The Volkl 90Eight is a relatively lightweight all mountain ski that’s built around Volkl’s 3D.Ridge technology. It has been updated for the 2018 season, along with the rest of the skis in Volkl’s line that use 3D.Ridge technology, with more fiberglass. Volkl called this new construction 3D.Glass and it’s intended to strengthen the ski both in longitudinal stiffness as well as torsion stiffness. Compared to the Volkl Mantra, which has a very similar waist width, the 90Eight is significantly lighter and uses a rocker/camber/rocker profile. The carbon stringers in the construction of the ski give it great energy and help provide increased stability for such a lightweight ski. All of our testers were on the 177 cm length; let’s find out what they thought.
Steve Brown thought it “skied very sturdy,” despite being so light. This is a theme that you’ll see carry through most of our testers: they all seemed very impressed by the skis stability considering how light it feels on your feet. Steve also commented that the “edge hold was impressive.” On the contrary, Steve found them to be “not as playful as I expected for such a light ski.” While this might seem like a negative, it’s really not. We consider this more of a compliment to Volkl for building in an impressive amount of power in such a light overall package. There are other skis in their line, like the Revolt 95, that are designed specifically to be playful; the 90Eight is a bit more serious.
Jamie Bisbee was pretty much the only tester who didn’t comment that they were impressed by the skis stability, and this may have been because Jamie was skiing a 177 cm length ski. If he were on a 184 cm, we may be seeing different reactions. He commented that the 90Eight felt “a bit squirrely at higher speeds and longer radius turns, but short to medium turns happened very seamlessly without effort.”
Mike Aidala, on the other hand, certainly thought they were plenty of ski for high speed, aggressive skiing. He commented that they are “great all mountain skis that handle everything with solid power and dampness.” That’s really quite the compliment considering the 90Eight doesn’t use any metal, which traditionally is the material used to achieve “dampness.” Mike scored the 90Eight 5 out of 5 for stability and torsional stiffness, so definitely thought it was plenty of ski for fast-paced skiing.
No one was a bigger fan of the 90Eight than Bob St Pierre, who stated on his test form “I want one for sure.” Bob is a relatively big, relatively powerful skier, so we really value his feedback here. Bob typically skis much longer skis, but was on a 177 cm 90Eight. Out of all the skis he tested, Bob thought the 90Eight was “the most versatile by far and the most fun.” We asked Bob more about his experience on the 90Eight and he commented that he “seems to like all the Volkl skis that use 3D.Ridge.” He described the 90Eight as a ski that can “hook up quick, it quick edge to edge, and doesn’t lose any torsional stiffness.” While Volkl uses the “3D” term a lot, Bob thought they could be described as a “4D” ski with the 4th dimension simply being “awesomeness.”
Based off the reactions from our testers we think people really enjoy the new 90Eight with the updated 3D.Glass construction. It’s noticeably stronger than the previous version and seems to have better edge hold on firm snow under an aggressive skier. The 90Eight is one of those skis that can do a little bit of everything and could easily act as a “one-ski-quiver” for either an eastern or western skier.
