2019-2020 Head Supershape i.Titan

8 comments on “2019-2020 Head Supershape i.Titan”

1. I’m glad you’re doing some groomer skis because no quiver is complete without a dedicated race carver type stick. You should check out CROC also called Augment skis! They’re brand new, small production, and also in the Austrian ski pool. They make a beautiful masters race ski for both GS and SL. I would love to read a review from one of your ex-racer testers. Just a thought.

2. Great review! These are my “go-to” groomer zoomers these days. At 6’2″ and 195 pounds, the only flaw I find in them is that Head doesn’t offer a 182 cm length.

   I have a great time with them in bumps, but again, I’m a fair bit heavier than you two, and these days, my knackered knees only like bumps taken at moderate speeds, following the smoothest path offered, so take the bump comment for what it’s worth.

   • At 6’3″ 220 i found the 177 too short. great ski, but too short – actually closer to 175. Went with the Rossi elite Hero Plus at 181 which hand flexes as stiffer than the titan. Have had great experiences with the heros having skiied in a number of them including owning the hero master r21 which is a beast.

3. Tired of polishing lava off-piste and core shots taking on water I ended up with a pair of these last season. Don’t overthink these if low tide conditions are keeping you on-piste more than usual. These are not a watered down race ski you may not want to be on all day as conditions and temperatures change. The Titan has a huge bandwidth between relaxing, all-out carving and on-piste snow conditions. An easy all day ski that modifies turn shape mid-turn or stays locked on, whatever you care to do, it really is that versatile. And you can still stand on it as conditions soften.

4. Because I can’t resist making geeky comments on old articles that nobody will ever see:

   Torsional “softness” allows the tips and the tails to wash out and therefore meet the snow at a lower edge angle. If the center is raised, say, 60 deg to the snow as in a couple of the articles here, the ends might be 57 deg or maybe even less. For any given turn radius and speed there is a critical edge angle below which the ski won’t “bite” into the snow (I’m going to skip the math for that part. Spreadsheet available upon request). If the tips and tails are washed out and have lower angles than the center then they will disengage first, creating a range of edge angles in which the center of the ski is still “biting” but the ends have released and can be easily steered.

   Obviously you can also reduce tip/tail engagement by detuning, but the key difference here is that if you detune then the ends will *always* have weak bite in hard snow, as opposed to only doing so when you’re close to that critical angle.

   The fact that Head was able to make this ski longitudinally stiff at the same time means that it simultaneously provides support from the ends even while allowing the tips/tails to wash out and “feather” the turn.

   Back when hand-tuning was a thing a good tech could implement somewhat similar behaviors by progressively base-bevelling the ski (higher base bevels at the ends, lower in the middle). You don’t see that done so much anymore.

   For those who fly, wing washout serves a conceptually analogous purpose (making the roots stall before the ends). The difference here is that skis have to turn both ways, so you can’t achieve the desired behavior by building in twist as you would with a wing. You have to do it with longitudinal vs torsional flex pattern instead.

   With all that said, this isn’t really my cup of tea. I prefer my skis to have high torsional stiffness and more “all or nothing” bite, as in the i.Speed/i.GS/i.SG/i.SL/etc. They demand more precision and have to be driven with more authority to skid, but they also deliver notably more edge grip at the limit.

5. Patrickjchase,
   Thank you! I have been wanting to know exactly what you outlined! I have asked my ski instructors why my titans sort of skid(?) when I force it into something other than its sidecut with high edge and pressure or rotation, but haven’t had an answer that resonated. This ski is not like my other softer all mountain skis that easily “c” with some edge or pressure and cut clean lines on edge. I thought it was something off with my technique as the Titan is quiet and smooth in med/larger turns with great energy to be pushed out in dynamic turns. Maybe the tips and tails were detuned last sharpen? Maybe I wasn’t starting the turn with enough tip pressure? Maybe I was over-rotating pushing energy out of the tail at the end? Maybe I was pushing and angulating into the snow unecessarily hard and the ski was drifting…
   It might well be any of those things, but your note describes how it “feels” to me when it happens. Like I lose the tips and tails. As a newer skier it didn’t make sense because I thought the Titan was supposed to be a stiff ski that bites into firm snow (it does) and holds a full edge. Often my on-edge arcs aren’t skinny slices. More like a dull cleaver than a paring knife…

   I’m a bit intimidated by the kind of race skis you like, I learned to ski last season so have no race background, but maybe I’d enjoy one that is a bit wide…a Stockli laser AR comed to mind, but perhaps it is too similar to the Titan. All my skis are tuned to 1/3 but maybe the Titan would like a 1/4? I ski Alberta/eastern BC so actual pure ice isn’t common.

   Nice to find a satisfying solution to my proprioceptive conundrum!

6. Wish you guys would have tested the ski in a few more lengths like 163 and 170.

7. Just a late note – I spent a day on a nicely tuned pair of 163’s and had a ball in some firm-ish western conditions including mild bumps.. Playful, lively, carvy and even slalom-y with the abiity to open up the turn radius when desired. In reading this review I would not have identified it as describing the same ski model I was on. My experience suggests that the personality of this ski is heavily dependent on the length chosen.