The Curse of American Ski Reviews

wnyskier · Jul 23, 2022

Conversation starter: Stumbled across this blog / opinion post and found it interesting. It also brings to mind a story related by the proprietor of Willi's Ski Shop (Pittsburgh, PA) when being interviewed on the Blister podcast: When providing demo skis for customers the shop usually gives the skier the wider ski (i.e. >90mm) they ask for as well as a narrower ski (74-80mm). When the customer returns the demos the conversation usually goes like this: "Yeah, the narrower ski turns better, holds better and gives me more confidence, but I'm buying the wider ski because that's what my friends have and what is advertised as being the hot ski."

gigi blog

:popcorn:

Philpug · Jul 23, 2022

Shocker. We have been saying this for years. People buys skis for the conditions they hope to ski, not the conditions they actually ski. Just look at what people drive.

And honestly the title is misleading as we are an American based review site, we have more skis reviewed here 80mm and under than 100mm and over.

Philpug · Jul 23, 2022

Philpug said:
And honestly the title is misleading as we are an American based review site, we have more skis reviewed here 80mm and under than 100mm and over.

and more 80mm-90mm skis than 90mm-100mm too.

fatbob · Jul 23, 2022

Don't worry about what other people ski on. Worry about what's most fun for you. Even if it's one of those awful >100mm skis. Or something 66mm wide.

Personally I just glaze over at all these reviews of 70-80 something skis because they don't spell meaningful versatility for me. But I'm fine with others thinking that model X are the unique and special thing that will make their skiing perfect.

Brian Finch · Jul 23, 2022

Tossed my lil bro back on all my skis skis after a 20 year hiatus…. “Who buys this wide crap!!?”

2-3 days in his he’s only riding my Deacons & turning better than 97% out there.

Philpug · Jul 23, 2022

And another thing ...

I am not going to call anyone out as far as a brand or defunct magazine but most of the recent, I mean by the past decade plus once magazines started segmenting skis categories and limiting participation by pay to play, it all went down the crapper, most reviews became well placed ads. To this point, I was privy to overhear conversations by magazine editors and product managers at trade shows. When a magazine has say a "Frontside All Mountain Category" and the Product Manager submits a 92mm ski to it when there they also have a very good 86mm in their stable, its NOT the fault of the magazine or one manufacturer because that particular magazine had 13 skis in that catergory and only three were under 90mm.

I will reitterate...

While at we/SkiTalk.com do review the focus models that the brands want us to review, we aslo review the skis that we feel that our readership requests, to the best of our ability.

ARL67 · Jul 24, 2022

SkiTalk and SkiEssentials a very well balanced on East & West coast specific skis. Blister is far too West Coast oriented, they really need an East coast reviewer group IMO. Powder is sexy, groomers not so much ?

DocGKR · Jul 24, 2022

tromano · Jul 24, 2022

ARL67 said:
SkiTalk and SkiEssentials a very well balanced on East & West coast specific skis. Blister is far too West Coast oriented, they really need an East coast reviewer group IMO. Powder is sexy, groomers not so much ?

I think blister knows their market. But its much more about athletic performance and skier intent than skier development or even snow conditions.

ski otter 2 · Jul 24, 2022

Yeah, I do love groomers too, and runs groomed roughly once a week also.

But there's the other side of the coin, especially in the Rockies and for places in the PNW that aren't too crowded (though not so much maybe for back East and in the Midwest, where carve the hardpan is pretty much king of necessity, for many).

Lots of good skiers go to wider skis by choice, for good reasons.

And it depends on which wider ski, a whole lot. And the way those skiers want to ski, as @tromano said.

wnyskier · Jul 24, 2022

Philpug said:
And honestly the title is misleading as we are an American based review site, we have more skis reviewed here 80mm and under than 100mm and over.

Not throwing stones at SkiTalk, as this site is probably the exception, I feel this is a well balanced forum where we can reflect on the industry / ski culture trends, which is why I posted it.

The thread title is also the title of the original blog post.

Bad Bob · Jul 24, 2022

SkiTalk's, 'Who's it for & Who's it not for' are great addition to the reviewing process.
It would be cool to see the stats of the testers, their height weight region. And at some point, videos of them too; suspect that they can all turn both ways really well (but how do they do it?).

Have never tried but where would you look up ski reviews from Europe? That could make fun summer reading.

Philpug · Jul 24, 2022

Bad Bob said:
SkiTalk's, 'Who's it for & Who's it not for' are great addition to the reviewing process.
It would be cool to see the stats of the testers, their height weight region. And at some point, videos of them too; suspect that they can all turn both ways really well (but how do they do it?).

Have never tried but where would you look up ski reviews from Europe? That could make fun summer reading.

Most of their specs are here:

Staff Bios

www.skitalk.com

Now that we are rebuilding our YouTube Channel, we are hoping to get some video bio's this year.

Bad Bob · Jul 24, 2022

Philpug said:
Most of their specs are here:

Staff Bios

www.skitalk.com

Now that we are rebuilding our YouTube Channel, we are hoping to get some video bio's this year.

@Philpug , those are nice but: How tall? How heavy? How old? How athletic? Terrain where the testing is occurring?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Philpug · Jul 24, 2022

Bad Bob said:
@Philpug , those are nice but: How tall? How heavy? How old? How athletic? Terrain where the testing is occurring?
Inquiring minds want to know.

We are adding those things....

example...
Location tested: Waterville Valley, NH
Conditions tested in: On-piste terrain. Snow varied from small soft piles to skied off ice sheets.

ski otter 2 · Jul 24, 2022

Yellow Gentian online used to be a good source of mostly European reviews from many reviewers with a detailed skier "profile" of each reviewer that was easily accessed on site, and updated; but they went under. The pattern was their reviewers would maybe get bored with doing reviews and go dormant after a year or two or three. Then the whole site went dormant for the same reason maybe, after maybe half a dozen years.

But skitalk still abides.

The interesting blog of this thread I just find representative of many casual skiers, but not of almost any of the skiers I've known and hung out with.

Many of those guys are shop guys and shop techs, and most favor wider skis or boards, but through much experience, skill and for well thought out reasons that the blog does not take into account one bit.

It seems pretty neat and tidy to generalize too much from such blogs.

Tony Storaro · Jul 24, 2022

calling a 104 mm wide freeride ski with tonnes of rocker and early taper ‘the best carver on icy hardpacked snow ever’

Never on this forum tho, no sir. Here the "FIS SL" party is far too strong to allow such kind of frivolousness.

ScotsSkier · Jul 24, 2022

Bad Bob said:
@Philpug , those are nice but: How tall? How heavy? How old? How athletic? Terrain where the testing is occurring?
Inquiring minds want to know.

cant talk for the others @Bad Bob but all there for me other than to say I am a few years past qualifying for Medicare …. ogsmile

slow-line-fast · Jul 24, 2022

Bad Bob said:
Have never tried but where would you look up ski reviews from Europe? That could make fun summer reading.

Tricia · Jul 24, 2022

Bad Bob said:
@Philpug , those are nice but: How tall? How heavy? How old? How athletic? Terrain where the testing is occurring?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Actually, we do have those details on the profile pages of the reviewers.
If you go to the profile page, click on "about"

Tricia

www.skitalk.com

https://www.skitalk.com/members/philpug.1/#about

https://www.skitalk.com/members/scotsskier.65/#about

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