Head Skis 2001-02

Head Skis 2001-02
800-874-3235
www.headusa.com
For 2001, Head’s mantra continues to be: “Help all skiers have more fun with less effort.” Head’s biggest coup of late was to add superstar Jonny Moseley to its athlete roster last spring. Since then, Head has worked with Moseley to create a new twin-tip freeride ski called Mad Trix that’s unlike any other on the market: Depending on whether you’re having a big air day or a big mountain day, you can switch the direction of the bindings on the ski to create what are essentially two different skis.

Head will extend established technologies like Full Metal Jacket (a wood-core torsion box, a laminate, and a monocoque all under a topsheet of titanium that runs from tip to tail, edge to edge) to the All-Mountain skis, while adding Full Carbon Jacket and Full Fiberglass Jacket to the category. Last year’s X-Frame technology will trickle down to the first price point this year. The company will also introduce a fresh new look with metal inlays, sublimation, and lacquer printing.

Head has pared down its line to four simple categories: Racing, All-Mountain, Free, and Junior.

Racing Series
Head’s Full Metal Jacket race trio returns essentially intact, but with some aesthetic modifications, new Traction Power System (TPS 6), and with new sizes. There’s the Slalom Worldcup Ti, a slicer and dicer of hard snow and ice, the Cyber Worldcup Ti, Head’s full-bore GS race ski, and the Cyber Worldcup, a carver designed to go anywhere, from moguls to off-piste to groomed to gates.
Modified: Slalom Worldcup Ti, Cyber Worldcup Ti, Cyber Worldcup.

All-Mountain Series
In this group, 184 is the longest length, and Head has changed up the size splits, with sizes separated by 7-cm increments. Most of the footprints are brand-new, though several models at the bottom of the line use recycled shapes from last year’s line.

The Full Metal Jacket construction appears in the new top-of-the-line all-mountain XP100. Head describes it as a hybrid, “combining the quickness of a new generation slalom ski with the flotation of a freeride ski.” The XP80 replaces the Cyber X80 Ti, but with Full Carbon Jacket, slightly wider tip, and a shorter length. The XP70 Ti is similar to the XP60 Ti but with Full Carbon Jacket. Replacing the Cyber X60 is the XP60 Ti, an intermediate through expert ski with Full Fiberglass Jacket. The Cyber X44 is an intermediate to advanced ski for groomed snow with TPS. The Cyber X40 Superlight for corduroy conditions is even easier yet. Moving down the line, there’s the Cyber X30, an intermediate groomer ski with TPS, and the Cyber X15, which gives first-time buyers X-Frame construction and a solid wood core at a low pricepoint.

Back by popular dealer demand is the Cyber Light women’s ski with a new cosmetic. It fits in the line just below the Cyber X40 Superlight. The Big Easy learn-to-carve ski has the footprint and construction of last year’s Cyclone, but with a rubguard topskin and color coding by length for the rental market. (It will also be sold at retail.) Head is working with direct-to-parallel guru Harald Harb to package The Big Easy with his teaching method. “We want to reward the skier with instant carving gratification,” explains Head product manager Jackson Hogen.
New: XP100 Ti, XP80 Ti, XP70 Ti, XP60, X44, X40 Superlight, X30, Cyber X15.
Modified: Cyber Light, The Big Easy.

Free Series
Within the Free group, there are two subsets: New School Slopestyle and Freeride. New: Headlining the New School Slopestyle subset is Jonny Moseley’s ski, the Mad_Trix System. Its construction, shape, and utility is different from anything else in the line. For slopestyle moves, like Jonny’s switch 1080 dinner roll, you reverse the Tyrolia bindings, which gives you more tail for a backward landing. Switch the bindings back to the big mountain setting and you’ve got a more traditional ffreeride twin tip. The ski is also available without the switchable Tyrolia binding, called the Moseley System Plate. In this case the ski is the same, so the consumer needs to choose one setting from the start and stick with it. Also in the Slopestyle group is the Air Head I, an intermediate through expert twin tip for airs, switch takeoffs, and landings in park and pipe. It gets a new graphic. Air Head II is a 140-cm twin tip designed for rotating like a propeller over the halfpipe. It also gets an updated look.
New: Mad_Trix System, Mad_Trix.
Modified: Air Head I, Air Head II.

Aside from two new skis, the Freeride subset will see only graphic changes. New: With the same footprint as the Super Cross Ti and two sheets of metal-but without the TPS and Titanium-carbon weave technologies-the Super Cross is one of the best deals in the line. It’s designed for intermediate to advanced skiers seeking “powder plus whatever follows.” Super Cross Light is the women’s iteration, significantly lightened up with a Super Light core (50 percent lighter than the other Super Cross cores).

The following get updated cosmetics: The Monster Cross, which was created with the help of Whistler’s Freeride Team, is a beefy, take-no-prisoners fat board for big-mountain skiing. Super Cross Ti, with TPS, for advanced and expert skiers, is a versatile all-mountain ride, intended for everything from powder to crud to packed-out snow. Cross Ti gives advanced and expert skiers a “fall-line freeride stick for bumps, powder, groomers, chutes, and trees.” Cross (formerly the Cross X) is for intermediates looking for an all-around easy-skiing ski that’ll tackle moguls.
New: Super Cross, Super Cross Light.
Modified: Monster Cross, Super Cross Ti, Cross Ti, Cross.