From Texas with Love

Wow, super busy and intense at the shop right now. Most of us will work 6-7 days this week. Every day is big numbers and we need it to pay the Jan 10th bills, so it is welome chaos. My best friend from High School and Chico State lives in Texas. Our kids know each other well and his son Casey is visiting for his second ever trip to the snow. That's him in the photo. My two daughters are going up with him (and everyone else in the Bay Area) this weekend. Conditiojns are great, and they should have a great time- SNOWBOARDING! Yes, as Casey is a rookie, it will be more fun to go snowboarding as they will all suck at it together. Thanks to Chris at NorSki for the snowboard gear and here is wishing you all a great holiday ski adventure! See ya next year!

My winner

I gotta say that my demo day winner was the Stockli Stormrider XXL. One thing i always look for in a ski is that it is powerful. unfortunatly that means it is ussually heavy. this time i acttually found a very powerful ski that also skis fairly light. How you may ask. ISO core and Stockli. The ISO core is Stocklis answer to synthetic light weight skis. the ski hugs the ground like a race car with a big spoiler but is light in and out of the turn. At first i was a little apprehensive to take it, full speed throught the changing snow conditions of the day from soft and forgiveing to icy and fast, But the more i skied it, the more it showed me that it stays constitant through all of the conditions. It cuts through ice and hard pack smoothly and effortlessly, its unfaised by loose, skied out snow, but is still lively and energetic in and out of the turn. Stockli Stormrider XXL, two thumbs up from me!

It takes a company

We went to Alpine Meadows Monday and Tuesday for the first industry demo of the year. This demo is set up to ski the models that are currently out there being sold. It lets us answer any lingering questions we have about the skis and/or let any new employees get a chance to try them out. Unlike the February event, which is serious business for us, we always have a nice relaxed time at this event as there is no pressure on us or the company reps.

We stayed both nights at Neil’s house on the North Shore as usual. Get up, make breakfast and off we go. Nine lift tickets on the business visa, drop off the keg at the Fischer tent, poach a great parking spot in the demo section, store the demo Stockli skis, boot up, score demo goggles, poles, a helmet, (whatever you want to try) from a vendor and ski all day. What a life.

All of our brands are skiing real well. Unfortunately, Head was a no show for this event. They are transitioning to a new sales rep and have basically botched the process from my point of view, including this demo situation. Head skis are very important to us and it was a real drag not having them there to compare. We have tested them enough to know the line intimately but the subtle nuances are discovered with even more time on them.

Fischer seemed to be the big winner this year. We always like the Fischer skis, but right now they are really peaking. Many potential new dealers were showing serious interest. Also, when I asked vendors what hardware they liked (outside of their own brand) the Fischer name was always part of the mix.

So both Head and Fischer are now skiing as well as any other brand out there. Both want to jump to the top and be “the next big thing”. Can either one of them do it? Every year we ski the “current big thing” and it is always at least a very competent ski. Often it is a fantastic ski, but not always. Always it is supplied by a company that has a great marketing department, fantastic advertising direction, killer graphics, solid and timely distribution, and a certain “buzz” about the company in general. Can either Head or Fischer be the next big thing? Time will tell. If they can do it I will be happy to go along for the ride. The skis are ready, however skis are not enough. It takes a company.

Stockli Claus

Ho Ho Ho! Last night I left work right at the closing bell and headed for Fresno. I was home in bed by 1:00am with 9 pairs of Stockli Demo skis. Our Stockli rep Brad Johnson (great guy, I really like Brad) is going to be out of town for a few weeks and cannot make our industry Demo Days on Tuesday and Wednesday. Being the benevolent dealer that I am, I agreed to make the drive down and haul the Demo Fleet up to Alpine Meadows for the event. With only a few NorCal dealers, this should work out fine. The great side effect is that we will have the skis through early January. If you want to get a ride on a Stockli, we will have everything available to try for about a month! A car full of great ski buddies, a box of Stocklis on top of the rig, and two days to ski everything available from any manufacturer... what a great job I have!

The Nastc experience

I just got back from taking a class from the North American Ski Training Center in Truckee. "Nastc" has been a great resource for our customers and the staff has done a few events as well. If you are interested in very high level instruction in a variety of vacation settings, Nastc is just the ticket for you. This particular class was a three day event called Certified Ski Movement Coach and my hope was to pick up some tips that would cross over into bootfitting. I did get a few boot oriented tidbits. Mainly we learned a lot about the mechanics of movement involved in skiing, and how to determine what biomechanic/physical issues an individual has and how to address them.

The class was comprised of about 9 qualified instructors and (little 'ol) me. What a great time. The instructor for the ski movement section was Darcy Norman. Darcy is a physical therapy and athletic enhancement expert that deals with many world class athletes. His latest "big deal" has been working with the Telecom pro cycling team from Europe. Loads of pro athletes have photos on his walls that you would recognise. Darcy did the class room section, and then Nastc director Chris Fellows ran the on-snow sessions and helped relate the topic to the instructors in a way that they can use the information to further their craft.

What a joy to ski with these folks! I was of coarse the weakest technical skier of the group but that was no problem. With an instructor filled group, everyone was helpful in helping me accomplish learning some of the very difficult (for me) drills they devised to use the classroom sessions on the hill. And what great instruction it was! With Chris being a PSIA National Demo Team member and a PSIA-W board member, Robin Barnes on the PSIA-W tech team and a Ski magazine tester, Malcolm Ridenour a level 3 Examiner, and Kemp Dowdy a PSIA-W tech team member and examiner, we are talking about some of the best instructors available anywhere! The rest of the group was rounded out with other quality instructors. Most importantly was that they were simply a great group of people and great fun to ski and hang out with. These people are truly dedicated to teaching and skiing!

As Darcy is very cutting edge in his field, there were no precedents for the application of his knowledge. On the hill, Chris led us in a series of drills that with a lot of input from the group, should arm them with new tools to make our skiing experience just that much better! I know I improved my turns and have enough knowledge swimming in my head right now to keep my busy for the rest of the season. I've got some serious work to do.

For more information on Nastc, you can check them out at http://skinastc.com/. Nastc gets a hearty recommendation from California Ski Company!

Stockli's, Nisei's, and Flexons...

It’s been busy at the shop.
Friday we had a few staff training sessions. Brad, the Stockli rep, was awesome. He is still very fired up on the skis after all this time. They ski so great and now the word is spreading. We are certainly VERY impressed with the current line and Brad just added to the stoke. Lot’s of info about the manufacturing process, material specifics and the like. Really good stuff! Of course there was also lot’s of comparing notes with Brad and discussion about how we all feel about how the various models ski.
Nisei ski club was here Saturday night. As usual it is always great to have them come for their annual visit. John is a member and we have a lot of regulars who are in the club. This makes it very relaxed and informal. They brought the usual great food, and a short presentation was followed by quite a bit of shopping. A number of boot fits and several skis as well. Thanks Nisei!
Sunday I finalized a bid to pick up a bit of merchandise from a store that shut down a few years ago. Included are about 20 retro 80’s sweaters (who knows what we will do with these), some tools, and various other miscellaneous items. Most intriguing however is the arrival of a few dozen pairs of Raichle Flexons. All are new, and there are various models. Most key sizes have low numbers. I am psyched to play with them! We are doing great with the Dalbello Krypton boots and the Flexon is the boot that laid the foundation for the Krypton. It’s an interesting story and our head tech Martin Sulser plays a small role in it. But that’s for another time.
Off to San Diego Weds night and so I will miss “Black Friday” at the shop. Happy Turkey day to all and hopefully we will have resorts open this next weekend.
Oh yeah, Todd got braces!

Snow is coming!

Last week the weather was quite warm and balmy. It didn't seem much like winter was here yet at all. Todd and I had an early morning archery round at Redwood Park and at 7:00 in the morning it was shirt sleeve weather. Now we are back to the way it should be. Snow is forcast for this weekend with more on the way next week. We are back on track! Many resorts have jumped on the "open by November 17th" bandwagon and we will be making turns VERY soon. Whoopee!

Happy birthday Greg

Happy 50th birthday Greg. Hope you had a great day.

Last Chance Camping Trip

Every year just before we open up during the week days we do a last chance camping trip. It usually involves bikes, hiking boots, golf clubs, or some other recreational gear, as well as the normal camping equipment. Last year was camping in the snow at 7500 feet altitude and mountain bike death rides that almost killed half my staff. This year was pretty much the same, but toned down so that I knew everyone would have fun and live to tell about it. So we headed to the Napa Valley to Bothe State Park. After bagging a 4000' peak, a killer Annondale park singletrack fest and two full moon hikes(plus a little wine tasting) we made it back in great spirits. Highlites were a full moon hike to Bale Grist Mill. Operated from about 1850 on, the mill features a water wheel almost 40 feet tall. Awesome in the moonlight! Then on the way home we passed through "pioneers cemetery" which has graves dating to 1849. We came upon it after being under the tree canopy, and as we entered the meadow that the graveyard was in, the moonlight opened it up in front of us with bright light. Very surreal! Now it's time to get 'er done back at the shop!

Vermont colors

Just got back from a 5 day trip to Vermont for the wedding of an old and dear friend. The whole family went. We used to go most years as Elizabeth's best friend lived in Burlington. She doesn't live there now. She lives in Kansas City. We don't go to Kansas City. We like Vermont much better and we still have a handful of friends there. It had been 7-8 years since we had been to visit so it was good to catch up.
Some quick notes from the trip:
Fall leaf colors- I cannot overstate their beauty
Visited Stowe, Sugarbush and Mad River Glen. All show potential.
Ski 'em all! They are not really very far apart.
Burlington is Berkeley East.
The National Chain stores have hit Church Street :(
There is not a genuine hoagie in California.
There is no genuine Mexican food in Vermont.
Round barns are the ticket for fall weddings.
Great job Steve! Mindy rocks. We are very happy for you both.
I reccomend Bill Curley at Inverness Ski in Waitsfield if you need a shop there.
The Chrysler 300 is a true pimp mobile at affordable rental rates!
The Rockies and the Sierra both look white and delicious from above right now!

About Ski Tests

Every year at this time all the ski tests come out. Customers find them to be important. This is because they appear to be (and kind of are...) objective opinions from experts. The sales person at the shop is a sales person and will tell you what you want to hear. The objective expert is to be believed, For this reason I am always eager to dee the test results. Some tests are (we feel) bogus and filled with journalistic hyperboly. Some tests are better. A few are really good. We personaaly test every ski we sell and every ski we would consider selling. We also test pretty much every brand we compete against. We consider ourselves "professional ski testors". Last year I skied over 75 different skis. All of us do this. It's part of the job. That being said we are always curious to see what the tests say. This year as with most we feel validated. The brands we support and the ski models we chose did very well. A number of "ski of the year" picks and our new brand, Elan, had its bext results ever by far in the magazines. All this being said let me say this: As "professional ski testers", our job is to UNDERSTAND every ski we sell. This lets us match up the skier with just the right ski. Award winners are always good skis that a lot of skiers would love. The trick is to match the skier with the correct and perfect ski to give them the most enjoyment out of their ski day. I don't want this to turn into a sales pitch, but this is what we take the most pride in. It is hard to find a lousy ski these days. Most are good to great compared to anything just a few years older. Putting you on just the right ski to put a smile on your face is the trick. After most ski sales as final and we gather up the hardware and carry it to the tech room we usually say to sombody "they are going to love this setup!". That when it gets fun! By the way, the best ski test results (in my opinion) in a magazine are in SKI PRESS. The absolute best testing for consumers is available at www.realskiers.com (http://www.ts2003.com/)

Snow!

Tahoe got the second snowstorm of the season this week. As of mid day yesterday, Truckee had 5-7 inches with more to come last night and through Friday. The Snow Cam at Kirkwood looks awesome. I'm liking it! Vermont got a good storm too and I will be in Stowe a week from now for the wedding of an old friend and ski buddy. That will be interesting. We may have to poach a Stowe ski run on Rock Skis just for kicks!

A Great Season is Upon Us!

The Oak trees shedded their acorns early. The squirrels stored acorns liked mad. South America had record snow. Now Tahoe has gotten their second snow of the year and it's only October 5th. It's feeling epic! Events coming up are the Cal Ski and Snowboard club sale the night of Oct. 17 and a big advertised sale for the last 3 weekends in October. I just spent 5 days at a BBQ cookoff event in Texas and am ready to turn all my efforts towards skiing as much as possible. If things go well, we will be skiing on my birthday (Haloween). Almost there! Tonight I am typing with my ski boots on...

New Skis

I have finaly made my decision of what skis to buy. I have a pair of Head IGS skis and a pair of Fisher Atua (96mm). As you can see i have only one pair of skis left before i can say i have a full quiver. My choices were the Stockli stormrider XXL, the Fisher Watea 84, and the Head M78. The Stormrider was just too expensive for me even though it probubly skis the best out of all of them. The Fisher is just a little too light and i already have a great pair of skis that are light and "hikeable". So my decision is .....the Head M78. It is stable at the top speeds (last year i clocked 69.4 mph on their predecesor M82) but still smooth and soft enough to ski slow with my son (love that intelligence). It has a waist of 78mm so it is truly a 50/50 ski so i know that in any condition i will love this ski. Now, what bindings should i choose. I have narrowed my choices to the Marker Jester (love that wider foot print), Tyrolia HD14 (love the railflex) or the Salamon 914 (Love the driver toe and the light weight). Help!!! I'm never gonna sleep.

Extending the Sale

Well, I realized that when I sent out our direct mailer for the "tent sale" that I used an older mail list by mistake. That means over 2000 customers didn't get the sale notice. In some ways it is good in that it explains why people seemed to be unaware that we were back from our summer break and open on weekends now. What to do about it? I have decided to send a second version out with new dates for those that previously missed out. Unfortunately this means that the conversion of the store for a parking lot sale and then reorganizing and repricing all the merchandise will have to be redone one more time. I leave for Texas on Thursday for a long weekend so much of the work falls on others. Once again I find myself grateful for competant co-workers. Anyway, if you are reading this it means you can get the clearance prices through October! In season pricing will commence in November. Around here ithe vibe is growing strong. Ski season is near. You can feel it in the air. Tahoe got snow last week and it rained here. It feels and smells like fall and I am exited to get out there and do it up on the slopes!

Always trying to be really ready

So the big sale is over and the numbers were OK, but not great. Consequently I was ready to unwind and take a few days off this week. Steve was also painting the outside of our building, so access is a bit limited and I'm in the way. Therefore I took off Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is a work day but I am in Sacto for a meeting all day. Thursday night on the way home I stopped by Todd's place to enjoy some tasty BBQ with his family, some friends, and Todd's parents. All real nice. I like Todds parents. They are like he and Ashley. Good examples of Mid American values. Todd's Dad and I teased him about Michigan's football season. Ah, the simple pleasures. Anyway, on the way home I decide to drop by the shop for a "walk through" to survey the needs before the weekend. Crap, I think as I walk through the store- I'm in for a few rough days. About 100 Dalbello boots (actually 96 pairs I think) had arrived. There were some other stragglers to be received. That will wait till Saturday. Giro may show with 80-100 helmets tomorrow as well. The invoice has shown up, so product usually follows pretty quickly. I have 9 clothing racks to strip of their (largely unsold) items that were outside for the sale. This means finding a home on the wall for 36 new clothing waterfalls (9 racks x four sides each). As I am surmising this scenario playing out on the walls, I realize that most of the new clothing upstairs needs size rings put on them. They have been received but "hidden" during the closeout sale. Now they will take their proud places under the bright lights. But first they need size rings. OK, got that written down, now what else to ad to the list. Away into storage must go the tent, tables, 4-way racks, baskets and other items we use for a tent sale. Since we are so heavy with new merchandise, they will have to wait to go upstairs back in the dungeon. I would have to move too much stuff, and I would get extremely dirty and dusty, so this will have to wait. For now items will have to be creatively stashed. Spatially challenged we certainly are. Particularly at this time of year. I scope out the boot back stock boot area and wonder where in the h___ the Dalbello's are going to fit on the already overloaded shelves. That won't happen until at least Saturday afternoon, so quick mental notes and move on. Special orders and all paperwork were cleared out on Monday so that is good. So a long day tomorrow. Pull down all sale signage. Put all clothing onto the walls. Stash all the sale paraphernalia. Clean up in general and put all receiving in the back for Martin and John to deal with on Saturday between customers. Off to home and bed.

And ya know, that's kinda how it worked. We got it basically done although the store is not "dialed". Sold some skis to a nice guy. Picked up the next to last pair of Monster iM72's. One more pair left and one more iM75 and then it is officially the end of an era. Blake Y stopped to drop off his boots and wants a ski. I'm going to check the closeouts and see if I can come up with a good hardpack specialty stick that will have incredible edge hold for him. He will pay what it takes, but there may be a smokin' deal on a Fischer SC, a Head Supershape, or an Elan Ripstick. I think any of these would work. John ordered a Stockli Stormrider DP in 174 today. I asked about him giving up on his beloved Head Mojo 90's (he sold his last spring) and it turns out he already had put that order in too. Wow. In about three years Johns quiver has gotten really modern. He started out so "old school". Now he will have both a 90mm and a 95mm waisted ski in his quiver. Good for him. It will be really interesting to see which he skis more this year (ie- which is the "winner" as they are pretty much for the same snow conditions). Oh, and Becky called. She had both her new Campy Chorus equipped custom Trek road bike and her Gary Fisher Sugar mountain bike stolen off her roof rack. That sucks! She is doing a mullti day ride down the pacific coast next week with some friends and will have to take the old Bianchi.

So overall a bit more burden on me today with no Todd, no Martin, and John on crutches. No Todd as with his parents here he was given the week off. No Martin because I don't want him to have to do much heavy manual labor. John is not allowed to help lift as he still cannot put weight on his knee, but heh, I'm up to it! Tomorrow may or may not be busy but John and Martin are working and on Sunday we add Rebecca as well. We will get through this weekend and by next Saturday the store will look like a designer showroom!

Oh yeah- the paint job on the building turned out bright orange! Not quite what I ordered and the landlord will re-do it if I insist- but I don't know. People will definitely see us! Plus the Piano store guy next door hates it and that may be a reason all by itself! I will have to see what the staff and customers think. If they notice and comment (good or bad) I think it stays. If they don't notice, I may ask for a change. Ugly that serves no purpose is not what I want...

The staff at Mammoth- Spring '06

Here's the folks from my world...

May 2006- Neil the squirrel, Brian Tai, J-Mat, Martin, Timetrial Todd Thomas, Me, Heather and Christian, and Johnny O. in a staff photo. This was from our annual spring staff trip to Mammoth Mountain. As seems to be the case more often than not during these "end of season" trips, we got dumped on. This was about May 5th. A year two before we had gotten four great days of spring conditions and were scheduled to come home Sunday night. I left on Sunday around 2:00pm as a big storm was coming in and I had a comittment at home the next day and had to get over the pass before it hit. Asking if anyone else wanted to come along to beat the storm they all looked at me with puzzled expressions. I seemed to be the only one with any concerns about road conditions. Finally Matt (Mr. Happy) stepped up and said "sorry dude, but you're on your own". When I didn't respond he continued "you don't get it, dude, the shop is closed for the summer. You just layed us all off. We have no jobs, we have nowhere to be, a storm is about to hit, and we are in a hotel room on your credit card. We're staying!" I told them they could stay till Tuesday. It snowed about 3 feet. I drove home alone. Good times!

Wow, so here I am. I am a blogger. I went to a workshop put on by SIA (Snowsports Industries of America) today and came away spinning. There were four sections and the final one concerned the web. I (and pretty much everyone else) expected a bunch of statistics about the percentage of ski sales being done over the internet and how it is eroding the dealerbase blah, blah, blah... Instead, we had a guy named Ben Snyder from a business called Sage Island and the title of his presentation was "Web 2.0". Blew my mind! Now I am finally getting what friends of mine like Dave (http://www.vanderkitten.com/) and Jim (http://www.cyclofiend.com/) are all about regarding their use of the internet as a personal and business portal to the world! So it's 5:02am and I have been up most of the night going to various web sites and seeing incredible things. I find that I have let social technology pass me by. I see it all around me now that I know how to recognise it. Hmmm, social technology (that's my phrase and I think I like it!) is here to stay and I am diving right in- right now. I don't know where this will all go but I have some great ideas to get the shop exposure out there and that is the primary goal. So off we go into the future!