I had a fun and interesting day yesterday: I got to ski next year's Blizzard's women's skis.
The marketing director invited me and a few other ski writers for a test drive at Stowe Mountain Resort. For a demo day, conditions were not, shall we say, optimal. After a day of torrential rain and some marginal temperatures, the snow was extremely wet and heavy, topped by ice chunks and grainy stuff the consistency of a Slurpee. What's more, visibility was awful; we had occasional rain and dense fog. You couldn't see a thing; on some runs, it was like skiing by Braille. In other words, super crappy.
I'm second from the right below. Leslie Baker-Brown, Blizzard's marketing director, is next to me in the blue jacket and brown pants:
Still, it was fun to get out on the new sticks. As many of you know, I haven't been a fan of the previous Blizzard Black Pearls. That said, apparently a lot of other people are; it was the best selling ski of the year, men's or women's, in 2016.
But the old Black Pearl isn't the new Black Pearl. Blizzard has made quite a few changes. There's now a Black Pearl 78, an 88, and a 98 (they've eliminated the Samba!). They've made them 20% lighter without any sacrifice in stability or strength, and have increased the sidecut to make it turnier and more responsive. And the graphics are nice, too. There's a light image of a feather on each ski, and the colors fade from either blue to pink or blue to green (the color reflects the waist size, and they're quite pretty — with the exception of the 78, which is pink. They need to do something about that).
So I skied the BP 78, 88, and 98, and you know what? I actually liked 'em. To be honest, the 78 wasn't great for the conditions at hand. In the choppy, heavy, slushy mess, I got thrown around quite a bit. I'd really like to try this on a nice groomer or on some New England ice; I think I'd get a much better read on the ski. But the 88 and 98 were lots of fun even in the crud we were skiing. Smooth, steady, stable, light, able to power through the mess and still be easy to turn -- in short, fun!
I got around to trying the Sheeva 10, too, but this really wasn't the ski for the day's conditions. This is a rockered ski that's 102 underfoot (there's a Sheeva 11, too, which is wider), and it looks like it'd be a load of fun for powder skiing. The Sheeva incorporates a sheet of Titanol, which reduces the torsional strength of the tip and tail and improves stability and control underfoot. They also use unidirectional carbon fiber in the tip and tail to stabilize the rockered areas and reduce swing weight. I'd love to get this out on a powder day.
My take away from all this: Blizzard is very committed to the women's market. They've instituted something called their Women to Women Initiative, which I wrote about here in my blog. The idea is that women's skis are not a sideline, but something they're committed to, on a corporate level. They're making it a point to listen to what women want and to start from the ground up, developing skis and boots that work for US. It's something that all gear companies should do, but for some reason, fail at time and time again. So it'll be interesting to see where this takes them.
All in all, a fun day. And if you get a chance, try the new Blizzards. You might be pleasantly surprised.
The marketing director invited me and a few other ski writers for a test drive at Stowe Mountain Resort. For a demo day, conditions were not, shall we say, optimal. After a day of torrential rain and some marginal temperatures, the snow was extremely wet and heavy, topped by ice chunks and grainy stuff the consistency of a Slurpee. What's more, visibility was awful; we had occasional rain and dense fog. You couldn't see a thing; on some runs, it was like skiing by Braille. In other words, super crappy.
I'm second from the right below. Leslie Baker-Brown, Blizzard's marketing director, is next to me in the blue jacket and brown pants:
Still, it was fun to get out on the new sticks. As many of you know, I haven't been a fan of the previous Blizzard Black Pearls. That said, apparently a lot of other people are; it was the best selling ski of the year, men's or women's, in 2016.
But the old Black Pearl isn't the new Black Pearl. Blizzard has made quite a few changes. There's now a Black Pearl 78, an 88, and a 98 (they've eliminated the Samba!). They've made them 20% lighter without any sacrifice in stability or strength, and have increased the sidecut to make it turnier and more responsive. And the graphics are nice, too. There's a light image of a feather on each ski, and the colors fade from either blue to pink or blue to green (the color reflects the waist size, and they're quite pretty — with the exception of the 78, which is pink. They need to do something about that).
So I skied the BP 78, 88, and 98, and you know what? I actually liked 'em. To be honest, the 78 wasn't great for the conditions at hand. In the choppy, heavy, slushy mess, I got thrown around quite a bit. I'd really like to try this on a nice groomer or on some New England ice; I think I'd get a much better read on the ski. But the 88 and 98 were lots of fun even in the crud we were skiing. Smooth, steady, stable, light, able to power through the mess and still be easy to turn -- in short, fun!
I got around to trying the Sheeva 10, too, but this really wasn't the ski for the day's conditions. This is a rockered ski that's 102 underfoot (there's a Sheeva 11, too, which is wider), and it looks like it'd be a load of fun for powder skiing. The Sheeva incorporates a sheet of Titanol, which reduces the torsional strength of the tip and tail and improves stability and control underfoot. They also use unidirectional carbon fiber in the tip and tail to stabilize the rockered areas and reduce swing weight. I'd love to get this out on a powder day.
My take away from all this: Blizzard is very committed to the women's market. They've instituted something called their Women to Women Initiative, which I wrote about here in my blog. The idea is that women's skis are not a sideline, but something they're committed to, on a corporate level. They're making it a point to listen to what women want and to start from the ground up, developing skis and boots that work for US. It's something that all gear companies should do, but for some reason, fail at time and time again. So it'll be interesting to see where this takes them.
All in all, a fun day. And if you get a chance, try the new Blizzards. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Last edited: