Ana 100 in rapidly softening spring conditions, which Becca found it ideally adapted for. “These skis were meant for today’s conditions. A tad long for yours truly in the bumps, but assuming I were a stronger skier, I’d bet they’d be tits. Would be great in pow, and awesome control in this slop. Loved the stability.”
