2023 Nordica Santa Ana 98

The 2023 Nordica Santa Ana 98 is a wonderful example of a wider all-mountain ski that has a whole lot to offer advanced and expert skiers looking for versatility and performance in an upper 90's underfoot width. Nordica has some strong pedigree to fall back on, mostly thanks to the Enforcer series, but then with the evolution of the Santa Ana line, these 98's have strongly positioned themselves as the flagship model. As the widest ski not in the "Free" line, the 98 has more of a directional and all-mountain profile to it, while sharing a similar construction as all other Santa Ana skis. Built with a performance wood core and a single sheet of terrain-specific metal, these skis also get the Carbon Chassis treatment that stiffens the overall flex of the ski while not adding much in the weight department. The end result of this build is a strong, stable, and yet incredibly agile ski that can handle quite literally anything and everything you can find out there on the hill. The most impressive part of the Santa Ana 98 is the quickness and agility for the stability and weight. This gives the skier a big leg up on being able to handle adverse and interesting terrain and conditions at any time of day or night.

Shannon Walton skied the 165 and notes its trueness to size. She gave her top score of 5 out of 5 for stability, with 4’s not far behind for overall impression, versatility, torsional stiffness, edge hold, and flotation. Her low score of 2 out of 5 for forgiveness shows the stiffness of the ski for Shannon. She calls it “Strong and stable! This ski likes to be pushed and will reward the skier that does. Not as easy to ski at slower speeds but still came around nicely on steeper pitches while making shorter turns. I would say this ski is a great choice for an advanced to expert lady skier.” Whie the ski is versatile, it doesn’t quite lend to the range of speed that some softer skis will, so that can be considered a bit exclusionary for some intermediates or lighter weight advanced skiers.

Alli Ruschp skied the 172 and noted that it was a little long for her, but skied true to size. With the shape and profile, combined with the build, these skis can be a handful in the longer lengths, but you do get great stability as a result! She gave a lot of high scores, with 5's out of 5 for overall impression, torsional stiffness, edge hold, playfulness, and stability. 4's covered the rest of the card for versatility, forgiveness, quickness, maneuverability, and flotation. Overall, it's impressive to see these high scores, and given a cursory look at the rest of our tester's scores, there's nothing below a 4 for any category at all. Pretty darn impressive stuff from Nordica here. Alli notes that "The Santa Ana series never disappoints, with a little less metal but more width this is a powerful ski meant for ladies that like to charge down the mountain. You can feel the power as you start to ski, and it wants to drive you down the hill. The shovel nose and slight tail rise allow for more fun in the tree, bumps and crud, and even some powder. It really wants to make larger arcing turns (especially with the larger size for me). Not as forgiving as the smaller waist width versions, would be a great ski for those days that you get a couple inches but want to be able to ski all day once the snow is pushed around." That all sounds pretty good to us!

As the widest of the non-Free versions of the Santa Ana line, the 98 is the most directional of the “narrower” versions of the skis, making it a great choice for skiers looking for a wider all-mountain ski versus a narrower freeride one.