Thoughts on Head Supershape Titan/Rally?

Curious if anyone has ridden either of these skis? After skiing lots of hardpack this year I am thinking that a more frontside carving ski with some all mountain versatility is in my future. These were recommended by one of the nice folks at Sports Page and seem to be well reviewed.  I know if I buy these at the end of this season we will be guaranteed to be skiing powder next season. You are all welcome in advance.

I've been thinking about demoing these skis all season and of course I finally got things lined up and it looks like we will be skiing mush this weekend. Oh well.

Any thoughts on similar skis would be appreciated too (ie rossi heros).

I bought a pair of Titans a couple of years ago. The are a very easy ski to ski, they hold an edge well and are pretty turny. It's basically a tip & turn ski with a wide balance point. I hardly used them until this season but they proved their worth.

Talk to SP about the Rossi Pursuit HP for carvers.  Awesome for Gore and WF including days like last weekend w/o the Hero race set up.  Also flexible enough for 90% of conditions at both hills, including the softer bumps. I use the Experience 83 for Gore trees.  Tight radius and not ideal for cruisers though, as they really enjoy turning.  Check out the HP if you want a true carver.  Not the other Pursuits, the HP.

Danzilla wrote

Curious if anyone has ridden either of these skis? After skiing lots of hardpack this year I am thinking that a more frontside carving ski with some all mountain versatility is in my future. These were recommended by one of the nice folks at Sports Page and seem to be well reviewed.  I know if I buy these at the end of this season we will be guaranteed to be skiing powder next season. You are all welcome in advance.

I've been thinking about demoing these skis all season and of course I finally got things lined up and it looks like we will be skiing mush this weekend. Oh well.

Any thoughts on similar skis would be appreciated too (ie rossi heros).

Too much ski for you

My wife loves Head (Ha!).

She started with Magnums, and now she's all in. She has Super Joys, Great Joys, and a new pair of iRally's that she's skiing for the first time today (I'll get you a report later if you want).

I have had a different experience. Got a pair of Monster 98s, which chipped and delaminated down to the core after 5 days.



Head refused to work with me on a replacement, but did offer a decent discount on a new pair of skis, which I took them up on, just because I need to have skis that work for this upcoming event. Then I gorilla glued that delam down, slapped a couple of clamps on it, let it sit for 2 days, and it appears to be holding (although now I've ripped the bindings off to send back to the binding company).

I'll report back with any more thoughts I have on Head as a company after I ski the Monster 88s for a while.

Is there any ski and/or binding that you have NOT destroyed?

Thanks for the unbiased and unvarnished feedback Shaman. I'll file that away....

Matt - remind me to never ever let you borrow my skis. Holy crap you can do some damage. I think you should seriously look into a ski Quality Assurance job. I think you would be really good at breaking shit without even really trying!

The Rossi looks interesting. It has a way bigger turn radius though at the same length. 14.3 for the titan vs 16.8 for the rossi at 170. Seems like that would make a fairly big difference in the way the skis perform. My line prophet 98s are not far off that rossi number at 17.2 and that is in 179 length. Kind of surprising considering they are both purpose built front side carvers with similar width under foot (80).  

I may hold off on the demo this weekend since its going to be so soft. Would kind of defeat the purpose of trying them on what they are built for. Might have to wait until next year to get a good feel.

Hey Matt. How did the wife like the Rallys? I'm headed to SP tonight to pick up a pair of the rallys to demo this weekend at sugarbush. Should be good conditions for them with the freeze up coming.

Demoed the Head Supershape i.Rally in 177 last weekend at Sugarbush.

I never thought you could have that much fun on firm hardpack and ice. The ski was like a rocket on ice skates. I put big (for me anyway) edge angles on the skis and they never flinched. The harder you push, the harder they will push back. So much so that by the end of the day I had to pull back a little bit as they started to wear me down. Maybe Shaman was right and this IS too much ski for me. Or I just couldn't help but push them as hard as I could. The ski can make super quick turns or big fast GS turns. They felt a little too turny/hooky to me the first couple runs. After de-tuning the tips a bit though everything was golden. The only trouble I ran into was in the icy bumps and some corn that developed on the last day. I quickly learned that this ski does not like to skid. Of course its not designed for those conditions, but I think I would learn how to ski it adequetely in them with some practice. I am interested in trying the Rallys in the 170 length and/or trying the Magnum in 177. If I don't get that chance then I'll go with the Rally in 177.

Sports Page has a great deal on these skis right now. $629 with bindingg(same price for Titan and  Magnum). If you are looking for a great groomer/hard snow ski check them out.

Danzilla wrote

Demoed the Head Supershape i.Rally in 177 last weekend at Sugarbush.

I never thought you could have that much fun on firm hardpack and ice. The ski was like a rocket on ice skates. I put big (for me anyway) edge angles on the skis and they never flinched. The harder you push, the harder they will push back. So much so that by the end of the day I had to pull back a little bit as they started to wear me down. Maybe Shaman was right and this IS too much ski for me. Or I just couldn't help but push them as hard as I could. The ski can make super quick turns or big fast GS turns. They felt a little too turny/hooky to me the first couple runs. After de-tuning the tips a bit though everything was golden. The only trouble I ran into was in the icy bumps and some corn that developed on the last day. I quickly learned that this ski does not like to skid. Of course its not designed for those conditions, but I think I would learn how to ski it adequetely in them with some practice. I am interested in trying the Rallys in the 170 length and/or trying the Magnum in 177. If I don't get that chance then I'll go with the Rally in 177.

Sports Page has a great deal on these skis right now. $629 with bindingg(same price for Titan and  Magnum). If you are looking for a great groomer/hard snow ski check them out.

Ok for starters, of course I was right, I know both those skis well and I've seen you ski
Just bustin' on ya DZ, but here's a tip for you DO NOT DETUNE!!! Detuning the ski does not allow the entire edge to make contact with the snow, which defeats the purpose of having a ski with a tight turning radius.
And, as much as I like to keep business local, $$ is $$, and you can find either the Titan or Rally for much less if you look around.
Well, that's that, and I'll see you all on the hill

Thanks Shaman. I'll dig around a little more on the interweb. I have a credit for skis that sports page sent back to mfg for me (second pair of atomics) so I have some "free" money to spend and I feel a need to reward some excellent customer service.

I didn't de-tune much. It was just the very tippy tip. Just enough to smooth them out a bit. They felt like they were tuned/sharpened and then not detuned at all.

Curious - have you tried the magnums and/or the titans or did you just go straight to the rallys?

I have skied the Rally's but I like the Titans much better for an all around ski.

  I have the head rev pro 80s , they were I nice improvement over my last skis, bought the super shape I rally , I love them. Skied them this weekend before the rocks started showing.

So after demoing both the rally and the titan last year I decided to go with the magnum without a demo. I like the rallys the best between the titan and rally but I wanted something a littler turnier. I absolutely love the magnums. They made conditions like this past weekend at Gore fun as hell. My buddies were all skidding all over the place on (fatish) all mountain skis and I was able to lay my skis over and push just about as hard as I wanted all day until things got really scrapey in the late afternoon.

The one thing with these skis is that you can't really relax on them. There is no lax cruise mode. You have to stay on top of your game. They BEG you to push them as hard as you can. The harder you push the harder they push back. If you really crank into a carving turn they will launch you into the transition. The KERS technology that stiffens the tail based on how much energy you put into the turn is not just a marketing gimmick. This is now my go to ski for ice/hard pack up to 2-3 inches of fresh. If you have a chance to demo them I highly suggest it.

Danzilla wrote

The one thing with these skis is that you can't really relax on them. There is no lax cruise mode. You have to stay on top of your game. They BEG you to push them as hard as you can. The harder you push the harder they push back. If you really crank into a carving turn they will launch you into the transition.

I feel this way about my Head skis, too. If I'm on, and moving down the hill, putting my center of mass in the right place, creating the angles I need below me, putting energy into the toe pieces and imparting it into the tips, they are there to rip with me. If I want to wash out the tails and make some lollygag turns, sometimes they hook up and make me take them more seriously.

Jury's still out on whether that's a good thing. I love them for the East, but probably prefer a more "playful", soft, and bouncy ski for the west, especially with my Tele setups.