There I was. Wolf Creek. My first season as a full-time skier, and my first time skiing behind our shop's owner, Jordan. In case you haven't seen him ski, he rips. I, following his absolute racetrack of a line through a steep glade, glanced down at the sticks my boots were attached to. The Ripstick 106 Black Edition. "Wow," I thought, "this ski does everything I want it to."
I hit a tree.
There's an age-old saying: "it's not how hard you hit the tree, it's how quickly you get back down to the lift so your coworkers don't call search and rescue on you." I got back to the lift, and even aired it out on a couple side hits before I caught back up. On my trip down, I decided to cut back onto the groomers to...uh...try the ski out on hardpack (I was scared of the trees).
My main thought on this ski is that it's a ripper. Like, a stick that rips. The shovels give it the float of a fat ski, and the rocker profile combined with the Ripstick's beautifully asymmetric edges make it like a cheat code to ski. I personally like to push my skis pretty hard, and the extra carbon stringers are absolutely essential to push the Ripstick to its full potential. Great move, Elan. Great move.

2026-2027 Elan Skis Preview

Elan Skis 2027: The First Look We know the Ripsticks rip, so Elan decided to give us yet another one. With one new Ripstick in town, Elan is keeping the rest of their lineup simple. We dive into the new ski, and get a preview of the classy new graphics for the rest of the Ripstick series. What's New The new Ripstick on the block adds to the mega wildly popular Ripstick Black Edition with a new Ripstick BE 88. With the Ripstick 88 becoming one of our best selling Ripsticks, we know folks are going to love this one. For the uninitiated, the BE version adds additional ... Continue Reading