Before you read the review you should familiarize yourself with the equipment I am reviewing. I've not taken the time to outline exactly what it is the CARV is purported to do nor how exactly that is achieved. I do get into detail with regards to the info it provides and the metrics it is looking at. The website is here.... https://usa.getcarv.com/
My CARV arrived via DHL from overseas. It was well packaged and arrived timely. The components all appear very well made. They look well made and they feel well made. It does not come with a charger but it does come with the USB cables required to charge the transmitters. Again, the cabling is well made and the manner in which it plugs into the transmitter is designed so that the plug and the pins don't get fouled by misalignment. It engages well.
While the transmitters were charging I started looking at the foot beds. Again, well made. Cabling well designed and constructed. It all appears as if it should hold up well. Sticky tabs are provided for securing the foot beds to your boot's foot beds. I'm not sold on this yet but I haven't checked to see how it held up. Seemed too simple to me given that the CARV foot bed was a little smaller than my boot's. They also provide tape pieces to secure the cabling to inside of the cuff. That aspect seemed just fine.
Having already downloaded the app to my iPhone and set up my profile basics I began the calibration process. First you sync the transmitters. Turn on bluetooth, push the sync button in the app and then touch your phone to the transmitter and it syncs. You sync left and right. Then you do the motion sync. You need to face magnetic North, push the button on the app and it has you move the boot to match how the picture in the app is moving. Final sync is force. You put on your boot, push the button and lift your foot in the air, done. (The transmitters clip to the back of your boot and plug in to the foot beds.)
The next evening I went up to the slope to do some skiing with the Carv. Plugged them in, opened the app, they synced right up. I ran some ear buds to my phone so I could hear the interface. You choose record and it gives you a free session option and a training option. I chose the free session to get a feel for it and see how well it was calibrated. I did a number of free sessions. It gives a Ski IQ score based on your recorded performance.
The Metrics are as follows:
It also gives you a bunch of other information like max slope angle, average slope angle, max speed, max g force, overall linear travel, and descent. I will post pictures of that screen in a follow up post.
Interesting stuff. I like it for a number of reasons. A) Data is always good, B) It gives you an actual measurement of your performance, C) it measures the changes you make in bettering different aspects of your performance.
For example, think you're forward? I found out I was more neutral than I had thought. I get better edge angle than I thought I did. My rotation is smooth and skis stay parallel well. At least on the run I was on lol
....
So after several free sessions and playing with different attributes to see how the results would come back (verifying) I decided to do a training exercise. I chose my weakest metric....balance. I actually score very well in the other 3. Each metric has a set of lessons/drills. The set consists of 5 drills for each metric, 20 in total. In order to advance through the lessons you have to successfully complete the predecessor. You can legitimately consider them challenges. So, I chose balance and had to do balance challenge 1 which consisted of having to make 16 of your last 20 turns in balance. This information is given to you via a woman's voice in the earbuds. For every balanced turn you make you hear an audible, likewise for every out of balance turn you make you hear an audible for that as well. So you receive pretty instant feedback on your turn so you can relate the feeling of how you performed that turn with either a positive or negative feedback helping you to identify what the difference between the two feels like. I like that. I ran this drill a few times but never unlocked challenge 2. Couple things.... other than the audibles I was given no score for my efforts. I intend to write CARV about that. I think it's a big fail. The challenge will keep going until your legs burn out or batteries die, or you succeed, but at no time do you have any idea how close you are because the challenge is 16 of your "last" 20 turns. I could've stopped with one more turn to go. Am I supposed to count effen beeps? That's not going to happen. I'm concentrating on what I'm doing and what I did and how it related to the audible I received. You can do multiple runs to get there. Hell I actually got a good turn audible when I cut into the maze LOL.
So there are some things that CARV did not do that their marketing material says it should. I will get into that in another post. I will also share some photos of the interface on the app. Suffice it to say that I've found nothing that is a show stopper or makes me regret my decision. I am assuming these features will be added in app updates in the coming months. I will be writing them as I discover things that are missing or I think should be included The app also performs firmware updates for the transmitters when they're available (the updates).
So, I'm going to leave this here for now. I will be adding some more in another post as outlined above. Unfortunately the next time I will get a chance to get on skis won't be until the weekend of the 17th - 19th of February as I am going to be on a 7-10's schedule until Friday the 17th.
My CARV arrived via DHL from overseas. It was well packaged and arrived timely. The components all appear very well made. They look well made and they feel well made. It does not come with a charger but it does come with the USB cables required to charge the transmitters. Again, the cabling is well made and the manner in which it plugs into the transmitter is designed so that the plug and the pins don't get fouled by misalignment. It engages well.
While the transmitters were charging I started looking at the foot beds. Again, well made. Cabling well designed and constructed. It all appears as if it should hold up well. Sticky tabs are provided for securing the foot beds to your boot's foot beds. I'm not sold on this yet but I haven't checked to see how it held up. Seemed too simple to me given that the CARV foot bed was a little smaller than my boot's. They also provide tape pieces to secure the cabling to inside of the cuff. That aspect seemed just fine.
Having already downloaded the app to my iPhone and set up my profile basics I began the calibration process. First you sync the transmitters. Turn on bluetooth, push the sync button in the app and then touch your phone to the transmitter and it syncs. You sync left and right. Then you do the motion sync. You need to face magnetic North, push the button on the app and it has you move the boot to match how the picture in the app is moving. Final sync is force. You put on your boot, push the button and lift your foot in the air, done. (The transmitters clip to the back of your boot and plug in to the foot beds.)
The next evening I went up to the slope to do some skiing with the Carv. Plugged them in, opened the app, they synced right up. I ran some ear buds to my phone so I could hear the interface. You choose record and it gives you a free session option and a training option. I chose the free session to get a feel for it and see how well it was calibrated. I did a number of free sessions. It gives a Ski IQ score based on your recorded performance.
The Metrics are as follows:
- Balance - fore/aft
- Edging - Edge Similarity, Max Edge Angle, and Max Edge Duration through the turn are measured and scored individually.
- Rotary - Smoothness (are you smooth or jerky when you rotate your skis) and Yaw Similarity or do you move your skis together
- Pressure - Pressure Stability (is it consistent) and Outside vs. Inside pressure in the turn
It also gives you a bunch of other information like max slope angle, average slope angle, max speed, max g force, overall linear travel, and descent. I will post pictures of that screen in a follow up post.
Interesting stuff. I like it for a number of reasons. A) Data is always good, B) It gives you an actual measurement of your performance, C) it measures the changes you make in bettering different aspects of your performance.
For example, think you're forward? I found out I was more neutral than I had thought. I get better edge angle than I thought I did. My rotation is smooth and skis stay parallel well. At least on the run I was on lol
....So after several free sessions and playing with different attributes to see how the results would come back (verifying) I decided to do a training exercise. I chose my weakest metric....balance. I actually score very well in the other 3. Each metric has a set of lessons/drills. The set consists of 5 drills for each metric, 20 in total. In order to advance through the lessons you have to successfully complete the predecessor. You can legitimately consider them challenges. So, I chose balance and had to do balance challenge 1 which consisted of having to make 16 of your last 20 turns in balance. This information is given to you via a woman's voice in the earbuds. For every balanced turn you make you hear an audible, likewise for every out of balance turn you make you hear an audible for that as well. So you receive pretty instant feedback on your turn so you can relate the feeling of how you performed that turn with either a positive or negative feedback helping you to identify what the difference between the two feels like. I like that. I ran this drill a few times but never unlocked challenge 2. Couple things.... other than the audibles I was given no score for my efforts. I intend to write CARV about that. I think it's a big fail. The challenge will keep going until your legs burn out or batteries die, or you succeed, but at no time do you have any idea how close you are because the challenge is 16 of your "last" 20 turns. I could've stopped with one more turn to go. Am I supposed to count effen beeps? That's not going to happen. I'm concentrating on what I'm doing and what I did and how it related to the audible I received. You can do multiple runs to get there. Hell I actually got a good turn audible when I cut into the maze LOL.
So there are some things that CARV did not do that their marketing material says it should. I will get into that in another post. I will also share some photos of the interface on the app. Suffice it to say that I've found nothing that is a show stopper or makes me regret my decision. I am assuming these features will be added in app updates in the coming months. I will be writing them as I discover things that are missing or I think should be included The app also performs firmware updates for the transmitters when they're available (the updates).
So, I'm going to leave this here for now. I will be adding some more in another post as outlined above. Unfortunately the next time I will get a chance to get on skis won't be until the weekend of the 17th - 19th of February as I am going to be on a 7-10's schedule until Friday the 17th.
