^ sounds very weird. K2 skis of the mid term recent past have been better than we thought because a secret cabal of insiders kept all the data on best mount points to themselves? Or maybe corporate overruled because they needed to stay conservative for the market?
Either way not a good look. I could believe the mount point thing because it might explain why all K2s i tested at consumer demos in that era from Kung Fujas to various Pinnacles were kinda meh.
To me this reaction is sort of warped, twisted just a bit - I hope,
@fatbob. Bear with me, please.
And what I'm describing is for the most part not their general release of narrower skis: just the fat skis, and maybe more performance skis also, that they loved most, mostly used by the competition and video extreme skiing or freestyle pros, Seth, Sean and maybe Pep, not sure; maybe a few others - and guys since then, with a relatively small segment of their overall ski lineup, which to me, at the time, was a bit uneven, or spotty. The real secret is how readily accessible and easy/fun to ski these seemingly fat fringe skis really were (If I could love them, trust me, accessible.) - IF mounted forward in a range of real but commonly unknown mount points. And at bottom, danged if I really know just why so unknown, and unused. So thanks,
@Ecimmortal.
But just look to the Blistergear reaction to the
Rossi OG Black Ops 118, (and now in the past few weeks to the
Black Ops Sender Squad 192/112 moved forward also): their top crud busting, "favorite ski of all time", annual prize winning powder/crud ski, now called the Gamer. Actually, both these skis turn out to be
Pettitor knock offs to me, having skied, owned and really liked both the
118 Rossis and the Pettitors 120/189 (and just missed out on the
K2 OG 116 Obsethed 190(?), etc). I've demoed the
Sender Squad repeatedly, and reviewed it more than once on this website, to little or no reaction. This stuff has never been on Epic or Pugski/SkiTalk radar, seems like. Not much of a market for fat skis, anymore, I guess. Understandable.
The steps I have no info on are the management decision steps - and just who was reacting to whom. Not a "cabal of insiders," though. Just a natural outgrowth of what was going on. K2 front line folks, because of the fun and excellence of their skiing and designing/planning with it's pros and designer/pros, had and maybe still have, a real culture going on. Fun. Natural. Fun to watch them ski. Above board. A good thing. Truly fun skiing and great to be around on almost any level, seems like (though I can pass on all the parties). Fun to watch most of the Seth or Pep or Sean videos, and both the excellence and the excitement are obvious: a good thing. For me, especially the Seth Morrison videos. OMG.
(And both guys ski at Loveland and in Summit, once at least had houses here.)
I've met and talked to a lot of these rep guys, and heard stories and adventures about it. A good thing. But these guys were mostly expert and elite skiers and techs, not management intrinsically. They probably got hoarse telling people about mount points for years, at that level. No holding back - but you sort of had to ask, after a while. After a bunch of years of sharing the minute details, that must have gotten old for them. Too much talking, let's go ski. Or board. Like kids having fun.
So there must have been a bit of a disconnect between them and the folks who set the recommended mount lines and did the sales literature. Not sure why that happened. Maybe that disconnect encouraged a kind of clubbiness at some point that kept going. And maybe something about competitive edge, with the top pros whose names were on the skis, since at the time they were competitive, involved in freeride competitions and videos of their on-the-edge lines. Maybe it was just because these guys are intrinsically doers - athletes, not talkers or sales people. But You had to ask to get the info, is what I experienced, by the time I got into K2 fat skis. And somehow know to ask. Thank God I knew folks who clued me in, delighted that an old guy like me responded so well to their skis, when so few did. And indeed, that was all kind of strange, overall. Who would just guess that the real, actual or best mount points were different? I'd have never guessed.