2021 VOLKL REVOLT 104 SKI REVIEW
The world of versatile twin-tip skis designed and built with quality engineering, materials, and craftsmanship is growing, and this skier couldn’t be happier. Is it because of the aging freestyle/terrain park segment? Is it because skiers in general are starting to look at the mountain differently? Frankly, I don’t really care what the reason is, I’m just happy it’s happening. We’ve looked at a number of high-end twin tips going into the 2020/21 product season, and this article continues that trend. Today, we’re talking about the new Revolt 104 from Volkl.
The Revolt name has been around for a few years now. The Revolt 87 has been their symmetrical competition park ski, the Revolt 95 a more versatile all-mountain ski with still a park mentality (thanks Ahmet), and most recently the Revolt 121, a big old powder ski designed both for doing tricks in the backcountry and crushing Freeride World Tour lines. Of course, there’s a bit of a void if you look at those three skis. There hasn’t been anything in between that 95 and 121 mm width range. Of course, Volkl has skis in that width, but not twin tips. This new Revolt 104 is designed to fill that width gap, while retaining a playful, freeride/freeski mentality.
The development story behind the Revolt 104 is a fun one that started about 2 years ago exactly. Volkl Product Managers and Lead Engineers approached a collection of athletes about creating a new ski. The goal was to create a ski that wasn’t necessarily a park or freeride specific ski, just an everyday ski, but one that could perform at a high level in those applications. Let’s consider the athletes that helped develop this ski: Paddy Graham, Markus Eder, Colter Hinchcliff, Tom Ritsch, and Tanner Rainville all played an important role in the creation of the Revolt 104. All of those skiers have somewhat of a freestyle background, but these days ski a variety of different terrain, not just the park. Also, they all had a lot of experience on the Revolt 121. The crew decided on a 104 mm underfoot ski and took some design influence and general inspiration from the old Gotama. During the final testing days for the Revolt 121 in September of 2018, the very first prototype of the 104 hit the snow, and it quickly earned high praise from Volkl’s test group.
The final form of the Revolt 104 is, in many ways, a mini version of the 121. It carries over a similar construction, just a multi-layer wood core that we often see from Volkl and a fiberglass laminate. It’s built with sandwich construction with vertical sidewalls throughout. The shape is where things start to get more interesting. The Revolt 104 uses very long rocker, especially in the tip. It’s similar to what we see in the Revolt 121, although not quite as pronounced. It’s also similar to the Blaze 106. Long, consistent rocker that looks like it starts basically right in front of the toe piece. There’s not quite as much in the tail, but it’s still a significant amount. Then there’s the taper shape… There’s actually more abrupt early taper in the tail than the tip. The tip shape is straighter and smoother than the tail. We also get a 3D Radius sidecut like the Revolt 121, Blaze, and some other Volkl skis. Volkl is being a touch more secretive with the actual, listing just 20.2 m for the 180 cm length, although just like the rest of their skis that use this shape concept, the radius is longer in the tips and tails. A quick note on flex pattern before we get to performance. I would describe the Revolt 104 as having a medium flex pattern. It’s stiffest underfoot, but you can still hand flex it pretty easily. The tail is quite a bit softer than the tip as well. Then there’s the mount point. The recommended mount point is only about 2 cm back from the true center spot on the ski. That’s very centered, especially for non-park skiers. It’s not surprising, however, as the Revolt 95 uses a true center recommended mount point.
Now to performance. According to Markus Eder, “the 104 is the perfect ski to take out for a ride when you’re unsure what the day will bring. Shredding pow, carving on the slopes, buttering in the slush or hitting the park. Everything goes.” That theme isn’t new. Plenty of brands like to boast versatility in a ski like this, and none of them are wrong. The Revolt 104, however, feels a little different. Among this growing category of skis, the Revolt 104 is one of the most playful for sure. It also allows for more skier input than a lot of skis like this because of its unique shape. Combining the 3D Radius with the long rocker profile allows for an insane amount of different turn styles. We talked about a similar concept in the Blaze 106. You can slash and smear turns without the ski feeling catchy because the tips and tails are relatively straight and smooth. This not only enhances its feel in deep, soft snow but it also gives it a predictable feel when doing things like nose buttering, which is literally the first shot of someone skiing it in Volkl’s promo video. This shape also helps in the terrain park, making the ski less catchy for things like switch takeoffs, presses, etc. I got to ski it in some soft snow conditions and loved the way you could flick it around. The abrupt taper in the tail definitely helps with this catch-free, buttery, smooth feel too. Another characteristic of the tail shape is it allows the very end of the tail of the ski to sink more in deeper snow, which in turn keeps your tips above the snow. That gives the 104 more float than you might expect.
With the camber underfoot and the shorter radius in that portion of the ski, it actually carves turns impressively well too. In fact, not many skis feel this playful and surfy and can still lay over some nice arcs. What’s interesting about the 104 is because of the longer radius in the tips and tails and relatively low camber height, you need to get it up on edge if you want energetic responsiveness out of a turn. However, because the ski isn’t tremendously stiff, once you’re up on edge, you can flex the ski and generate a nice amount of energy, resulting in some surprisingly round, responsive carves. Of course, at a moment’s notice, you can release the tail edge and get out of a carve, which is easily one of the highlights of this shape that Volkl is using more and more.
I like to think of the Revolt 104 as a ski that you can use to leave your personal signature on the mountain. Different skiers are going to experience slightly different things on it, and that’s great. For someone like myself, it’s a freestyle/freeride all-mountain weapon. I’d feel very comfortable lapping the terrain park all day with these on my feet, which I wouldn’t necessarily say about all twin tips in this width range, some are too heavy and tiring for the park. I’d also have a blast skiing it as a daily ski in Vermont trees. The pronounced taper angle in the tail and the abundant rocker makes it super easy to maneuver, and pretty forgiving too if you happen to make a mistake. I think a lot of skiers will choose to mount this with something like the Marker Duke PT and use it as an alpine touring ski. It could be a daily driver for a western skier who just likes to make round, fun turns through varying terrain. Because of its shape, it basically lets you ski it however you want to, which is really fun. I reached out to a good friend and longtime Volkl athlete, Tanner Rainville, who was one of the skiers who helped develop this ski. His go-to ski is the Revolt 121 because he gets to ski a whole heck of a lot of powder. I asked him about the 104, and his response was “I imagine skiing nothing else if I was back east. The 104 just does it all, rails turns on groomers, stable in powder and chopped up snow, and also very fun in the park.”
