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Today we are sharing the first of our Blister Summit 2025 panel sessions, and we’ve got a great one to kick things off. We’re asking the pros — Hoji, Ted, Anne, and Jess — how they go about assessing and testing ski and snowboard gear, and what advice they have for the rest of us? Plus you’ll hear Ted share one of his favorite (but questionable??) ways of testing skis.
RELATED LINKS:
Get Yourself Covered: BLISTER+
BLISTER YouTube Channel
TOPICS & TIMES:
BLISTER+ Updates (00:00)
Intros (5:34)
Evaluating Prototypes (8:21)
Assessing Gear for Yourself (11:35)
Going in Blind vs Getting Info First (18:05)
Gear You Liked but Didn’t Expect to? (23:29)
Advice on How to Evaluate (28:41)
Trickiest Variables when Testing? (34:10)
Ted’s Favorite Testing Method (38:55)
Audience Q&A:
Evaluating Pow Skis Outside of Pow? (46:26)
Intuitive Products vs. Adapting to Them (49:27)
Personal Preference vs. Objective Performance (54:00)
How to Rule Out a Bad Tune? (55:29)
How Many Runs Should You Take? (56:48)
What Notes Do You Take? (1:00:16)
CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS (click each to learn more):
Enjoyed this one a lot, listened driving back from Engelberg for my last day of the season (closes tomorrow). I wanted to add to Jonathan‘s comment on testing. When I first started reading Blister reviews I was surprised that there seemed to be no ‘bad’ skis. I had read many reviews of hifi gear and motorbikes over the years and was accustomed to seeing some scathing product reviews so struggled with why there weren’t any on Blister. At first I probably just thought they were being overly nice or on the fence, but came to appreciate what Jonathan described, the positioning of the product and who it might work for even if it’s not the reviewer’s personal preference. That takes some doing and should not be underestimated. I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do 5-7 days a year of ski test events – I would be lying if I said when I get off a ski that doesn’t suit me that I give much thought to who it might work for, and to be fair that’s not how I earn a living!
I am sure we can all tell when a reviewer is ambivalent about a particular ski, but I can only think of one example in my time reading when a reviewer was outright negative about a ski and even then that was solved by just not reviewing it = Jonathan’s shortest flash review ever for 16/17 Bodacious aka the emasculated bull
Obviously we now just need to fix the problem of Blister not having reviewers in every part of the world, particularly the East Coast, and not every conceivable shape and size, and we would be golden – thought I would just get that in 6 months early ahead of the quiver selections!!