WEST LEBANON, NH (JAN 13, 2020) – Blizzard is proud to introduce a brand new collection of their best-selling all-mountain freeride skis, featuring the same legendary names – Bonafide 97, Brahma 88, and Black Pearl 97 and Black Pearl 88 – but reengineered to achieve that ideal balance of efficiency, stability, and performance required to enjoy a full day on the mountain in today’s real-world conditions.
“Each of the skis in this collection have been thoughtfully designed for a specific skier, taking into consideration the terrain they ski, how they ski, where and when et cetera,” explains Jed Duke, Director of Product Marketing. “But one commonality they all share is the reality that on most days, regardless of where they ski, conditions will vary throughout the day. They may start out ideal, but by mid-morning it’s chopped up and only gets more variable as the day goes on. Or maybe it hasn’t snowed in weeks. Whatever the situation, we wanted to design skis that remove conditions from the equation. We just want skiers to get out there, stay out there, and ski with confidence.”
Doing so all comes down to balanced flex. The way skis bend under your foot throughout those variable conditions dictates the stability, edge grip, and energy you feel. Enter TrueBlend Wood Core – a new way to build the core of a ski, strategically layering various woods not only down the length, but also across the width, like a grid, resulting in a perfectly balanced flex. The tip and tail are softer, which allows you to come into a turn with grace and exit smoothly. Power and stability build with denser woods through the center of the ski, a zone that’s critical for edge grip, speed, and control. When blended with their Flipcore ski-making process and newly designed sidecut and rocker profiles, all of which are different for every length of ski, Blizzard aims to deliver a versatile ski that delivers confidence when skiing through all types of conditions.
“We tested these skis from early to late season across three continents,” says Blizzard athlete, Marcus Caston. “I was really impressed with everything they could do. Yeah – you can lay down big carving turns on perfectly groomed runs, but when conditions were dicey they cut right through the crud with little effort. You can ski them hard, but they’re not hard to ski.”
“The all-mountain category is filled with a lot of noise and lacks clarity,” explains Duke. “Skiers come into shops saying they want an all-mountain ski, but don’t really know what that means. Our belief is what they want is a ski that can allow them to ski confidently through changing conditions they see on any given day.”
It is the all-mountain freeride category that catapulted Blizzard to the position of one of the top-selling ski brands when they first reinvented a core construction with Flipcore. Since then, these skis have continued to collect industry awards and remained top sellers, including the Black Pearl 88, which has held the title of global top selling ski for the last three years. Given that success, one could argue if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. But Blizzard feels differently. “We are never satisfied with good or even great,” says Duke. “We will always remain laser focused on what can be done better. The combination of all of the elements in this next generation – from the new core to use of metals, sidecuts, rocker profiles – they all work together to deliver the best experience for each type of skier they’re designed for, which when you look at the whole collection, is a really wide range from intermediate to hard-charging.”
The Bonafide 97, Brahma 88, Black Pearl 97, and Black Pearl 88 will be available at retail in Fall 2020.
