(lots of words, but there’s a video at the bottom)
Reno is a special kind of ski town. In fact, I bet many of the inhabitants of its casino and pawn shop lined streets would be surprised to hear it referred to as such. Click to continue »
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Monday, May 24th, 2010
Do Ski Boots Have a Future?
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010Skiing, like most outdoor sports, has seen countless advancements in equipment during the last couple decades. Plenty of these new technologies are gimmicky and worthless– useful only for those who have to own the latest and greatest gadgetry (I’m thinking of the ski-wheel they sell in SkyMall). Then there are substantial changes like sidecut, twin geometry, and new durable materials.
Through all of this, the most begrudged of all equipment, boots have stayed largely the same. There are lace-up liners; two, three, or four buckles; shock-absorbers; adjustable flex; and other bells/whistles, but the core concept is the same. We’re still sliding in a hard-plastic shell with a soft liner stuffed into it. I don’t pretend to be an expert on ski boots, but I’m pretty sure I can get an “amen” from the congregation on this one.
The most memorable recent modifications on the standard model have been of the DIY variety. Allen Lam came up with a system for V-cutting SPK’s and possibly Full Tilts for more mobility. I’m sure many of you are familiar, but here’s a shot of the finished product:
Like most things Allen does, this has garnered its fair share of hate, but I think it’s promising. I’ll probably pay the $20 he asks and send my old SPK’s to him to try it out. Nonetheless, it’s still just a modification of the existing technology. DIY will never get us truly new technology.
Here is where I introduce you, maybe for the first time, to Apex ski boots. They’ve developed a relatively thin version of a BOA snowboard boot and a carbon casing that gives it rigidity like a normal boot.
After trying them on, I discovered a few points that would have to be altered if this boot were to work for street/park skiing. First, someone else would have to make them. We spoke with the owner and reps, and they were completely oblivious to freestyle skiing. They described their ideal customer in marketing speak as someone who drives a Mercedes and owns a second home in Aspen. It’s no surprise, because the price tag is the second thing they’d have to change: they’re asking $1295 for a pair. Insane, I know, but I can’t see a reason why the carbon couldn’t be replaced with hard plastic and the entire price tag be brought back to earth.
I obviously didn’t ride on them, but just strapping in revealed a couple other problems. The buckle across the instep would need to be wider and more thickly padded. This is a minor change, and the parts already exist in most snowboard bindings. Otherwise some thicker foam padding would solve most other issues. I’m sure flex is on your mind, so check out the photo below. The black band and colored spacers are supposed to adjust the degree of flex. I wasn’t able to test them out, but the boot flexed a bit like original SPK’s without any adjustments.
I would encourage you to write them to show that the freestyle movement represents a serious market share, but these guys are so oblivious that I doubt it’d do any good. Maybe someone can pool some of that trust fund money everybody’s dumping into tall-sweatshirt companies and make us some comfy boots!
Sprung Break for the Poor: Northeast Edition
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010If you’re a college student with a spring break, chances are you’re gunning to do some drinking and some skiing this March. But if you’re not lucky enough to have a family that takes annual ski trips, or already spent all of your money this year drinking, there are a few options around the area to keep you shreddin’ hard and having a good time despite your gloomy financial situation. Here are a couple options:
The “all my TGR buddies went to Alta and I’m stuck at home with my Dynastar XXLs” spot: Magic Mountain
The Word: The recently un-shuttered Magic Mountain is about as straightforward as you can get: one red double-chair, completely open boundaries, and no stakes blocking off those tempting cliffs East Coast resorts always rope off to keep the joeys from airing into icy mogul fields and blowing their ACL’s. Magic is only open Friday-Monday and during the week if there’s a powder day (6”+), so trails and the woods stay pretty fresh. If you snag Redline first run with fresh snow you can send it off a bunch of cliffs, drops, and catdrops that sit right under the lift line, earning you double points from the AT-sporting TGR crowd that swear by their GoPros that Magic is the goods. As a bonus, you can see all the idiots at Okemo and Stratton waiting in line while you hot lap trees. If pulling out a knife and fake-wrestling in ski boots on the deck with your buddy after you’ve slammed four beers is your thing, you’ll find plenty of that quirky Vermont humor here.
The Deal: Mid-week tickets are $39, or weekends for $59.
The “all my rich buddies went to Breck and I’m stuck at home with mom’s car” spot: Mount Snow
The Word: The East Coast’s answer to Bear Mountain + Dew Tour course. The Nitro Express at Carinthia gets you top-to-bottom jibs, jumps, polejams, etc., etc. etc. on every trail off the lift, with the highlight being Nitro, the small/medium park that runs the length of the liftline with 20+ options to hit in a row. The wood park is nasty if you’ve figured out how to slide wood on skis or are Garret Russell. If you are indeed as hard as the “underground” hip-hop playing from your Skullcandy’s, the original Dew Tour course is open every day. If you’re the kind of guy that’s pissed Level 1 doesn’t just do park segments anymore, or are ripping off the tongues from your old basketball shoes and duct-taping them to your Salomon boots so you can afterbang like T-Fresh, Mt. Snow is your new kingdom. Any jibber worth their weight in tall tees needs to check this park out.
Real Deal Review: Orage LTD
Monday, January 25th, 2010We had an absolute blast testing this suit. There’s something to be said for trying to destroy the fancy new setup you just got in the mail. Most questions you may have about this kit will be answered by pressing play on the video below, but this suit has some sexy little details that aren’t immediately apparent in a little embedded screen. I especially like the little zipper-pull shovels. I’m a sucker for bells and whistles.
Real Deal Review: Steamboat
Thursday, January 21st, 2010As an East Coast boy, Steamboat always seemed to me to be the epitome of a Warren Miller segment from the early 90’s. Picture it- an opening shot with a pair of cowboys riding horses with skis on their back, a bunch of little kids getting towed down Main Street by some other cowboy into a kicker. Then there’s the four minute montage with lots of bump skiing closeups and Billy Kid destroying tree sections while somehow managing to keep a cowboy hat with a silver and turquoise broach on the front secured to his head. Countless ads from old SKI magazines that I read in the dentist’s office showed Steamboat’s front side stocked with thousands of moguls glowing in the pinkish dawn sun. It always somehow suggesting that a) people go on vacation to ski moguls, and b) no one on the East Coast knew what powder was or wanted to ski it. Needless to say, I wasn’t really sure what I’d be getting when I visited the ‘Boat this December, days away from 2010 and at least ten years since I’d seen a Warren Miller movie (by the way, middle fingers in the air to the Bonnier Corporation!).
Sundown Express, scene of literary & spiritual investigation for the duration of the stay.
Real Deal Review: Holden Standard Pant
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
I had no intentions of reviewing my pants, but then it rained all damn day. I rode increasingly soaked chairlifts in barely-liquid rain. My jacket fought the good fight for almost an hour before succumbing and soaking that water like a tall-t. My pants, however, held down the fort. When I got back to the car and peeled them off, my shorts and long underwear were dry as a bone.
If you’re reading this, you’re likely a skier. If you’re a skier who is interested in Holden pants, it’s likely because no ski company makes anything but balloon sizes. So are you really concerned about waterproofing? Doubt it. They’re better than your sister’s jeans, so that part of the review is over. On to the important stuff:
Tight-o-Meter (based on 5’9” 165lb male):
Holden Large: Slightly tapered knee, but plenty of sag all around. Likely choice for somebody over 25 who can’t get down with the shrink wrap, but still prefers human sized clothing.
Medium: You’re starting to show them knobby knees, but with some breathing room for a layer or two underneath. It’s likely that this is the last size where pockets remain operational.
Small: Chicken legs on display! Still plenty of sag to make it over your boots, but those scrawny ass vegan legs get full billing. Hope your flannel shirt has lots of pockets, because that pack of fashion-smokes ain’t making it in your pants.
Most of you can stop reading now, but here’s some other info: All the pockets are full-zip, which can save you from lost keys if you remember to close ‘em up. The zipper-pulls are little leather tassles that add some rock-n-roll to the equation, and add a little functionality if you’re in park gloves.
Fashion smoking kitty.
My two major qualms with these pants also involve zippers. First of all, the front pocket zippers feel like tiny razors if you’re reaching in there with a cold bare hand. Second, the zippers at the bottom of the pants don’t really grab enough to stay closed. This doesn’t really matter if you’re going for maximum boot coverage, but otherwise they won’t stay down.
I bought them for under $100 over the summer, so keep your eyes open and they’re pretty cheap too!
Skiers with Jobs
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Greetings from Burlington! I’m on a bit of a fact finding mission in the epicenter of the east coast ski world. If you have any aspirations of making a living in “the industry” here on the right coast, then it’s likely you’re going to end up in Burlington. Always eager to help budding industry drones, I’m here to get a little feel for the city and a couple of the companies that might be getting your resume. Newly minted Vermont resident Mike Rogge, of Ski the East, is my tour guide so you know I’ll be all behind-the-scenes and whatnot.
I’m going to do some interviews and analyze the companies based on some highly scientific criteria, but I’m open to suggestions. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
- Number of pros working there that you can go totally fanboy over on your first day.
- Amount of free product laying around for five finger pro deals.
- Office vibe: Are there dogs? Putting machines? Wall Street style screaming?
- # of employees (the more the better for you, someone’s always getting fired).
Drop any further questions you’d like me to ask into the comments. I hope to visit Orage and Meatheads headquarters today, and we’ll see what else the day brings.
Best of Dew Tour (Pizza Rolls Edition)
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Four days of restless couch sleeping—made all the more miserable by an ever-looming demon cat—have rendered me incapable of any sort of in-depth Dew Tour breakdown. This list will have to suffice for now. Expect something a tad more substantial tomorrow.
I give you the best of the 2009 Dew Tour Totino’s Open at Breckenridge.
1.) By simply closing your eyes and walking forward in any direction, you were guaranteed to bump into a lovely young lady whose sole mission was to force you to eat complimentary little pizza rolls and down Dixie cups of Mountain Dew. In an era of resorts charging $3.50 for bottles of water, anything free is glorious.
Fuel for the elite athletes of the snowsports world.
2.) The weather. Last year’s Breck stop, despite featuring what was arguably the best slopestyle course ever built, was cursed with incredibly snowy and windy weather. Thankfully, this weekend in Breck was absolutely beautiful. Blue skies and relatively warm weather, combined with another incredible slope course, paved the way for some of the most impressive comp skiing yet to be seen.
3.) Speaking of the slope course, I have to say that I was thrilled to see a wallride. Admittedly, most riders seemed unsure of just what to do with the damn thing (not Sean Jordan or Phil Casabon), but it added some badly needed variety to the cookie-cutter “2-jib 3-jump” format we’ve been seeing recently. Let’s hope the trend continues and we see creativity and choice-of-line really factor in at future stops. Also, there wasn’t a “cannon box” or “money booter” anywhere in sight. There was an unfortunate gap-to-truck-flat box-thing however that nothing cool happened on.
4.) Gotta hand it to Breckenridge Resort. They reeeeaaaally know how to handle huge crowds of people. Sure Peak 8 was a circus, but the event staff did an amazing job herding everyone around. Even the wait for the Gondola after Superpipe finals Saturday night was a breeze.
5.) Remember when I said nothing cool happened on the gaptruckflatboxthing? Well, I lied. Simon Dumont absolutely stomped a cork 3 hand-drag over it. Upon landing, he assumed what I can only guess was an ironic/mocking afterbang position before catching an edge and absolutely eating shit. In doing so, he cool-guyed himself right out of slope finals.
Look out for the worst of the worst tomorrow…
Last but not least, thanks a million to my Breck pals (and hosts) Mike, Joe, Tyler, and Whitney.
MyName.com
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009Pro websites are so hot right now. A profile and a few funny quotes on your sponsor’s page used to be enough, but these guys are brands unto themselves these days. Somewhere between the Dinner Roll and the Doublecork 12, skiers started taking themselves very seriously. It’s a cold world and every competitor can easily be pushed aside for the next Scandinavian 16-year-old at any moment. In an effort to establish themselves as more than trick jockeys, the pro ranks have turned to dot.coming their names and erecting cyber monuments to their own achievements.
As a fan, you have no idea how to navigate this new internet pantheon of ski icons. Where to start? Should you even bother with these websites, or just stick to what you know? Well, BroBomb’s got your back with a foolproof ranking of the best new sites. Humor is so hot right now, so I’ll be rating them for intentional and unintentional hilarity, as well as amount of useful information, and the degree of vanity that has gone into each self-serving web destination.
We’ll start with TJSchiller.com. TJ is from Canada, but he shunned his national “.ca” heritage for the less-weird dot com.
Vanity: TJ takes the cake on this one. The homepage is one giant picture of either TJ in action, or his big grinning Canadian mug. The purpose of this is to imprint that image onto your brain. He won’t be throwing 1440’s forever, but when it comes time to make a move on the announcing/commentary circuit he’ll have you brainwashed into liking him. Smiles are contagious to primates, when you see a smile it makes you want to smile. Therefore, you’ll smile when you see him hyucking it up on EXPN. We all know TV ratings are based on smile power, so he’ll have it in the bag.
Unintentional Humor: It’s really a pretty dry site that does little other than provide links to TJ’s Twitter and Facebook. I found it mildly funny that he felt the need to include a bio that more or less states how he skis in contests and gets to fly in helicopters. Don’t give away too much TJ.
Intentional: Well there’s the Contest Winner/Chug Life video. There are at least two guys who think that shit’s a knee slapper. Otherwise, humor free.
Vanity: Well the ass on the cartoon vixen Colby’s clutching is probably a touch out of his league, but you can’t fault dude for trying.
Comedy: I’m going to combine this category as Colby’s website really isn’t about his skiing at all; it’s purely a promo for his joke videos. Whether or not any of it is funny hinges on one question: What is the endgame for Mr. West?
“My Friend is a Pro” used to be funny, and his Epic Pass ad still is. Colby does above-average impersonations, and seems to have a knack for big joke comedy. Does he aspire to a career in mainstream comedy? It’s a long shot, but he could probably eek out a living doing ski-film cameos while waiting for his big break. The other possibility is that his ambition goes no further than a recurring gig as Matchstick’s annual skit jester. It’s a safer bet, but a pretty sad end for anybody. If that’s the case then he gets a zero for humor, because it’s downright depressing.
I say go for it Colby, be the first skier to break out into mainstream showbiz. That asshole Dane Cook filled arenas with bro-comedy, you’ve got to shoot for the stars.
Vanity: This guy truly believes that being a blonde, blue-eyed, Montana-born Rasta isn’t an oxymoron. Can you be batshit crazy and vain? Not sure.
Intentional Comedy: 0
Unintentional: Through the damn roof! If you’re going to do the white-Rasta thing, you better damn-well go all the way. Tanner actually writes in Jamaican patois. He’s like a walking case study in the upper class co-opting the rebellion of the underclass a.k.a “white kids acting black.”
There’s a very important message in there somewhere: “If you have any questions or suggestions just hit a bredda up…I just had to get someting up so we could start pumpin dat FIRE!!! Hope all is bless. RESPECT!!!”
Real Deal Review: Line Dart poles
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Matt got tired of staring at his new Line Darts, so he took to the streets to test them out.
