A man and his Kastle

Every man needs his castle. Also a Kastle. Kastle skis (Pronounced KessLee) have been around for a long time. You may remember the Kestle White Star model. It seems to bear fond memories for a lot of our customers. My friend Rick loved his Kastle Combi skis around 1978. I had never on aKastle. Then at some point they disappeared from the US market. I hadn't thought about them much since until last year. Kastle had returned with a simple line of skis that I was hearing good things about. Really good things.

So I found out who ran things there and set up a demo day for the staff. We met last spring at Sugar Bowl with a number of testers from the shop. Head had skis there as well as Elan. We had some questions about their skis to resolve. 4Front skis were there as well. Jesse showed up from Kastle from Salt Lake with a quiver of skis and a sponsored "free skier" to boot. We also invited Jim Fowler from the StartHaus ski shop in Truckee. I know he likes to try everything and would be interested in the Kastles. He was. Long story short, the skis ROCKED. We had ample skis that we highly respect to compare them too and the Kastles were show stoppers. Our best scores ever on our review cards. Well, maybe a tie in that department with a few Stocklis...

Would the Kastles be a good ski for California Ski Company, we pondered? Well, we always try to stock what we would want to ski and to sell others to ski on. On the other hand, these are very expensive skis. We already have the Stockli skis which are premium skis with a premium price tag. We are not changing that relationship anytime soon, as we love the Stocklis and have a strong bond with the company. Is there room for two ski brands in that catagory? Hmmm...needed more consideration.

John's wife Cathy didn't need to think long. She stated before we had gotten back to the cars at Sugar Bowl that she wanted some. She was simply blown away by the MX88 and told John to make it happen. Talks with Jesse continued. I had a number of "Kastle Dreams" about the MX88. Spring and then summer came and went. We had not pre-seasoned Kastles. Talks with Jesse continued some more. This fall Cathy had not forgotten and started to put some pressure on John (and by default me) to try to get a pair even if we did not commit to the line. Finally Jesse came up with a plan. He sold me several Demo skis at a fantastic price. We could put them into demo and see what kind of action they produced. Done. I finally own some Kastles! If you want to check them out, come on by. They should arrive any day. They will be available to buy for $1000 with a binding which is $400 off sticker. Meanwhile as long as they are here we will Demo them.

Tomorrow will get me a glimpse of another ski that I am very interested in. Wayne Wong (yes that Wayne Wong) is coming by tomorrow afternoon to show me some Anton Gliders. These skis have been very exciting to several people that I respect that have skied them. A suspension system for skis that keeps even pressure as the terrain changes? Interesting. What does it look like? I cannot even try to describe them clearly in a few words so the web link is http://www.antongliders.com/. I had been eyeballing them on the Internet for about eighteen months now, but had been unsuccessful in getting a ride on them. Unanswered emails had me frustrated. I spoke to Peter Keelty from http://www.realskiers.com/ and mentioned them. He knows Anton (of coarse!) and he had recently skied them. He loved them. He said he "would call Anton" and get me on some skis. "Great!" I said.

Then Friday Peter called. He told me to grab a pencil. Then he gave me a phone number and said that it was Wayne Wong's cell. "The Wayne Wong?" I asked. Yes, he said. Wow. Cool. Wayne was a boyhood idol. I had the chance to ski with him a few times 4-5 years ago when he was working some with Fischer Skis and he is a really cool guy. But why did I need Wayne Wong's number I wondered? Well it turns out that Wayne is helping out Anton on the west coast.

So I called Wayne. He was on his way to a consumer show in San Jose with the skis. He would be heading home Monday and will be stopping by. I will get to see and handle the skis, get Waynes thoughts on them, and set up a day to ski them with Wayne in the near future. How bitchin is that? Pretty Bitchin!

Maybe the Antons will be like the Palmer PO2. A ski I love and own but don't feel is a good fit for the store. Or maybe we will become Anton Glider dealers? Who knows? One thing is for sure. If we carry Anton Gliders, the Kastles will not seem so expensive any more!

Either way It looks like I will get to spend a day on them with Wayne Wong. God I love my job!

It's getting colder!

Well, the scene has changed from Fall to Winter. The leaves have dropped as have the nuts. Daylight savings time has kicked in. My birthday has passed. We are halfway through the football season. The hardtop has been put onto the Miata. And the skiers are coming out in droves. The vibe is that we will have a good snow year. More people than in any other season seem to have purchased season passes. Sales are brisk at the shop and people are spending their money to get the gear they want or need. The energy is getting to be fever pitch.

For us working at the shop things are progressing too. We are now open seven days a week. The hires are in. They are being trained and measured. The clinic season is half done as far as outside reps coming in. Now we will start the in-house clinics. We are "overstaffed" because with only the weekends open we had everyone working and did training as we helped customers. Lot's of staff. Lot's of customers. It has worked out well. We have been busier than ever before. That's good news! It is also making me/us lag behing a bit in the training aspect. Now with a seven day schedule, it is harder to have a full staff clinic or meeting. I have to kick into high gear.

We have had a few club functions here this month. They are fun. We have another big one coming up next week with SnowPals. We have sold a little over ninety boots so far this year. That has given us a lot more space to breathe. Another couple hundred sold and we can get the boots all stored in a few areas. That will be nice.

And then...we wait for snow.

I want to ski so bad I can taste it!

I should have gone to Mammoth on October 9th when they opened but I passed. Now I regret it. I have made plans for a Colorado trip and will do a few Utah jaunts. But give me a turn and burn to Sugar Bowl on a Wednesday and I am good to go. Bring it on. I would ski sand right now! Heavenly has announced the weekend of the 21st. They are blowing snow. I hope they are right!