so. Yesterday, demo day. I only got to Nordica, Atomic, K2, and Elan. Skied 3 skis from each. And This morning, I spent an hour and 1/2 in a conference room with the industry reps for Blizzard/Technica. Great news on their woman to woman initiative, lots of changes coming, which is why we were there, as participants in a women's only focus group in order to gain feedback on the next year's line up. Lots of info. Then we got to ski Blizzard's next year's line up.
Anyway, some insight on the Black Pearl 78/88/98. They replaced the Cheyenne and the Samba with the Black Pearl nomenclature because it is the number one selling ski in all of north America, including mens skis. And their vendor feedback was this: often women would come into the shop and say, I want the black pearl, despite the Cheyenne or the Samba being the better choice for one or all of three reasons. 1. Where they ski the most often, region, run type 2. What type of snow and conditions they encounter 3. How they like to ski, style wise, GS, Slalom, conservative, aggressive. But even though they all were similar in construction, everyone wanted the Black Pearl regardless. So Blizzard/Technica didn't want a bad customer experience down the line because women were choosing the wrong ski for their needs based on name alone. Therefore all are similar construction, all are in the sweet spot of an "all mountain ski", each with a slightly different point of focus, the narrower 78 for mogul and tree skier, the 98 more of a powder entry, and the 88 the true all mountain in between.
So as this is my second season on my Black Pearls, I was curious to say the least about the 2018s. They have a sexy new sidecut with a nicer turning radius and are really easy to edge up, hold the turn, and carve right through. Little more of everything that I loved about mine. There certainly were no regressions. The 78 held it's own on the turns, would be fantastic if you are more of a short turn skier. The 98 were too wide for conditions here to truly judge, were really floaty and needed a little more command, but I was skiing wet fresh snow over ice, and a choppy mess and only on a 159 (I ski a 166, and now after demo really think I should have gotten the 173). So I'd prefer really to hold my judgement on those until I can demo them in more favorable conditions. Some of the better skiers with a little more power behind them, still preferred the 98 even here in this crap we call snow. I think they would be a lot of fun at Big Sky.
Other skis that I tested that really will give the black pearl a run for their money: The santa ana 93, the k2 All Luv it 88, and the Atomic Vantage 90. I skied all of these (the 169) and man, I Loved them all. In fact, the entire vantage series took me by surprise. LOTS of spring out of the turn. The Elans were a major disappointment. Way too much chatter and just meh.
We even have a storm or two moving in this weekend, so I'll get to test them in some more powder, too. (They were awesome in the 6 inches or so of creamy, dense powder we had until about halfway down the mountain on testing day.)
