As the fate of the Soul 7 HD W is inextricably linked to that of its unisex twin, the improvements made to one apply equally to the other. For 2018, this means the tip, while remaining rockered and tapered, is now integrated into the main body of the ski and makes contact with the snow closer to the widest point on the ski. The net effect is to improve edging effectiveness on those irksome occasions when hard snow is all there is to ski.
One peek at the baseline of the Nordica Enforcer 93 tells you all you need to know about the ski’s terrain preferences: this is an off-piste utensil with an elevated snout that on hardpack looks like it could be sniffing for snow. If fed its preferred diet of crud, the shovel gets busy absorbing the sudden impacts of broken snow, more than making up for its uninvolvement on the groom. It more than holds it own on hardpack, popping off its cambered midsection as if it can’t wait to get to the next turn.
You might expect Line to make cores from hemp stalks and use ayahuasca as a base treatment. But there’s nothing particularly avant-garde about how Line builds its skis. Yes, there are full-length carbon stringers in the new Sick Day 104, always a nice touch, but this hardly qualifies as cutting edge. The wood core is all aspen, a nod to the current obsession with lightness. Wood layered with glass and a dash of carbon is as traditional a recipe as pot roast. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it’s just more mainstream than you may realize given Line’s anti-Establishment posturing.
The Blizzard Black Pearl and Völkl Kenja have company at the top tier of women’s models, the new Santa Ana 93 from Nordica. The springboard that launched the Santa Ana 93 into this elite company is a new construction built around a poplar/beech/ balsa core with a center channel of foam. Sandwiching the new wood core are laminates of prepreg carbon, a significant weight savings over glass, and .4mm sheets of tip-to-tail Titanal, in essence re-investing the weight savings in a power account.
The simplicity of the Supernatural 100’s construction contributes to its playful attitude and easy-steering properties. As a cambered, all-glass ski, the Supernatural 100 pops out of the turn even in powder, giving it a lively but controlled rebound that carries the skier into the next turn. It seems like an odd adjective to apply to a ski, but the Supernatural 100 is more comfortable to ski than other skis of equal width. We attribute its ease of operation in part to its more torsionally soft lay-up, allowing a ski this wide to roll up on edge gradually and conform readily to irregular terrain.