Preview: 2014-2015 LINE Magnum Opus

Review of the Line Magnum Opus, Blister Gear Review.
Line Magnum Opus

Ski: 2014-2015 Line Magnum Opus, 188cm

Stated Dimensions (mm): 148-124-146

Blister’s Measured Dimensions (mm): 147.5-123.5-144.5

Stated Sidecut Radius: 17 meters

Core Construction: “Cloud Core” vertically laminated balsa plywood with flax fiber reinforcements

Actual Tip-to-Tail Length (straight tape pull): 187.0cm

Stated Weight per Ski: 2100 grams

Blister’s Measured Weight per Ski: 2097 & 2083 grams

Unchanged over the last two seasons and with 15+ years of development behind it, the Line Mr. Pollard’s Opus is Eric Pollard’s pro model, a ski tailored to his smooth, ultra-playful, and creative style.

While we’ve been impressed with the Opus’ combination of playfulness and predictability, we also found the ski remarkably versatile. You’ve got to stay balanced and light on your feet in challenging, chopped conditions on the Opus—as you do on any wide, soft, playful ski—but you can ski it all over the mountain.

To pull from Jason Hutchin’s review of the Opus, “every little bump, roll, drift, pillow—any terrain abnormality, for that matter—becomes not only something to be turned upon, but something to be slashed, spun, blown up, flipped, hand dragged, or anything else that isn’t your standard right or left hander.”

From Opus to Magnum Opus

Using the Mr. Pollard’s Opus as a reference, Eric and Line have now created the Magnum Opus. In Pollard’s own words, “The goal of the Magnum Opus was to create a ski that had the same all mountain performance as the Opus, but with increased float. I approached the design with a few ideas on how to accomplish that; larger waist, longer length, and a new tip outline & profile.”

Line Mr. Pollards Opus, Blister Gear Review
Jason Hutchins on the Mr. Pollard’s Opus, Alta Ski Area.

With an increase in flotation as the priority, the differences in dimensions between the Opus and the Magnum Opus aren’t surprising: the Magnum Opus is 6mm wider in the shovel, 6mm wider underfoot, and 5mm wider in the tail.

And like the Opus, the Magnum Opus also has a nearly symmetrical sidecut with a stated 17 meter radius and a recommended mount location of – 2cm from center.

So … a fatter version of the Opus for super playful skiing on super deep days? That alone is worth getting excited about.

But there’s another element that has us very curious about this ski:

Weight / Swing Weight

What would you expect from a wider version of a decidedly playful, trick-friendly, soft-snow oriented ski like the Opus? A ski that provides even more float, but that is slightly heavier and thus slightly more cumbersome. And if that were the case with the Magnum Opus, we’d still bet that it would be a good dedicated pow ski, well-suited for a playful approach to terrain.

But in fact, while the Magnum Opus is wider, it’s also considerably lighter than the Opus.

In the 184cm length, the Mr. Pollard’s Opus weighs in at 2,500 grams per ski.

In a longer, 188cm length, the new Magnum Opus weighs just under 2,100 grams per ski.

No matter how you look at it, for a big pow ski with a 124mm waist, that’s very light. The ski’s core is made from balsa wood (the same stuff used to make those wind-up toy planes), heavily reinforced with light flax fiber stringers.

The other big name in freestyle-pow ski, the 192cm Atomic Bent Chetler, weighed 2,431 grams & 2,449 grams per ski, and it’s perfectly manageable in the air. (And yes, we’ll be saying something soon about the new, redesigned 2014-2015 Bent Chetler.)

Pollard also mentions that he wanted his new, fatter ski to retain the all-mountain capabilities of the Opus. We don’t generally think about 124mm-waisted skis having real all-mountain capabilities, but perhaps like the Opus, the Magnum Opus will offer a surprising amount of versatility for how wide it is. We’ll see.

Flex Pattern

When hand flexing the Magnum Opus, it doesn’t feel like some directional charger by any means, but it also isn’t a noodle, either.

The ski has a really nice, even flex profile; a solidly medium flex underfoot, that then moves to a slightly softer medium/medium-soft flex in the tips and tails. The tips and tails seem soft enough that butters and presses should be easily doable, but not so soft that the ski won’t be able to handle some choppy, more variable conditions on a pow day if skied with a light, balanced stance.

Bottom Line (For Now)

So while the versatility of the Magnum Opus is a pretty big question for us, one thing seems very likely if the performance of the Mr. Pollard’s Opus and the numbers on our scale is are any indication: the Magnum Opus should be an exceptionally good pow ski for spinning, flipping, and playing around the mountain. Of course, we won’t know till we get the Magnum on snow.

But we’ve never been on a purpose-built jib ski that is this wide and this light, and we can’t wait to find out exactly how that feels. “Really, really fun” seems like a pretty decent guess.

T-minus 72 hours till we head to Canterbury, New Zealand

 

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