Armada

AR7 Ski

If you haven't heard of Armada's AR7 Ski, you've probably spent the last four years living in Fiji, because if you'd been on the snow you'd know all about it. It's Armada's flagship park ski, a traditional-camber, wood-core boss that's light, firm, and spinnier than a whirling dervish on a merry-go-round. Armada built the AR7 around a Hybrid Triple-Zone core, which uses three full-length wood stringers for a super-poppy feel so you can boost over all the little kids standing in your landing, and wrapped it with a fiberglass laminate matrix for plenty of lightweight stiffness when you're carving into those icy takeoffs and pipe walls.

Armada gives the tip flex rating a 6 and the tail a 7, probably because there are carbon Kevlar stringers behind your foot for extra turn-finishing power and stability at speed. The soft tip lets you butter like a dairy farm, but the AR50 construction places sidewalls under your foot (along with a flex rating of 8) for serious edge grip and a cap over the tip and tail for an über-light swingweight that'll turn your 3s into 5s and your 5s into 12s, probably. The 2.5mm Impact Edge is super-hard and durable, while the S7 base has a special additive for quickness and is rugged enough that it won't shy away from hard impacts and metal features. If you get one ski to slay with this winter, you could do a lot worse than the AR7.