That the CPM82 is so well mannered exposes the current craze over tip rocker as so much hyperventilation. The CPM’s ultra-modern carbon construction is built on an über-traditional cambered baseline, with a tip and tail designed to engage with the snow. It earns its crazy good scores for carving capacity the old-fashioned way: it remains connected to its round trajectory with every centimeter of edge at its disposal.
The Flair 78 combines several stalwart Völkl features into a new package made largely from recycled materials. If ecological awareness is high on your priority list, 100% recycled sidewalls and edges ought to earn at least your admiration, if not your ducats.
To win your heart as a skier, the Flair 78 devotes itself to a life of abstinence: no sloppy turning habits, no flinching in the face of hard snow and no whining about doing all the work. As the Flair 78’s pilot, all you have to do is tip it and smile.
Strictly speaking, Kästle’s LX82 isn’t a women’s ski. It exists, in part, because Kästle’s stock on-piste ski for many years, the exquisite MX83, had the mass of a collapsing star. To broaden its appeal in central Europe’s most important market segment, Kästle created the 2-model LX series, so lightweights of either gender could experience the liquid flow of the MX’s.
If the LX82 has a point of view, other than favoring less avoirdupois applied to its midsection, it’s that carving is cool and other pursuits are peripheral. Its character is written in its baseline, a fully cambered affair with a Fast Grip Shovel, so the instant it’s tipped it begins to carve an arc that seems to last from takeoff to landing.