The 95ish trend

[Philpug]

A few short years ago (two to three) the 95ish width skis sorta fell between the cracks. It is a shame because there were some very good ones, like the Salomon Sentinel and Dynastar Legend 94, and even the Kastle FX94 didn't get all the love it deserved. Now this segment is being attacked and focused upon by almost every manufacturer for this past and even more so this coming season. K2 came out with the Pinnacle 95, Kastle reinvented the FX series with new and more versatile shapes. Fischer's Motive has been popular off of the sale racks. For this coming year, we are seeing manufacturers big and small going after this segment; for example, Nordica has expanded the rejuvenated Enforcer name from a single model to a series of skis. We will also be skiing some real nice 95's from boutique companies too. So stay tuned; we will have a lot to talk about in this segment in the next few months.

 

[Tom K.]

In a good year, my 95-100 ski gets pretty much used up, so while I love the latest and greatest, I usually end up considering price, too.

Otherwise, I end up missing a lot of great skiing on my annual trip to JH, because I'm worrying about rocks.

So that part of the quiver is currently covered by a pair of Hell & Backs at 98, and I just ordered a pair of Motive 95ti, because of 1) lots of good reviews here and on Real Skiers, and 2) PRICE.

It will be interesting to see what develops here, but for me, this width will probably always comprise the core width of my quiver.

 

[SkiEssentials]

I'm pretty excited about this. I've heard of a lot of companies making a "narrower" version of an existing ski to get into that 95-100mm waist category. I think some of them will be winners, while some of the shapes I'm thinking of should stay in the 100+ category.

Either way, I think the upper 90mm waist width is one of the best categories and it's great to see manufacturers put a little more emphasis there. Things got a little silly for a few years with the focus on ~110mm waist width skis. We're not skiing powder all the time...

 

[Don in Morrison]

I think I'm about 4 or 5 trends behind the curve. I'm getting the feeling that last year's latest and greatest is already the wrong gear for this year. Makes me glad that I'm ignoring the whole thing and just being happy with what I've got.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Last season I skied the Zag 'Z' ski almost every day. It is a 91 mm waisted 5ish point ski with high teens turn radius. It was superb. I think the mid-90s ski is hot niche and quite useful in all but the deepest conditions. It performs well on hard pack although for the ice skiers, you may find it a bit wide.

I liked the Z so much I got the Dynastar Cham 117 2.0. It has the same shape but is a lot wider. It isn't as universally useful as the Zag, but it has had its advantages in the past few days. It simply slays powder and crud with impunity.

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

"Impunity," nice.

 

[Philpug]

I'm pretty excited about this. I've heard of a lot of companies making a "narrower" version of an existing ski to get into that 95-100mm waist category. I think some of them will be winners, while some of the shapes I'm thinking of should stay in the 100+ category.

Either way, I think the upper 90mm waist width is one of the best categories and it's great to see manufacturers put a little more emphasis there. Things got a little silly for a few years with the focus on ~110mm waist width skis. We're not skiing powder all the time...

It is very interesting. Some manufacturers are bringing their narrower constructions here and some are bringing wider ones down. It is interesting to see which ones will work and which ones will not.

 

[Doug Briggs]

For the most part, it seems a good design scales up or down in width nicely. I'm partial to the 5 point design with a rocker tip and a bit of a narrow tail these days. I particularly like skis with a 17 - 22 m radius in ANY width. 95 mm seems like a very versatile width excepting for very hard snow where narrower is better. But for Rocky Mountains skiing, mid-90 is king.

 

[UGASkiDawg]

I'm pretty excited about this. I've heard of a lot of companies making a "narrower" version of an existing ski to get into that 95-100mm waist category. I think some of them will be winners, while some of the shapes I'm thinking of should stay in the 100+ category.

Either way, I think the upper 90mm waist width is one of the best categories and it's great to see manufacturers put a little more emphasis there. Things got a little silly for a few years with the focus on ~110mm waist width skis. We're not skiing powder all the time...

Pfft....speak for yourself...I'm skiing powder all the time....in my dreams

 

[SBrown]

Anyone ever get on Icelantic's SKNY line?

 

[kickerfrank]

Anyone ever get on Icelantic's SKNY line?

I'm also curious to see what customers think if these. I hope they didn't just take the same model and remove width. But who knows. They have been making a noticeable push out east so they are probably putting some work into them.

We will be working on a new "mid-fat" ski model over the next couple seasons. It will be a 95-97 waist and probably in the 20-25% rocker range. We get a lot of requests for a ski that our customers can take out west. Powder skis aren't part of our core values so we will meet our customers half way with this model. we will be taking a little more R&D time with this one.

 

[SBrown]

I'm also curious to see what customers think if these. I hope they didn't just take the same model and remove width. But who knows. They have been making a noticeable push out east so they are probably putting some work into them...

I think this is what they were planning to do.

 

[Monique]

Anyone ever get on Icelantic's SKNY line?

Mr. @kimmyt has the SKNY Gypsies. Got them after demoing.

 

[Philpug]

Most everything that has come out of the NeverSummer factory feel the same to me.

 

[Monique]

I'm also curious to see what customers think if these. I hope they didn't just take the same model and remove width. But who knows.

I thought that was their explicitly stated intent.

 

[Philpug]

For the most part, it seems a good design scales up or down in width nicely. I'm partial to the 5 point design with a rocker tip and a bit of a narrow tail these days. I particularly like skis with a 17 - 22 m radius in ANY width. 95 mm seems like a very versatile width excepting for very hard snow where narrower is better. But for Rocky Mountains skiing, mid-90 is king.

But in some cases there are diminishing returns as the design gets wider or narrower. In some cases it works...Blizzard bringing the flipcore down to a 78mm width in the Latigo. In some cases it did't work as well, Dynastay with the Cham 87 or Kastle with the original MX108. The 5 point sidecut is getting softer and smoother through the designs as compared to how pronounced they originally were, part of the progression.

 

[Superbman]

Anyone ever get on Icelantic's SKNY line?

I've skied a few of the sknys. Fwiw I own/ have owned and used most icelantics, this is from a demo day at our hill.

1. Hated the shaman skny (and I am still a regular shaman fan)

2. Hated, I mean really hated the pilgrim skny. I used to own and like the original pilgrim-great bump ski, thought this might be a perfect bump ski, but I found it unskiable and ran from it

3. Nomad skny: loved it, felt solid on firm snow, excellent in firm bumps, probably a good low, hard snow tree ski. New graphic is awesome.

Apropos to this thread however I didn't ski either the gypsy skny or the keeper skny

 

[Ecimmortal]

But in some cases there are diminishing returns as the design gets wider or narrower. In some cases it works...Blizzard bringing the flipcore down to a 78mm width in the Latigo. In some cases it did't work as well, Dynastay with the Cham 87 or Kastle with the original MX108. The 5 point sidecut is getting softer and smoother through the designs as compared to how pronounced they originally were, part of the progression.

I really wanted to like the Latigo, but then I struggled to find the appeal of the Bonafide.

 

[Philpug]

I really wanted to like the Latigo, but then I struggled to find the appeal of the Bonafide.

So, you tried the Latigo and didn't like it?

 

[markojp]

95 is the new 110.