2023 Head Oblivion 84

The 2023 Head Oblivion 84 returns unchanged for this year, which is awesome for park and pipe skiers who are looking for something that can handle all-mountain skiing and terrain as well as the freestyle stuff. Built with a wood core in a sandwich twintip construction, the 84’s also get Head’s Tuff-Wall, Tuff-Base, and Tuff-Edge for durability and confidence. Nobody wants to go into a 50-foot rail with questions in their head about the toughness of their skis. Same with boosting off of a 60-footer in the park—when you hit that stuff, it has to be full-commitment, and that’s what you’re getting with the Oblivion 84. In the 176, we’re seeing a turn radius of 19-meters, and that’s pretty nice for smooth and stable turning—not too short that it gets hooky, but still enough to carve off lips and get good all-mountain and groomer performance as well. Great in the trees and bumps, the Oblivion 84 is a fun-loving ski with a do-it-all mentality.

Brad Moskowitz skied the 176, noting that it felt a bit short, and he would go to the 181 if given an option. He scored it 4’s out of 5 for overall impression, forgiveness, playfulness, quickness, and maneuverability. 3’s were not far behind for versatility and flotation, with a few lowly 2’s sprinkled in there for stability, torsional stiffness, and edge hold. A pretty fair spread of scores, I’d say, for an 84 mm wide twin tip. Brad calls it “A fun and lively twin tip for cruising the mountain and playing for fun. Skied a bit short, of course they were center mounted, and liked to vary turn shape, though did better with short quick ones.” It’s easy to manipulate the turn shape of a ski like this—certainly easier than a more front-side oriented ski with a burlier build.

Also on the 176, Marcus Shakun notes that it felt “yes short short short, but still fun. In an 184/186 this thing would be awesome!!” Almost comically short for Marcus at 6’4 or so, the 176 in the 84 is definitely too short, but it’s funny to watch! Other than a lowly score of 2 out of 5 for flotation, the rest of the scores on his card were 4’s, and that’s pretty impressive for a short park ski, but this category of skis is one of the more impressive ones out there. Marcus states that the Head Oblivion 84 is best “For an intermediate to playful advanced skier. Stable and stiff enough to push its way through the soft spring snow and not get pushed around. I had fun mixing it up with this ski. Squiggling out some short quick poppy turns then locking it in and letting it do its thing. Once locked in its stable and has some give to it so you can manipulate it a bit. Can see that fun free flowing skier that likes to mix it up in the park and all over the mountain loving this ski. It has a lot to offer a very versatile skier.” Short and quick turns are a whole lot of fun, and when you’re on the right ski, it makes them even funner.

Park, pipe, or all-mountain, the 2023 Head Oblivion 84 can do it all. It’s quick and agile with a fun-loving personality, and that’s what skiing is all about. Sure, there’s a lot of performance and hard-charging to be done out there, but for the most part, most skiers just want to have a good time, and that’s where a ski like the Head Oblivion 84 really comes in handy.