This year’s Volkl Flair 79 is slightly wider than last season’s, bringing it into the blurry lines of all-mountain territory. However, it’s marketed as a piste ski and that’s where its talents really lie.
The 3D ridge construction comprises of steel and a centre sidewall which gives the Flair its sporty riding style, it is stiff and powerful with ridiculous edge hold in all manner of turns, which is obviously perfect for ripping the groomers.
Stability is also in the ridiculous category; this thing just eats up chopped up pistes (given the right skier input of course) and you can push it into high and low speed turns without too worry of it bucking you off the piste.
Dampening is excellent, the extended tip and tail rocker profile makes for a smooth ride, and the construction is sympathetic to variable conditions. This doesn’t mean it’s like riding a wobbly air cushion though as playfulness and responsiveness is there in spades.
Despite having plenty of high-tech bells and whistles the Flair 79 has a sintered P-Tex base which improves the longevity of the ski, making it an even more sustainable investment than it already is, given its comparatively low price.
Although a minor gripe, all things considered, the graphics are disappointingly bland for such a high performer on the piste. We feel a ski of this calibre deserves a little racing pzazz to step things up a notch aesthetically.
Overall, an absolute stormer of a ski for sporty intermediate ladies wanting to eat up mile after mile of blissful pistes.
