Freeride skis
Product 2024
Woman, Man
This Elan Ripstick 96 is surprising because it’s both a powerful and playful ski, two qualities rarely compatible.
It looks massive, but when you make your first tracks, it feels like riding a skateboard. It has a lot of rocker both in the front and the back.
The Elan Ripstick 96 is very enjoyable off-piste, on the edges of the slopes, in couloirs, to explore all types of ungroomed snow. On-piste, it can be a bit destabilizing because it tends to oversteer. But beware, it oversteers when skidded/slipped flat. However, once you put it on edge, you have a very hard zone underfoot. On hard snow, in steep terrain, on the edge, it’s very difficult to have a slight variation in radius; you need to be powerful and press very hard forward and then come back on your heels. It’s clear, this freeride ski prefers skidded then carved turns. Carved turns all the time on hard snow are not easy at all, which is fortunate because it’s not the program of the Elan Ripstick 96.
So, it’s a very powerful and playful ski when laid flat. It performs well on long radii. You can go fast by angulating a lot. It’s surprising how fast you can go because it has a nose that kicks. The energy comes back a bit into the legs, not super pleasant, but it’s still a good ski.
We tested this Elan Ripstick 96 in 180 centimeters, but you can easily go 10 centimeters longer to be very comfortable. Its pivot ease works in its favor.
It’s an asymmetrical ski, not very visible from the outside, it’s more in the internal structure.
Very nice, meticulous manufacturing. A lightweight ski underfoot.
A good, atypical, playful ski that turns out to be a beautiful machine for carving turns off-piste, with power underfoot.
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
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