Read the full review

Filippo Carpani of CarpaniSci.com has been generating a cult of skiers since 2008 who crave his race and race-carve skis handmade in Italy.  Passionate and enthusiastic about his craft, Filippo is a legend throughout Europe where people have him build custom skis and add special characteristics to his standard designs.  Filippo is branching out into freeride and all-mountain ski designs now, but his real trademark is the race ski.

Last year we reviewed the full-on Carpani F4 Race with raceplate and Activa flex enhancement system. We were lucky enough to secure another test pair of  Filippo's skis: The F4 Soft Race GS skis through Edward Stammel, a USSA Technical Delegate from New York who has been importing Carpani skis for racers on the East coast.  This F4 Soft Race pair came with a fully-stacked Salomon binding setup with without the Activa support arm system on the previous Carpanis we tested. 

We found these skis to be superbly stable, strong and accurate GS tools requiring less speed and a less-strong hand than the firmer F4 Race model to get them to perform their best.  While they may not have the powerful and exciting acceleration of some other GS skis on the market, these "Soft" GS race skis are super effective at doing their job of tracking accurately and securely at very high speeds across hard racing surfaces without a Herculean effort from the pilot. LIgher or less-muscle-oriented highly technical skiers and GS-carving fanatics will have a blast on these suberbly made skis from Filippo Carpani.  These would be an ideal platform for an advancing racer to get into a highly-effective high-end race ski with superb control and precision.Very cool and special, and at an approximate price of 600 Euros per pair (plus extras and shipping)...they are a bargain.

Read the full review of the Carpani F4 Soft Race HERE.