2023 Volkl Deacon 76 Master

Built with a high-end ash wood core, the 2023 Volkl Deacon 76 Master returns unchanged, much to the delight of top-end skiers who love the feeling of a race ski, but in a wider-bodied format. At 76 mm underfoot, the 176 cm length generates a 17.6-meter turn radius, and this is quite the combination of measurements for pure carving and high-performance skiing. These skis come with a pre-installed Marker WC 10 mm plate, so you can put the Marker race binding of your choice on this thing to suit your high DIN standards. With two sheets of metal and tailored carbon tips added to the mix, high-end skiers and racers will love the quality, precision, power, and performance of these great skis. With more of a GS character, longer turns and higher speeds are inevitable, and I don’t think any of our testers took issue with that personality trait of the ski.

Greg Petrics is one of our favorite early-morning groomer skiers to watch, so he’s a great tester to have on the 76 Master. He notes that the 176 length was just right for him and that he’d choose that size for himself. As more of a specific tool for hard snow, it’s not surprising to see a low score of 2 out of 5 for flotation, and an average score of 3 for versatility. Those are bookended with 5’s for overall impression, torsional stiffness, edge hold, and stability. Greg notes that “This ski's personality is that of a GS ski that can also get around for slightly tighter radius turns. The strength of this ski is its endless grip on firm snow, and its weakness is that its stiffness and race-inspired nature of it would make it hard to trust this ski off-piste, or on a powder day. As far as versatility, the ski isn't super versatile off-piste, but it did surprise me with its ability to tighten up the radius and make either SL or GS radius turns. The ski is best for an on-piste skier/ex-racer type who might even find themselves in the gates from time to time, but wants to have fun on every groomer day.” Sounds like Greg is describing himself a little bit there.

Jeff Neagle also found the 176 to be a good size, with his top marks of 5 out of 5 going for torsional stiffness, edge hold, and stability. He also gave a 4 out of 5 for overall impression. Jeff states that the “Deacon 76 Master is the real deal. This is definitely my preferred width in the narrower Deacon collection. I like how the 76 tracks through variable snow conditions and doesn't get bogged down or caught up quite as much as the narrower model. I suppose you lose a little bit of edge-to-edge quickness, and maybe it's just that I'm not good enough at skiing to really notice that, but I don't expect that would be a noticeable difference for many other skiers either. The other thing I like about the 76 is the longer turn radius. You can let it run more, which I enjoy. It would be a fantastic Ski Bum race ski, especially the Master version with the real race plate and XCell binding. You can stand on it confidently and the ski holds extremely well. Truly a race ski build, just in a wider shape with a more user-friendly turn radius.”

The whole fun part of skiing is to get the skis that match not only your ability, but also the terrain and conditions that you ski. We often remark that for the most part, we should be on skis like this here at Stowe most of the time. There’s no real reason to be ripping around on a 102 on a groomer when something like this exists and is available. Most skiers, most days, especially here in the eastern US, should have a ski of this width.