• The “Thank You for Not Screwing Up a Good Thing” Award •
These are great, so it’s great that they’re back, unchanged.
Nordica Soul Rider
If Nordica keeps bringing this ski back unchanged, we’re going to keep giving it this award.
The Soul Rider has stood as a benchmark of ours in the ~100mm-underfoot, playful all-mountain ski category. It’s forgiving and intuitive for intermediates, fun and energetic for freestyle-y advanced and expert skiers.
Salomon X Drive 8.0 and 8.8 FS
When it comes to power, stability and precision, the Salomon X-Drive 8.0 FS and the X-Drive 8.8 FS are two fantastic sub-90mm underfoot skis.
Thank you, Salomon, for letting them be.
• The “Gear We’re Most Tempted to Steal” Award •
Anon M3 and Anon M2 Goggles
The Anon M2 is the best goggle we’ve tested to date, with great optics and a super-simple, magnet-based lens change system. Now Anon has added a third goggle to the Magna-Tech series, the M3. When it comes to swapping lenses, the M3 should make things just as quick and easy as the M2 does, but the M3 also features Anon’s MFI technology, allowing you to snap a face mask to the bottom of the goggle’s frame (via more magnets).
If you rock a face mask often, this could be a nice feature, especially on storm days when tucking a mask or neck tube under your goggles can cause the lenses to fog.
The M3 has a cylindrical lens, with a differently shaped frame, however, so we’ll see how the fit and field of view compare to that of the M2.
Oh, and both the M3 and the M2 goggles now have silicone strips on the inside of the goggle straps, so they won’t be sliding around on your helmet.
Sweet Protection’s Wintersports Helmet Line
Sweet Protection is a well-established company in the paddle sports world, and has been selling high end snowsports equipment in Europe (body armor and helmets) for a number of years.
Now, starting in the fall of 2015, Sweet’s Ski / Snowboard line of helmets will be available for purchase in the US.
The helmets have a very comfortable fit, are made quite light given the carbon fiber used in their construction, and are engineered with a host of top-tier safety features that have us eager to test them out in the mountains, off the show floor.
Thule’s Audis
Is the strip of snow camo or the rear wing necessary? Nope. Would we drive this thing to the mountain anyway? Yep.
And this one …
We really should have tried to drive it down the escalator, out of the Denver Convention Center, and straight to Taos. This is also inexcusable. We apologize.
Next, Part II: Outerwear, Best and Worst Graphics, the coveted “WTF is That?” award, and more…
first thing that came to my mind when I saw the gunsmoke was “looks like a lego ski”, second thing was “nah, a lego ski would be nicer”
Holy shit those Blizzards are terrible. Meanwhile, every chick I know will be buying those snowboards.
Voormi — must test. Potentially paradigm changing technology.
There’s no doubt that the new Gunsmoke, Peacemaker, and Regulator are ugly. On the plus side, they’re no worse and possibly less brutally hideous than the current ones, so at least there’s that? Either way, it’s too bad because they’re all great skis, but graphics matter. When it came time for me to put my money where my mouth is, it was between a Peacemaker and a SFB. They’re roughly equivalent skis made to do pretty much the same things, the main difference being that one wasn’t ugly. So I bought the SFB.
Blizzard needs to get their twin tip graphics together, there’s no excuse given what they’ve done in their freeski lineup. Do graphics matter? Judging by how I’ve seen piles of these skis glued to the wall this season despite shop staff and reviews raving about them, I’d say they do.
There’s a lotta truth in that there comment…
I actually don’t mind the new graphics, they are certainly better than last years. Cowboys and indians on my top sheets, no thank you! Regardless the peacemaker is one of my favorite skis ever and I would gladly rock the strung out bull all day long.
Blizzard Gunsmoke, Peacemaker, and Regulator – The graphics would be alright if the bull was scrapped.
Bindings should not be allowed on the Capita snowboards. They are too beautiful to be sullied in any way.
Blizzard graphics = South Park Cows.
Re those blizzard grahics. A can of plasti dip would take care of those steers, the rest looks good.
I also agree with Paul in that if you would ditch the cow the Blizzard graphics would actually be pretty good.
Thanks for the article guys. I noticed that the Tecnica Mach 1 boot has a low volume model now. Do you guys know the actual volume in the heel/ankle? As in, like the R9.8 98mm volume, or the cochise 98 mm volume?
Thanks
I just asked through instagram, it appears the low volume version is the same volume as the Tecnica R9.8, definitely a plus for low volume feet!
Yep, the Mach 1 lower is basically a slightly tweaked R9.9 lower. (!!!) I’ve worn the boot, and the initial fit was very promising. Should be getting the Mach 1 on snow soon, very excited to check it out.
Can’t help it, kinda digging the Blizzard “Southpark” style cow graphics. With those on your feets you have to ski stronger to stand up to the ridicule! Maybe PSIA should adopt this into their instruction program, all of my students would instantly want to get good enough to ski off piste so that the deeper snow would cover the top sheets. Brilliant!
I can only imagine Cartman hacking big drops and landing switch on a pair of Peacemakers!
While I absolutely agree with Scott Andrus` perception of Will’s decision I would still love to read the Kartell review. Maybe somebody else could review the ski.
Any idea when we can expect the review?