Mogul skis are a lot like food delicacies... some people aboslutlely love that rare albeit pequliar dish, while others simply cannot understand the appeal whatsoever. I would argue that mogul skis are in a similarly polarizing category, and with this in mind, let's first understand what it takes to be a good mogul skier, as this is often mirrored by the ski.
To grossly oversimplify things, I will break down good mogul skiing into 3 key aspects: 1. Forward Pressure, 2. Edge to Edge transfer, 3. Rebound/Backside pressure. An adept mogul skier can maintain good forward pressure, while quickly tranfering edge to edge in the bumps, all while managing ski rebound to efficiently apply backside pressure onto the mogul, thus maintaining forward pressure and repeating the cycle. Good mogul skis aid the skier in these key areas!
Foward pressure is the forward lean of your body down the hill, which helps you attack the snow and turn aggressively. Forward pressure is then tranfered through your center of gravity, legs, ankles, and feet directly into your skis underneath you. A soft ski will accept a lot of this forward pressure and bend willinging, while a stiff ski will resist it and push against you as you lean foward.
Edge to edge transfer describes how quickly a ski can change from carving on one edge to the other. This is a function of a couple characterstics, but largely depends on sidecut and ski width. Skis with a lot of sidecut will hook up quickly on the snow and easily carve a shorter radius turn. Additionally, the thinner the ski is under your foot, the less base you have to roll over and the quicker you can transfer onto your new edge.
Rebound/backside pressure again refers to the stiffness of a ski, but in this case, it specifically denotes how the ski rebounds from the applied force. When an expert mogul skier hits a mogul, and the ski flexes and pushes back against them, they can accept this rebounding energy of the ski underneath their center to quickly apply pressure on the backside of the mogul, thus transfering their weight forward into the new turn instead of getting tossed to the wayside.
While all of this is a bit complex, there a few skis that exepmlify these aspects and offer a wonderfuly unique, albeit unusual skiing experience. My take on the best mogul skis are listed below... in no particular order :)
ID one MR-SG
These sticks come by way of Japan, a country that absolutely adores mogul skiing! The MR-SG and other ID one makes currently dominate the international mogul circuit, and are the long-time favorite of the mogul skiing GOAT, Mikael Kingsbury. These skis are extremely durable and excel in every one of these mogul skiing aspects, especially edge to edge transfer. They have a unique graphic and are heavily sought after in the competitive mogul skiing community.
Volkl Dragon Slayers
The Dragon Slayers might be the most durable mogul skis ever made, they are also likely the stiffest. These are not for your average joe bump skier, only the strongest and most aggressive mogul skiers will break these out. However, these beasts accrued multiple victories on World Cup before phasing out to more recent models such as the Rebellion. Volkl no longer makes these, so good luck finding a pair! These are true collector piece and VERY badass bump ski.
Hart F-17 (& Fusion)
Yes, there are two skis here. I am grouping both the Japanese brand ski and the American brand ski into one, as they are both fantastic mogul skis with multiple World Cups victories to back it up. This will likely be a sore subject, as each pair has a devout following, but I don't think you can go wrong with either one (I have used both). It should be noted that the american ski is no longer in production while the japanese brand continues its influence at the highest levels. For the sake of ease, and to honor both pairs, they jointly make this list as each offer an exceptional mogul skiing experience.
Dynastar Twister
The Dynastar Twisters may have not had the world cup success as the previously listed mogul skis, but they certainly had a strong presence and have been loved by many moguls skiers of all levels. This ski found a nice balance between stiffness and flexiblity, and had some pretty sweet graphics over the years to top it of it off. This ski was found in all levels of mogul competition mostly during the mid-2000's. However, the ski was prone to breaking and ultimately faded out of production, but a great mogul ski nonetheless.
Rossignol Hero
Rossignol has put out a few iterations of a mogul ski over the years, and these are the most current version. These bump skis are extremely well-equipped in every area of mogul skiing and have multiple World Cup podiums to back it up. In fact, they are the stick of choice for Perrine Laffont, the french mogul skiing prodigy and defending gold medalist. The Hero's may have a slightly smaller presence on World Cup than ID one and Hart (Japan), but the rossignol predigree has been long lasting over the years.
Honorable Mentions:
Volkl Rebellion
K2 CaBrawler
Head Mojo Mogul
Salomon 1080 Mogul
Let me know your thoughts on this list, or anything else I've explained about the art of skiing moguls! Happy bumpin' <3
By: Ryan Dyer, January 2021
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