2026 Elan Playmaker 101

While we haven’t seen any shape or structure changes in the Elan Playmaker 101 over the years, we do get a clean new graphic for the 2026 ski season. These surfy twins are a ton of fun when it comes to mixing soft snow in the trees, wide open bowls, backcountry hits, and resort terrain park performance. The Playmakers stand out from other twins in this range mainly due to their light weight and high mobility, attractive qualities for lighter and less aggressive skiers who mix park and off-piste time on snow.

Built with a light wood core made with poplar and paulownia, the Playmaker 101 uses carbon rods along the sides of the ski, embedded into the core. While the Ripstick series has longer rods that go almost tip to tail, Playmaker 101 uses shorter ones that extend just beyond the mount zone. They also take very creative liberties with the milling shape of the ski, as the central portion is far more trapezoidal than the rest. This gives the skier a higher perch to gain some leverage and adds a sharper edge grip to the middle. Elan uses 360-degree sidewalls for a sturdy feel and increased edge hold. In the 180, Elan is stating a weight of 1685 g/ski which is certainly on the lighter side of the spectrum. Tester Matt McGinnis states that “the key feature here is the liveliness. Right from the first pop I could tell these skis wanted to bounce around and get in the air as much as possible.”

The shape here is very much surf-inspired. With gradual rocker in both tips and tails to go along with a spoony taper shape, the flotation of these 101’s is excellent. They do not use their amphibio rocker profile here, instead focusing on symmetry and smoothness. The ski’s dimensions of 132/101/122 generate an 18.1-meter turn radius in the 180, allowing for clean and round arcs on softer groomers and high mobility in softer snow. They’re easy to turn as a result in a variety of conditions and terrain. Tester Phil McGrory notes that these skis work best in “Variable terrain. Ski was quick turning making it great when conditions get choppy. Fun ski in bumped terrain.”

These continue to be fun and exciting twin tips, even if they’re on the light side. It’s all about blending attributes when you get into this range, and these skis mix it up with the best of them, just so long as you’re not expecting endless power and stability. Skiers in the intermediate range through experts will love the mobility and agility here, as the Playmaker 101 continues to prove its worth as a surfy twin for the resort and beyond.