Name : Volkl Supersport 5 Star 2005 (really it’s Völkl or course, and better rendered as Voelkl)
Manufacturer Web site : http://www.volkl.com/ski_04/ss_5_star.shtml
First Use : November 2004
Size(cm) / Radius(m) : 154, 161, 168, 175, 182, 17.5 m at 182 cm
Side cut : 114-68-99
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Why : Up to the end of the previous season I’d been skiing on a single pair of skis for all conditions, a pair of Atomic Beta Ride 11.20′s, but at the end of the season I’d bought a pair of Zag Freeride 84 Big’s as a fat ski and decided to buy a pair of carving skis for pure piste skiing. The Volkls weren’t really on my shortlist but I’d been skiing with the Warren Smith Ski Academy who had some 4-stars for demo’. Skiing the 4 stars I’d been impressed with their edge hold on ice and their all round carving. I stepped up to the 5-star though to get something a little stiffer.
Owners report (August 2006) : The performance of the ski is really everything I’d expected, a good all round ski. Volkl market it as an all mountain ski and it’s perfectly at home off-piste in my experience despite several reports I’ve seen to the contrary. There’s an even and consistent response from the ski in pretty much all conditions which I’d attribute to the consistent flex of the ski and the fact that “Double Grip” construction prevents the ski twisting which keeps the edges gripping fairly well. That said the edge hold doesn’t come close to my Stockli Laser SC’s or anyone of a number of more race orientated skis.
The ski was fitted with Marker Motion LT’s, the rail design of the 5 stars really means you’re forced to take one of their binding options rather than a third party binding.
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My real problem with the skis as an owner has been the construction quality. I first used them for a week on a course up on the glacier at Tignes and after a week they were showing signs of wear and tear. I’d expect a pair of skis to last at least a season, or two if used in alternation, and the Volkls weren’t even close.
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The photograph above shows the damage to the top sheet that even a fairly minor impact can make, the layers just aren’t well bonded and the tendency to delamination is exacerbated by any impact. This situation is much worse at the tail, after that first week of use riding up and down the funicular at Tignes and the taking the cable car the damage to the ski tails was awful and of course it only got worse.
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Some of this might be passed off as cosmetic and I’m certainly not particularly bothered by the odd scratch or scrape on the top of a ski but when the tails are in this state it looks like the whole construction is poor.
But the real problem I had was with the base material. It’s extremely fragile and simply couldn’t handle the wear and tear, each day seemed to bring some new scratch or scrape, these photographs show some indication of the damage.
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In the end I skied these for around 30 days before buying some to replace them. I can’t decide to what extent this is normal mass market quality, after all, what’s the real lifetime for a ski? How many days do the majority of skis sold through retail chains really do? There’s an amusing belief that Volkl owners have about their skis; their own model are manufactured by a man named Hans who lovingly crafts them using techniques handed down father to son from his ancestor who made skis for Ötzi the Iceman with help from a team of Volkl sponsored free skiers, on the other hand everyone else Volkls are mass produced in China. In fact, these 5 stars are clearly labelled as being made in Germany.
I bought a replacement ski less than six months after buying these I did actually resurrect them for a few days last season. I was skiing on an instructors course with Ski Academy Switzerland and wanted an all-round ski to ski fast on piste and handle off-piste and powder, so I patched them up again and used them for three or four days.
The Good : a versatile ski, a good all rounder with a better than average edge grip
The Bad : simply not robust enough for long term use, a ski has to last me more than 30 or so days.
