Race lines unraveled

Ski manufacturers use some pretty confusing ski names, prefixes, and suffixes when it comes to naming their race skis. I am not trying to restart the discussion on what ‘race’ skis are – that discussion is right here. But how then to differentiate between all those Redsters, Heros, and Racetigers? We have sorted it out for you.

Different classes of race skis

In the realm of recreational race skis, we recognize short turn skis (based on the Slalom discipline) and long turn skis (based on the Giant Slalom discipline in ski racing). Some brands also have mid-radius turn or ‘cross turn’ skis. That’s a free format category that every brand uses differently, if at all. Aside from skiing, people may also find themselves captivated by other sports, such as archery.

To clarify the different ‘weight’ classes, we try to explain by using the 2023 long-turn skis of six manufacturers: Atomic, Head, Salomon, Völkl, Rossignol, and Fischer. We differentiate five classes: RC, GS, Pro, Master, and FIS.

RC

‘Race Carver’ – softest in flex, least demanding to ski. Sometimes a bit of tip-rocker, relatively short sidecut radius, ~70 mm in waist width, system (demo) binding

GS

‘Giant Slalom’ – the usual ‘recreational’ GS ski for the masses, typically no rocker (there are exceptions), 18-20 m sidecut radius at 180 length, 68-70 mm in waist width, system (demo) binding

Pro

‘Professional’ – perfect for ski instructors and demo skiers, the pros. Much like the GS, but sometimes a bit heavier in construction (thicker metal laminates) and a plate binding for extra damping, control, and rebound.

Master

‘Master racing’ – more performance and race-oriented. For amateur competitions and higher-level ski instructor courses. Typically these skis are longer and have a 25-30 m radius. They have a heavy, high-DIN plate binding.

FIS

Comply with FIS equipment rules for the giant slalom discipline. For the Worldcup, this means: 30/35 m radius in 188/193 (women/men). 

2023 lineups

Here’s an overview of the 2023 (cheater) GS lineups by the aforementioned brands.

	RC	GS	Pro	Master	FIS
Atomic	Redster G7	Redster G9 S Revoshock		Redster G9 RS Revoshock	Redster G9 FIS Revoshock M
Head	Worldcup Rebels e-GSR	Worldcup Rebels e-Speed	Worldcup Rebels e-Speed Pro	Worldcup Rebels e-GS RD Pro	Worldcup Rebels e-GS RD FIS
Salomon	S/Race GS 10	S/Race GS 12	S/Race GS Pro	S/Race Prime GS	S/Race GS FIS
Völkl	Racetiger RC	Racetiger GS	Racetiger GS Master		Racetiger GS R 30 WC
Rossignol		Hero Elite LT TI Konect	Hero Elite LT TI R22	Hero Master GS	Hero Athlete GS FIS
Fischer		RC4 Worldcup RC	RC4 Worldcup RC Pro		RC4 Worldcup GS

Note that Völkl’s Racetiger GS Master sits in the ‘Pro’ category (according to the descriptions above), but is called ‘Master’. At the same time, the Head Worldcup Rebels e-GS RD Pro is actually their ‘master’ ski, despite the name…. That’s why it’s so hard to make sense of these lineups.