As a nice blend of the Kore and Supershape series, the V-Shape skis fill that on/off-road void and do so quite well. This dual-threat ski, the V-Shape V10, is the widest in the lineup, and offers the most in terms of versatility and soft-snow performance. At 85 mm underfoot, the ski sits right in the sweet spot of the in-between on and off-trail. It’s not quite the polished carver that a Volkl RTM 84 is, but we’d rather ski the V10 on a powder day, all day. It’s pretty shapely, with a 13.6-meter turn radius at the 170 cm length, so they prefer to be on edge rather than ridden flat. With a core that’s pretty close to the Kore series, it’s light and stiff and ready to roll. A Karuba wood core is bolstered with Carbon and Graphene, and this leads to an impossibly light ski for how smooth it feels on your feet. It’s not for overly aggressive skiers, or heavier experts, but there’s a huge swath of skiers out there that will love and benefit from the sharp turns and poised nature of the 2020 V-Shape V10.
Rick Randall skied the appropriately sized 177 and loved the flotation, quickness, playfulness, forgiveness, and versatility, with all of those categories earning 4’s out of 5. His other scores, including overall impression, were all 3’s, indicating that Rick, indeed, found the V10 to be a versatile stick. The ski “is really light underfoot and easy to maneuver. Easy to roll edge to edge, and playful energy-wise. Good ski for intermediate or less-aggressive expert skiers.” Head’s definitely going for that light and quick edge to edge personality, and it sounds like they nailed it.
Michael Rooney skied the 177 as well and gave the ski top marks of 5 for stability, quickness, maneuverability, and overall impression. These are some great scores from Michael, who notes that the “V10 is surprisingly light and goes from edge to edge quickly. They still hold well in choppy snow and ice. They are a good platform and will work well for intermediate to expert skiers.” It’s always nice to hear that a light ski also scores high for stability, as those two qualities are generally mutually exclusive of each other.
Another 177 skier, Phil McGrory was pretty high on the stability, quickness, and edge hold of the V10. He calls it a “predictable, stable carving ski. Holds well on firm snow and is easy to initiate turns. Very quick edge to edge.” Phil is in agreement with Michael in terms of the target audience, noting that the V10 would be great for “intermediate to expert skiers.”
Bob St.Pierre found the 177 to be a bit short, and he felt it with the shorter turn radius as well. His scores reflect that, with scores of 3 out of 5 for quickness, playfulness, and forgiveness all indicating that his ski was a tad short. Bob says that the V10 “loves to be on edge—short radius carver—very solid and stable in the woods and bumps.” Bob didn’t really get to open it up, but notes that it’s a “great and light all-mountain ski with a slower than average speed limit.” With that curvy shape, it’s hard to get them to run flat, so expect to be making a good deal of turns on the V10.
For an all-mountain carving ski, the V-Shape V10 checks a lot of boxes. It’s light, quick, and easy to turn, mostly thanks to the shape that results in the shorter turn radius. Feel free to keep this thing on edge all run, as it loves to create clean and round arcs in the corduroy.
