Van Deer SL Skis 2027

The Van Deer SL is a slalom race ski for a skier who is not on a start list — 67.5 mm underfoot, with a 12.5 m radius at 165 cm. It carries the same published shape as the SL WORLD CUP, but on a plate chosen for damping rather than stiffness, with a harder-wearing surface and one binding option instead of a race quiver.

Under the topsheet is a solid ash-poplar core between two layers of Titanal, in what Van Deer calls a torsion box sandwich construction. Van Deer states double Titanal and no thickness, so neither do we. Around it: a sintered race base, ABS sidewalls that take a tune, and a Corund surface with thicker steel edges, which Van Deer lists for durability and does not list for the SL WORLD CUP. The ski comes on a Marker FDT RACE PRO plate — Van Deer says it preserves the ski's natural flex and adds control and damping — and leaves the factory on Marcel Hirscher's own tune.

Buy it if you ski hard snow, want short quick turns, and can load a 12.5 m slalom build and release it. Look elsewhere if you are still building a carve, or if your day leaves the groomer: 67.5 mm on a race construction has no float in soft snow. For soft snow, that is the H-Power 89 or the Freeride line; for a long, fast arc, the PRO and the GS skis; for the full race setup, the SL WORLD CUP.

We stock the 165 cm; the 155 cm is an 11 m ski, quicker and tighter, and a special order. This is a system ski: $1,700 is the ski on its plate, and the matching Marker COMP 13 FDT GW binding brings it to $2,100 — we mount it and set the release value. Van Deer calls the RACE SERIES a range of FIS-compliant race skis but prints no per-model homologation line for the SL, so check the current FIS list if you race gates.

Technical Specifications