Atomic Redster X9S Revoshock S + I 12 GW 26/27

Atomic's Redster X9S Revoshock S is the consumer race-carver of the Redster piste line: a 65 mm, full-camber ski built to bite hard snow, sold as a system with the I 12 GW race binding pre-matched to it. For 26/27 it is a carry-over - the article number is unchanged, so this is the same ski earlier tests describe. The sourcing is spec-led: one deep independent test, closely matching Atomic's figures, not a broad consensus, so we flag judgment where evidence is thin.

Everything about how the X9S skis traces to a narrow, stiff, race-bred build. Full camber with zero rocker and zero taper holds the edge tip to tail; an Ultra Power Woodcore off Atomic's race platform and titanal reinforcement - TI Powered, sheet count unpublished - supply torsional stiffness and grip; and Revoshock S damps chatter and returns energy out of the turn. A grip-forward factory tune, 87 deg side edge and 0.8 deg base, sharpens the bite on firm corduroy. None of it is light: at 174 cm the system weighs 3,278 g per ski with the binding, and the bare-ski figure is unpublished.

On firm groomers the payoff is precision. Independent testing rates the X9S among the most precise carving skis its testers have ridden - edge locked, quiet at speed, with strong, smooth rebound. The Multi Radius Sidecut is the trick: the ski snaps a short slalom turn or stretches into a mid GS radius, running 14 m at 166 cm, 14.8 m at 174 and 15.6 m at 182, and the race feel comes 'easier to get there' than a full FIS ski. The limit is just as plain - off the groomer the 65 mm shape has essentially no float, and it wants an expert, not a passenger.

Where the X9S sits in the Redster line settles most of the decision. The Redster X7 Revoshock C is the softer, wider 69 mm sibling on the same page - Power Woodcore rather than Ultra Power, a Dura Cap sidewall, Revoshock C and the MI 12 GW binding, near 2,628 g per ski with binding - and it bends far more easily, the better call for intermediates through strong-advanced skiers. Below it sits the entry Redster X5. Above it, the FIS-level S9 and G9 are the actual race skis; the X9S gives you race feel more accessibly, not the competition ski.

Sizing is simple, because the 65 mm shape carries across every length: the radius grows from 14 m to 15.6 m as the ski lengthens, so shorter quickens the rhythm and longer settles bigger arcs. For 26/27 PTO stocks the 166 and 174, with the 182 orderable. At $1385 it is premium, but a complete, pre-tuned system - ski plus the matched I 12 GW race binding - so the fair comparison is other race-carver systems, not bare skis. The I 12 GW's DIN 4-12 is its official range; a technician sets the release to your boots, and PTO gives no DIN value.