Vive la France. The French have never subscribed to the “me too" school of ski design, or really anything else in the industry. They also have never been afraid to take chances: external dampening with Prolink, monocoque constructions, Omega cores, asymmetrical ID shapes, different sidewall densities, chicken head tips, PowerRating sizing. Amazingly there is more -- but enough about the past, let's talk about now and the future.
Actually, there is some past that we will still talk about: Dynastar is resurrecting an old name for this new collection, a (wait for it) Legend-ary name, in fact. Yes, there is a lot of history being discussed; have I lost you yet? No? Good. Dynastar had pretty good recent success with its Chams and Powertracks, but those collections never really took off. Neither did they Cham-WOW the critics, so Dynastar decided to clean house, take two series down to one, and streamline things. Smart, very smart -- as is using the name and design on both sides of the wall for men and women in the Legend and Legend W.
Salomon went modern in the design of its new-last-year QST skis, once again dancing to the beat of a different drummer by adding woven flax and incorporating its proven Spaceframe construction. The QST 99 is light yet powerful, a combination that Salomon was unable to achieve before; it was always either/or up to this new collection. While that is all fun and stuff, what does it really mean to you? Well, the QST does not try to be the old Sentinel, nor is it as fall-off-the-bone easy as the previous QST 98: the new QSTs are the best of both designs, and great value, too.
- Why choose the Legend X96? Dynastar was smart to bring back the Legend name; if you like that Dynastar feel, you will be right at home here. This is a comfortable old paire de jeans straight from Chamonix.
- Why choose the QST 99? First, don’t be fooled by the 19m turn radius; the QST is much more playful than that. Trees and off piste are where to enjoy this ski the most.