Head I.SL RD

[jbotti]

I picked up a new pair of these and skied them for the first time at race camp at Mt Hood. I can best compare these to the Head Super Shapes (but not to any other rcae stock slalom skis).

The conditions on the first day were poor. In places where it was hard, you would often break through it into soft granular below it. We had slush at the bottom of the mountain and in between there were golf ball sized chunks of granular ice/hard refrozen snow. On the next two days we got 12" or so of fresh snow, the wet and heavy kind. When groomed and compacted it was quite hard on the surface and pretty grabby.

I really enjoyed skiing on these skis. They initiate with new edges into a carve much faster than the super shapes. The SS's are reasonably quick edge to edge but they takle a moment after the dges change to fully launch into the carve. Diana says it is because they are still bending just after edge change. The RD's are quite a bit stiffer, and the second the edges change you are in a full bore power carve!!! The same is true about exiting a turn/ entering tranistion where the skis go through flat. The SS's have a more shapeky tail, that wants to keep you in the turn for longer. The RD's have less tail sidecut (designed to never take you back up hill in a turn) and this makes them amazingly quick from edge to edge. In slalom flushses, these skis will release immediately on command. This lighning fast edge to edge quickness is a ton of fun and I felt like it was making me a better skier. Things that I would not attempt on SS's I was able to do after a run or two on these skis.

As for turn shape, the skis are reall only for short and very short radius turns. They are stiff enough to not chatter too much in higher speed GS type turns, but they are not made for these turns and in general they should be avoided on these skis.

Brsuhed carving is a bit more work with the Rd's, but they will brush the high C portion of the turn and enter an edge lock carve in the lower half better and easier (at least for me) than the SS's. Again this is due to the superior edge to edge quickness.

These skis are not versatile although I would not call them a one trick pony either. I would be scared about taking them into bumps, becuase they will get ruined if you bend them wrong. As well. the added stiffness will make them a handful in moguls. In slush, they suck, although I don't know of any ski that is great. In the sucky conditions on the first day, Max commented several times that he was glad he was on his SS's,as they handled the erratic conditions better than race stock skis. He also wished he hd his race stock skis the next few days when the conditions were more uniform. They are not forgiving skis, and in any conditions whee you want or need a ski to bend and flex more these are not the ones to grab. As well, the tail is much stiffer than the SS's. In deep ruts on the course, if you get back on these, they will run hard out from under you, usually ejectiong you from the course. (anoher reason you wouldn't want to take them into bumps!!).

I will say that in chop/cut up fresh snow which we had in places after the first day, these skis were like bull dozers, with very limited deflection, which says a lot for a 165cm length ski. Having said thius, these would not be anywhere close to my first choice on a powder day as they would be n awful lot of work!!

These will be my skis of choice for slalom carving on hard snow next season. They absolutely rock and I had a blast on them.