Freeride skis
Product 2025
Woman, Man
We’ve included the magnificent Faction Studio 3 in the freeride category, but it could easily have been placed in Backcountry Freestyle or even All Mountain. In any case, we were very impressed with this ski.
At first glance, its massive size can be intimidating (we tested it in 184 cm), and you might wonder if you’re going to be overpowered by this fat ski, which also features a twin-tip design, highlighting its freestyle abilities. But here’s the surprise: it offers a pivoting capability similar to what we noticed with the Faction Dancer 3 (review link).
The Faction Studio 3 isn’t the heavy artillery you might expect—it’s easy to handle, with an obvious accessibility. It enters the turn naturally, even though it’s not a dedicated carving ski. This ease of use is quite surprising. Even on hard snow, while you can feel that the Faction Studio 3 is wide, its pivot is fairly easy and even instinctive. With a bit more speed, the ski fits into the turn without any trouble. In all sequences, from medium to long turns, the Faction Studio 3 performs really well. On soft and chopped-up snow, it behaves almost like an all-mountain ski.
The Faction Studio 3 is both easy to use and highly performant, making it suitable for a wide range of skiers: from those still finding their balance to experts. When you push the Faction Studio 3 into big turns, it picks up speed, holds well, and you can engage the edge. You can steer it from the tail in wide, high-speed turns. You can shift to the front, although when you load the tip, it’s a little less confident in its response. Overall, it’s very stable, and it eats up snow piles—off-piste, it’s a real treat.
In action, the Faction Studio 3 doesn’t feel heavy, there’s no noticeable inertia. Despite its length and significant material, it feels surprisingly light.
The tail rise does catch a bit when you’re doing skate skiing moves. It can be quite frustrating when you’re trying to place the ski in a lift rack.
The design is stunning, asymmetrical (the two skis are different), with a very beautiful base that could use a bit of improvement in terms of glide.
A ski that’s both powerful yet accessible. Very enjoyable due to its ease of use. It transmits little feedback to the legs. A great ski for medium-sized skiers. Award First.
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
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