fgor
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
5'3, 115lb, cautious skier, mostly ski NZ blues and some reds
Daily drivers: 2020 Black Pearl 88 @159cm
Well the NZ ski season has started (at least in my region of NZ, where we have been blessed by the snow gods) and it's off to a nice start. Despite the season only being a couple of weeks old, demo fleets have already started showing up! I recently saw Head there and knew I had to try out some of their Kore skis, as a friend in Australia had tried them and thought they were surprisingly great for NZ/AU conditions - which have a tendency to be icy and hard due to the frequent freeze-thaw cycles we get here.
It was a beautiful day for skiing.
The ladies Kore skis turned out to be popular demo skis and after doing a couple of warm-up laps on my own skis, I had some trouble getting on any of the ladies versions
I thought the Kore only came in 93 width and above, but to my surprise it turns out Head has added another width to the lineup for 2021, and this was the width I was able to get on - the 87W. I tried it in 153cm. Apparently the next length up is 162cm so quite a decent jump. I wasn't able to try out the longer one for comparison though.
I'd describe the colour as a very dark plum.
Last season I never got a chance to try any of the Kore skis, but I also would have shied away from them, because I've always heard the Kore skis described as being very light and very stiff, which was daunting to me. This season I felt more than ready to give them a go, but I was still surprised - it's true that in 153 the ski may be on the shorter side for me (160cm tall), but I actually found these skis to be easy to ski. They were compliant, turny, fun, and held a good edge. The demo tech commented that at this length they would feel very playful and that was correct! I also didn't find them punishing when I got a little far back. I understand that all of the Kore skis have quite a stiff tail but I'm probably not skiing in conditions where that makes them overly difficult (bumps or trees.... no trees above the snowline here in NZ
). YMMV with regards to the stiffness of this ski but I found it to be just fine. I'm not a fast skier at all but these skis had good stability at all the speeds I put them through.
Comparing them to skiing my Black Pearl 88, the Kore maybe feels a bit more poppy and zippy. Both feel compliant and easy to turn. When I visually compared them to the BP88 they look very similar in terms of sidecut and taper.
Overall I'd be happy to ski the Kore 87W all day. I think this could be a pretty great option for many ladies out there looking for a ski in the ~88 width category (a very popular category of skis these days!!).
Daily drivers: 2020 Black Pearl 88 @159cm
Well the NZ ski season has started (at least in my region of NZ, where we have been blessed by the snow gods) and it's off to a nice start. Despite the season only being a couple of weeks old, demo fleets have already started showing up! I recently saw Head there and knew I had to try out some of their Kore skis, as a friend in Australia had tried them and thought they were surprisingly great for NZ/AU conditions - which have a tendency to be icy and hard due to the frequent freeze-thaw cycles we get here.
It was a beautiful day for skiing.
The ladies Kore skis turned out to be popular demo skis and after doing a couple of warm-up laps on my own skis, I had some trouble getting on any of the ladies versions
I thought the Kore only came in 93 width and above, but to my surprise it turns out Head has added another width to the lineup for 2021, and this was the width I was able to get on - the 87W. I tried it in 153cm. Apparently the next length up is 162cm so quite a decent jump. I wasn't able to try out the longer one for comparison though.I'd describe the colour as a very dark plum.
Last season I never got a chance to try any of the Kore skis, but I also would have shied away from them, because I've always heard the Kore skis described as being very light and very stiff, which was daunting to me. This season I felt more than ready to give them a go, but I was still surprised - it's true that in 153 the ski may be on the shorter side for me (160cm tall), but I actually found these skis to be easy to ski. They were compliant, turny, fun, and held a good edge. The demo tech commented that at this length they would feel very playful and that was correct! I also didn't find them punishing when I got a little far back. I understand that all of the Kore skis have quite a stiff tail but I'm probably not skiing in conditions where that makes them overly difficult (bumps or trees.... no trees above the snowline here in NZ
). YMMV with regards to the stiffness of this ski but I found it to be just fine. I'm not a fast skier at all but these skis had good stability at all the speeds I put them through.Comparing them to skiing my Black Pearl 88, the Kore maybe feels a bit more poppy and zippy. Both feel compliant and easy to turn. When I visually compared them to the BP88 they look very similar in terms of sidecut and taper.
Overall I'd be happy to ski the Kore 87W all day. I think this could be a pretty great option for many ladies out there looking for a ski in the ~88 width category (a very popular category of skis these days!!).
