Review: Head Worldcup Rebels e-Speed

Model year: 2023-2024
Sidecut: 114-68-99
Size: 180 cm
Radius: 18.2 m
Technology: wood core, metal, full camber, graphene, EMC

About this ski

The Worldcup Rebels (WCR) e-Speed is the cheater GS ski by Head. It has been for I don’t know how long. There’s a Pro version as well (with a race plate and heavier construction), but that’s a very different ski. More so than in the past, when the difference between the Pro and the regular version was just about the amount of energy you have to put in and get back.

That difference still remains, but now, there are other differences in feel as well. The build of the ski has not changed that much. There are two adjustments compared to the outgoing version that determine quite a bit, though. Firstly, the ski is more homogenous in flex over the entire length of the ski. Secondly, over the sidewalls, the top sheet seems ‘pinched’, more or less like a semi-cap construction.

Lost their Head

It is this ‘lightening up’ of the sidewall construction – I think it’s that, it must be that – that has altered the feel of this ski completely. The ski has less grip, edge hold, stability, and tenacity compared to the outgoing model. So much so, that the Head WCR e-Speed is no longer the go-to ski for damp high-speed long turns. It is now a playful, maybe even ‘dumbed-down’ version of a cheater GS. 

Head changed their cheater GS offering to reside in a different class now. A class that I can no longer call ‘high-performance’. The performance is simply gone. It is a fine consumer long-turn groomer zoomer, but it has lost all of the characteristics that made it that super stable and strong platform for long-turn carving. 

Conclusion

No longer a cheater GS ski, but rather a frivolous recreational ski for on-piste. Gone is the benchmark consumer GS ski. We now have an entry-level long-turn ski instead.

Characteristics

Playful		Stable
Forgiving		Punishing
Lively		Damp
Skidding		Carving
Low speed		High speed
Short turn		Long turn
Soft snow		Hard snow