Yesterday, Chris Davenport walked over to Blister HQ from Aspen to talk about how he thinks about ski gear and his own personal preferences. We also discuss monoskiing; which gear he is most and least picky about; ski width; mount points; weight; and whether Shane McConkey would be into these GEAR:30 conversations.
TOPICS & TIMES:
- Chris’ 1st comp: the CB Extremes (3:44)
- Old skis & how they’ve changed (7:46)
- Chris’ gear preferences (9:57)
- Chris’ ski quiver + light gear vs heavier gear (13:23)
- Chris’ ski boot quiver (18:25)
- Where do you look to save weight? (30:28)
- What gear are you the pickiest about? (36:05)
- Least picky? (38:11)
- Would McConkey be into GEAR:30? (42:00)
- Mount points (43:28)
- Which ski were you on the most the last 2 years? (45:58)
- Sidecut vs. rocker profile? (50:04)
- Being on the right gear for the day (58:59)
- Topics for our next talk (1:01:21)
RELATED LINKS:
One word: FlingGolf!
Glad to hear the new FX line is back to being badass again. I liked the Fx96 from last two years a lot, but it didn’t have the same high performance ceiling and unique qualities to me of the prior generation.
Chris Davenport,
Not sure if you will be responding, but hopefully you will. Your comments on binding mount point struck a cord with me. Can you confirm that what you said was: you and others test different mount points on Kastle skis and collectively its decided what the “optimum” factory mount point is for each ski. Optimum would mean giving the best ski performance for the intended skier population of each model.
Assuming I am correct in what you said, how should a skier that is at either end of the physical size spectrum (really short and light, versus really tall and heavy (me)) adjust or compensate from the factory line. I have typically found moving my 29.5 boot center mark (6’4″, 245lbs) back 1 cm to work better than the factory line, especially on rockered skis. Not always needed on fully cambered race skis. I owned a Kastle MX78 and found moving back 1.5cm kept the tip quieter at high speeds, without much in the way of negative effects.
Would you recommend moving boot center from factory line for a skier substantially different than an average size person of the same sex?
“…definitely an 88”.
Great job Dav!