Demo Results are in

The industry demo's are done. We have made all our buying decisions. One of the tools we use to make the decisions is to document all the skis we try and give them scorecard style reviews. We fill out cards for each ski weather or not we like it. We fill out cards for every ski even if it is a brand we do not carry (and we ski a lot of these models). After we are done with the test cards we then send the cards off to Jackson Hogan at Realskiers.com. Realskiers is the (in my opinion) best resource for ski reviews on the planet. It incorporates test cards from what they consider the 20 or so best test shops in the country. Lots of skier levels, lots of different snow conditions. A hundred or more test cards on a popular ski will give a pretty good "average" score. Check out realskiers at http://www.realskiers.com/

Before the cards get sent off, one of our employees takes all of our employees cards and puts them on a spread sheet for our internal use. We use this to decide on our buy for the next fall etc. We all like to compare notes as well. This is the email he sent to us with the spread sheets. I figured you might find it interesting and a bit humorous. I did.

Greg


Hey y'all,

Well, I finally finished entering all our ski test results into a spreadsheet. Click this link to access the spreadsheet, and feel free to add a comment if you see anything that's out of whack. I haven't done any in-depth analysis yet, but I did go ahead and pick out the top rated ski for each skier. The results are pretty clear...

Benelia - Rossignol Famous 10

Ty - Fischer Pro Mountain 86

Barb - Stockli Laser SX

Pete - Stockli Laser SX

Greg W - Head Kore 93

Paul - Head Kore 93

Winks - Head Kore 93

Mad Dog - Stockli Stormrider 88

Christian - Stockli Stormrider 83

Roger - Stockli Stormrider 83

Katrina - Stockli Stormrider 83

Florian - Dynastar Legend 96

Erle - Stockli Scale Beta

These results sort of reinforce my decision to not bother testing the Laser SX, Stormrider 83, and Stormrider 88, because honestly I could just grab a card and write all 10's on it for any of them. My favorite review comes from Mad Dog, when commenting on the Stockli Stormrider 88 in poetic, near-haiku form:

I know I'm going fast

Because I can hear the wind

Seriously, add a 5-syllable third line, Jeff, and you've got a ski review haiku (I think).  

Mr. Whitehouse weighs in with a review of the Stockli Laser SL: 

"YUM. SIMPLY YUMMY."

I couldn't agree more. Finally, my favorite negative review comes from Roger (someone forward this to him -- I don't have his email), when commenting on the Blizzard Bonafide:

"Skis like a 2x4"

I also agree! Hope everyone is doing well.

Ty