Advanced freeride females will gravitate to the 2024 Nordica Santa Ana Free 104 for its powerful performance and lively energy. As we witnessed in the 2023 season, this specific ski stood out as one of the more aggressive freeride powder skis with the ideal blend power, stability and precision, drawing higher caliber skiers to its reliably strong nature. With strength at its forefront, we would be remiss not to focus on its equally playful demeanor, balancing out the overall performance in a way that it not easy to do in a ski with metal. Nordica does an impressive job with this ski in their approach to the composed construction and wider-bodied shape supporting both aggressive and playful, surfy styles of skiing. If you are the type of skier that wants a soft-snow oriented ski that can bounce and float through powder without having to sacrifice the ability to carve a mean arc on hardpack, then this ski will satisfy your wants and needs.

The hard-charging performance that is derived from this ski starts with the well-balanced construction, featuring full performance wood core that offers ample density for stability throughout the full length of the ski. Reinforced with carbon chassis, this technology integrates carbon fiber into the wood core and provides enhanced torsional stiffness as well as powerful rebound. While this level of construction delivers a high-performance ceiling, Nordica wanted to take it a step further by adding a sheet of terrain specific metal to amp up the feedback and allow skiers to access an even higher level of execution. The way the metal is incorporated is interesting and is what gives this ski its playful flex despite its noticeable strength. With varying widths offered in the Santa Ana lineup, the amount of metal is specifically catered to each model, with the widest ski containing the least amount of metal. In the Santa Ana Free 104, Nordica removed more metal than in the narrower options in order to expose more of the wood core, giving the ski more of a playful nature catered to soft snow performance. Focusing on specific zones throughout the length of the ski, Nordica was able to fine tune the flex, with more metal in the tip and tail of the ski for maximum power and stability with narrower metal in the middle for playful flexibility. 

As for the design of this ski, we get a fair amount of rocker to go along with a moderately tapered shape which allows for ideal flotation through soft snow, as well as reliable capabilities in chopped up crud and variable conditions. With its 104 mm waist width and freeride rocker, this ski is definitely geared towards deeper snow conditions, however, Nordica made it a point to give the Santa Ana Free 104 a level of versatility that encouraged confidence and reliable edge grip on-piste. For a wider-bodied ski, it is truly impressive how well it performs on hardpack. In the 158 cm length, we get a 15.5 m turn radius which delivers precision and maneuverability in tighter terrain while the overall shape and nature of this freeride ski willfully makes surfy, smeary turns. Capable of making a range of turn shapes and styles at varying speeds, this freeride powder ski can truly do it all.

If you are an expert freeride female who wants the harmony of playful and powerful performance, the Santa Ana Free 104 will truly deliver. It’s not everyday that you get a wide-bodied, symmetrically designed ski with metal that supports aggressive performance as well as playful, freeride maneuvers. For those who want the power without having to sacrifice versatility and maneuverability, take on the entire mountain with confidence on the Santa Ana Free 104.