Ski Reviews

2024-2025 LINE Sakana, 181 cm

Reviewer Username: Arthur Hedderly-Smith

Reviewer Height: 6’0″

Reviewer Weight: 195 lbs

Reviewer Experience Level: Advanced

DAYS USED: 10 days

TEST LOCATIONS: Stevens Pass, Whistler

PERFORMANCE RATINGS

(0 = Terrible, 5 = Okay, 10 = Outstanding)

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 8/10

FORGIVENESS: 7/10

MANEUVERABILITY (How Loose / Easy to Pivot & Smear?): 7/10

MANEUVERABILITY (How Quick / Low is the Swing Weight?): 8/10

STABILITY: 7/10

SUSPENSION: 5/10

EDGE HOLD: 8/10

PLAYFULNESS: 10/10

PLAYFULNESS (Open Ended):

Deceptively long, pretty supportive tail makes you think this ski isn’t playful, but the big soft shovel, low weight, and directional mount make it easy to maneuver. Super flexy fun ski that’s pretty lightweight.

SKI LENGTH: It felt just right (181 cm length tested)

THIS SKI’S IDEAL TERRAIN: Firm groomers | Softer groomers | Low-angle, off-piste terrain

THIS SKI’S IDEAL SNOW CONDITIONS: Pretty firm snow | Softer, but not deep snow | Untracked powder (shallow) | Soft chop / pretty forgiving cut-up snow

WHAT TYPE(S) OF SKIER DO YOU IMAGINE WILL GET ALONG BEST WITH THIS SKI?

This is a ski for somebody who wants a tool that serves not as some broadly-applicable do-it-all device, but wants something that’s really rewarding and fun to use when the conditions warrant. If you’re out there shopping for a one-ski-quiver or are a beginner who doesn’t have the luxury of choosing from a wide selection of skis for a given day, buying these might kind of be a waste because of how many of your ski days just won’t yield conditions where this ski can shine. But if you have a half dozen pairs of skis to choose from and want to add something to your collection that is unique, interesting, and fun, then these are a great option. You won’t ski them 50 days a year, but for those days when the snow has as least a little bit of give to it and you want to be out there just playing around and having fun, these are a great option.

ARE THERE SIMILAR PRODUCTS YOU’VE SKIED THAT YOU CLEARLY PREFER? IF SO, WHY?

I have not personally skied them, but when I read reviews of the Mirus Cor, those reviews actually make me think of these skis. I think the Mirus Cor and the Sakana actually serve a pretty similar experience when there’s no new snow, though from two very different places. The Mirus Cor is center-mounted and way skinnier. But they’re both soft, flexy, tight-radius skis that are kind of silly and fun. Take this comment with a grain of salt, but if I owned the Mirus Cor and wanted another ski that would provide me a unique experience, the Sakanas wouldn’t be my first choice just because of so much potential overlap in the conditions where they excel.

PLEASE ELABORATE ON ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SAY ABOUT THIS SKI. FEEL FREE TO GO INTO DETAIL!

If you’re stuck in the mindset where you don’t believe when people say that 100+ underfoot skis can be excellent for carving, go find a way to demo or borrow a pair of Sakanas on a warm spring day. The 181cm version of these skis have a radius of like 16m, and they lock you into that turn when the conditions are right. The tail is plenty supportive and that big, fat shovel just makes these incredible easy to carve, whether that means really trying to drive the shovel (it’s a soft shovel, so you can overpower it if you try) or doing big lazy turns and just throwing your weight around.

If you haven’t experienced the sensation before, this ski forces you to re-imagine ski carving and performance when what matters most is having fun instead of cosplaying as a retired World Cup racer. They teach you about ski shape and flex, and the dramatic sidecut makes it really easy to feel the sensation of how the radius of the turn changes as you lean the ski over more. That constant, noticeable feedback is just tons of fun. If you picked up those Carv sensors and want something that will make it easy to put the digital-coach feedback to practice, these would be a great tool for that. They are not the most performant skis on the planet, but much in the way that a Miata isn’t the fastest sports car but still might be one of the best on a sunny day with the top down, these skis put the biggest smile on my face of anything I own if I am mindful enough to put them in the car when the forecast is for warm sun.

These skis excel most when the snow is a little bit soft (spring conditions, soft chop, or a light dusting of like 2-4 inches of wet or dry new snow), is completely slushy, or when you’re on perfect corduroy (whether soft or firm). They’re most fun when you’re either skiing solo and want to just rip around and experience G-forces or you’re out there with beginner/intermediate friends and want something that keeps you entertained on blues and greens while hanging out with your buddies. I skied them one day at Whistler last year where the afternoon temps were in the 50s, but all the shaded slopes were completely frozen before like 11AM. They were the perfect ski for that day. Enough underfoot and tail structure to sink an edge into those firm slopes in the morning and then just a perfect ski when it progressively softened to slush throughout the rest of the day. That 16m radius means you can carve around like a goofball at jogging speeds on a cat-track.

The other condition where I find them to be fine is soft chop. Even when things get a bit firmer, they do okay. You have to navigate around anything that looks too firm (don’t try to blast through re-frozen ice piles), but the tail is supportive enough that if you get kicked around there’s plenty of platform to fall back on. On soft chop, these are a fun ski to pathfind with and pop off little snow piles. On harder chop, it’s not as smile-inducing an experience, but they’re fine if you’re thoughtful regarding how light-weight they are. I also skied them on some big re-frozen Whistler moguls late last year and they were fine there as well. The soft shovel made it easy to ski them centered and find a good path. Certainly not a #1 option for moguls, but fine.

Other reviews state that these are also a great option in powder. I think that can be the case on higher-angle slopes and lower-density snow, but people always discuss them in the same sentence as the Pescado when talking about powder performance. For lower-angle new snow, that hasn’t really been my experience. I’ve had them out on a couple days of 6-ish inches of 10:1 SLR snow, and I found that the tail really didn’t want to release and let me surf/slarve around. The shovel float was fine, but it was a lot of work to swing the back end around when the snow was heavier. Perhaps the experience would be different if the snow were lighter than what’s typical here in the PNW, but I felt that the swallowtail on these was almost too willing to slip below the snow surface behind me and then didn’t want to release. This all being said, it’s not like I’m some world-class powder skier, so somebody who skis with faster weight transfer and more pop between turns, even on low-angle slopes, might have a different experience. I find that type of energetic skiing to be difficult to accomplish when trying to force it on lower-angle terrain.