2013 Nordica Side Burner

A snowHead

2013 Nordica Side Burner 178 - 126/84/112 18mR G3 Onyx 'tech' bindings with bellows plate and Crispi Evo NTN/AT boots.

Snow conditions, very firm with ½ inch of soft over compacted and grippy cold piste. A small amount of medium to heavy powder in the trees and at the edges of the back bowls.

Skis, first impressions. Quite soft and super easy to smear (skid steer) turns from either the nose or the tails and with no bias at all when centered over the skis to just stick them sideways and scrape off some speed. Even easier to add a little weighting in that skid to add a direction to that. To be honest I first thought that I'd made a huge mistake and bought a noodle of a 'punter' ski.

The first hint that I was thinking with my butt was when I stopped skiing them centered like alpine on tele and caught a little air over a roller and found myself landing on the nose of the skis and they just hooked into a carve that spit me down the hill on my face . . . under the bloody lift and to much applause.

Time to start skiing them with a bit less 'vanilla' effort. These boots are not race stiff. A finger in the wind estimate must put them somewhere around the 110-120 mark and I needed to place my feet carefully under my mass to ensure I drove the nose of the skis and was rewarded with a great and progressive pull into a carve and really controllable to adjust the carve radius until past the turn centre and prepping for the transition. Utterly predictable and smooth but with no windup and punch out. It could be that my weight is just a bit too much for the tail spring to cope.

It was easy to engage or disengage any part of the edge anywhere in a turn with little effort other than gentle body movements that didn't unbalance me or put my body or legs in stress.

The only thing that I'm having problems with is 'one leg' drills. I did think it is an issue with boot canting. The jury is still out at the moment.

Limited powder opportunity but in the small patches I ran through they kept my lardy butt well on top and in control which did surprise me as I'm used to the submarine emulation my old and much fatter Icelandics like to perform.

Summary: This is a really nice piste ski with moderate powder (probably a bit of a liability in very light stuff) It has a gentle and progressive flex and good torsional stiffness. It can turn quicker than you think but it's not a slalom tool with those softer heels. It will make a great instructor ski as it doesn't need a huge amount of effort to perform a complete range of differing technique. I was out the whole day and came back without any twinges.

For the mid intermediate they are flattering but have enough guts to respond without any nasty surprises to some energetic input and as you can obviously feel how small changes to your body and leg positions over the skis affect how they perform they will (and have) make a positive addition to your progress. I think these will be the skis that will finally stop me ass-planting moguls.

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2013 Nordica Side Burner

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