THE 1st ANNUAL BLISTER AWARDS from SIA

 

* THE “GOOD INDUSTRY TREND” AWARD:

TIE: (1) LONGER SKIS (2) MORE COMPANIES GOING TO BLACK SKI BASES

Atomic will be making the Bentchettler in a 192cm. MOMENT’s got a 196cm Bibby Pro. Armada is making a stiffer, 195cm AK edition of the JJ, and Nordica’s doing a 195cm Patrón. The 4FRNT Renegade and the Blizzard Bodacious will come in a 196cm. While not everybody needs a ski in the 192-205cm length, some do, and it’s cool to see more of the industry reaching out to a relatively small but core demographic.

It is also refreshing to see more companies going with solid black bases, or black bases with a small logo. Colored bases often look super cool, but anybody who works on skis knows that it’s generally easier to work on black (easier to ensure that additional wax has been scraped off, etc.). And it is sometimes claimed that diecut bases don’t run as fast or as hard as black bases. While I’m not sure that there is universal agreement about that, we’d prefer to play it safe and keep the graphics on top of our skis, not the bottom.

 

* THE “BAD INDUSTRY TREND” AWARD:

Asinine, non-standardized “ROCKER” descriptions.

In the attempt to market and distinguish their skis’ rocker profiles as somehow, anyhow, different than the rest, companies have come up with all sorts of different ways to say that the tips and tails of their skis curl up. One company is talking about their “Lay Down Technology” – which to be fair, isn’t really any less silly than half of the other marketing terms out there.

 

* THE “GOOD IDEA THAT MAY OR MAY NOT CATCH ON” AWARD:

QUICKPOLES

Quickpoles snap into your bindings and create a rigid handle for your skis, allowing you to carry 2 poles and 2 skis in 1 hand. If you are pretty old, very young, kind of weak, or very uncoordinated, this news may have you jumping for joy. Of course, you may just need to lug a bunch of stuff up the mountain – or more likely, your kids’ stuff – so that group of folks rejoicing may be greater than we think.

If the idea is going to catch on, the poles, of course, have to be legit. Quickpoles come in an aircraft grade 7075 aluminum, 18mm circular tube, and they also have a 100% carbon fiber pole. Alpine and powder baskets are both included and are easily interchangeable. And the attachment clips are pretty slick: a notch on the back of the pole grip clicks into most alpine binding heal pieces, and a small clip on the pole itself snaps into the toe piece.

The Quickpoles concept makes sense, though personally I’ve never felt terribly inconvenienced shouldering my skis around. Having said that, if I had a couple of kids, I imagine I’d be trying to buy stock in this company right now.

 

* THE “MY NEXT CRUSH WILL PROBABLY BE ON THE FIRST WOMAN I SEE WEARING THESE” AWARD:

ARC’ TERYX, Sarissa pant, color: sugar plum.

I know, I know. Not real flashy, but a great color (my camera doesn’t seem to be doing it justice), they aren’t 1980’s tight tights, and I’m willing to wager that any chick dropping this kind of coin on Arc Teryx’s GORE-TEX Pro Shell fabric can shred a little bit. Of course, she may just really dig that sugar plum color….

 

* THE “FAVORITE PERSON I TALKED TO AT SIA” AWARD:

SCOTT RUSSO, VP OF SALES, DALBELLO

I admit – and my friends will attest – that I can get sort of intense when talking about gear. I talked to Scott Russo about an upcoming BLISTER article we’re doing on caprio or 3 piece boots (think Full Tilt and Dalbello) vs. overlap / 4 buckle boot designs (think Lange and Tecnica). Scott comes across as very smart, very articulate, and very laid back. Where other manufacturers would have been happy to take pot shots at the competition, Scott was focused wholly on explaining the thought processes behind the design elements that have been incorporated into Dalbello boots. (We spent most of our time talking about the Krypton and the Il Moro models.)

After 15-20 minutes of boot geek-speak, I told Scott that I think it’s a shame that so little of this information seems to ever make its way to consumers – even the people I talk to who really try to perform due diligence before settling on a boot. Scott agreed, and said – with deep conviction – that given how much time and energy and research and money they spend trying to make boots better – make boots safer for athletes who are subjecting themselves to staggering forces in the half pipe, dropping huge cliffs, and landing massive gap jumps, the amount of real information that makes its way to the customer is dismal.

And he’s right.

And we hope to change that.

Scott Russo cares a hell of a lot about this stuff. I intended just to ask him a quick question, and I left the conversation even more committed to working up articles that offer more information about why boot makers are doing it this way as opposed to that way. And of course, we’ll do real world testing to determine whether all of the rationale behind the specific designs comes through in the feel and the performance of the boot.