Video Transcript

How's it going? My name is Leo. I am a curated.com ski expert, coming to you live from my home here in Colorado, where I've been in the industry for over 10 years. Today, I'm going to give you a side-by-side snapshot of two expert skis, the Volkl M6 Mantra and the Nordica Enforcer 100. I'm going to tell you how these are similar, how they're different, what they're good for, and what they're not good for.

Völkl M6 Mantra Skis

Let's go ahead and dive right in here and talk about the Volkl M6 Mantra, which has been a very legendary and high-performing ski for Volkl. These skis came out in about 2012 and they immediately struck the market as a great option for being a burly, hard-charging ski that experts love to ski anywhere on the mountain. The new M6 continues that heritage and lives up to that reputation with improvements, by making it lighter with carbon in it, in addition to the metal top sheets, while still keeping that classic burly shape that we love.

This ski is really traditional. If you look at the pictures here, you can see there's not a lot of rocker in the tail, and the rocker in the tip is pretty short. That's the way it curls away from the ski. So this ski has a lot of the opposite of that, which is called camber. Camber is the way the ski flexes down and bites into the snow, and gives you that feeling of a long effective edge. Volkl does that really well with the Mantra, giving it that very classic long-edge feel, which really speaks to expert skiers who know how to drive and power their skis through a turn.

This ski is very all-mountain at 96 underfoot. It's great on the groomers, it's great in softer snow, but it will find its limits in super deep powder. I personally find this ski a little too hard to maneuver when it gets deeper than my boots, and that's because it has such a long effective edge. But powerful skiers know what they like, and the days we get that are deeper than that are rare. So if you're looking for that one ski quiver, that's really just designed to blast through anything on the mountain with a lot of energy and power behind it, the Mantra is definitely your ski. This ski is not going to be good for beginners, it's not going to be good lightweight skiers, or it's not going to be good in deep powder. It's designed for a versatile, all-mountain expert skier.

Nordica Enforcer 100 Skis

Coming over here to the Nordica Enforcer, this ski also very much lives in that hard-charging expert category. It's got two sheets of metal in it, which really helps drive the ski and give it a lot of power dampening and energy underfoot. But it's different than the Mantra in that it's got a good amount of rocker in the tip and just a little bit in the tail. What that does, by getting the tip and tail out of the snow, is it creates a little bit more of a playful performance. It allows you to initiate your turns more easily, it floats a little bit better in softer snow, and it also has a little bit of a quicker turning radius because less of that edge is contacting the snow at all times.

When you roll it up on its edge, it's still going to engage and give you this nice long effective turn. But if you're looking for a burly, hard-charging ski for that expert skier, that still gives a little bit of playfulness to really shine, especially in off-piste environments like moguls and trees, the Enforcer does that so well. Encapsulating both a powerful performance as well as a playful performance, this ski is not going to be good for a beginner or an intermediate. It is not ideal for somebody who is sticking primarily to the groomers. This ski is a versatile, expert all-mountain ski that's designed to do it all with power and enthusiasm.

Similarities and Differences

Which one's the best for you? That's going to depend a little bit on your goals and who you are as a skier. So if you have any questions at all, just hit us up right here on curated.com and our experts would love to talk to you.

Comparison Table