We have loaded up the cars, We got the keg in there. They have the skis. It's demo season! After a great trade show in Denver, followed by two days at the Rocky Mountain Dealers ski demos at Winter Park we're off to Alpine Meadows for our regional demo. Two days at Alpine will be followed by two more at Mammoth Mountain set up for the SoCal dealers.

Every manufacturer will be there with their goods. Ski all of next years skis. Try some new goggle models. Whatever you want! It is like Disneyland for us, but serious work too. We fill out test cards on every ski we try. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Then it is back to headquarters to make decisions on what gear we will display for you next year. At Winter Park we got through most of the women's skis narrower than 90mm at the waist. Beneilia and Becky will finish off the category and confirm our test results on the cards we filled out (or possibly disagree with the results we got). We had four skiers at Winter Park. Six at Alpine. Four at Mammoth later this week. That's 14 skier days. There will still be arguments and indecision. We will mop up those questions in the next few weeks with arraigned private demos for CalSkiCo by the reps.

I'll tell you more about the Denver show when I get back. It was awesome. Right now I have to finish packing!

Show Time again!

"So ya, Thought ya, Might like to go to the show. To feel the warm thrill of confusion? That space cadet glow. Tell me is something eluding you, sunshine? Is this not what you expected to see? If you wanna find out what's behind these cold eyes You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise."

In the Flesh? (Waters)

I was listening to Pink Floyd last night after a good session of Wii Skiing. As the annual National trade show is approaching and on my mind, these words rung true. The experience for me is still overwhelming. There is so much to see. So many important decisions need to be made. So much pressure to provide you my customers with the best possible selection. And so much "socializing" available with other industry members. All packed into four days.

Yes, four days. To see everything produced that could possibly be relevant to a ski shop owner. That's a lot to see in a short time! I am nervous and excited every year at this time as the show approaches.

So it is a bit overwhelming to me, and a lot of hard serious work. And there is important partying to do as well. Oops- did I say that? I meant "social interaction". This is important too. Chatting it up with colleagues is definitely important on a lot of levels. Many are even business related! And this is the best opportunity to do it.

This year the show moves from Las Vegas to Denver. I won't get into the politics of the industry, but for various reasons, many retailers will not be going to the show this year. It could all change at the last moment, but it looks like only about twenty percent of the storefronts across the country will be represented. This is both good and bad in my eyes. On the one hand it is easier to get appointment to see product lines at a time that fits into my itinerary as the sales reps have less appointments. I can more easily get the ear of a factory tech or national sales manager. On the other hand we as retailers need to support a national show as an industry. If we don't, it will go away. On top of it all, I want to come back from the show with a great skiing stoke. I like to be pumped up by the vibe at the show. The vibe of thousands of passionate skiers reveling in all that gear in one room. It reminds me why I am involved in this silly business where it is so hard to scratch out a living. If you go to the big Warren Miller showings just before the ski season starts, you know what I mean. You walk out knowing you will dream of epic powder days for nights afterwards. You want to ski so bad you can taste it in your mouth.

Hopefully, the dealers who do show up are the ones that do have that passion and so will not pass on the show. Hopefully, even if it is smaller in numbers, the quality of the participants will be top notch and so it will still have a strong and positive vibe. I will personally pledge right now that I will do my part!

Being in Denver changes a few other things for me as well. I have a good friend in Denver and will get to spend some time with him there. Martin Sulser from the shop will come along as usual, but I send him back after a few days. After that I stay with my friend Jim. Jimmy and I skied a lot in High School and see each other rarely since then. I can't wait to see him. He is pumped too. He will be with me as a "buyer" and I will send him out to research and view some categories of products for me.

Also different is that there will be two "on snow" days after the four days of the Floor Show. That means two days of ski demos! Yahoo! The best part of my job! The Demo will be at Winter Park. I have a condo in the village for Jim and I. Psyche! Jim is really excited too. Last night he sent me a facebook note and joked "Hey Whitey, If you want to invite Ingrid Backstrom to come skiing with us that's fine by me". I wrote back that I know Ingrid a bit and typically get a few runs in with her at the demos and would introduce him. Jim won't sleep well tonight I think! Yes Jimmy, this will be even better than you could imagine!

Yes, every year the show is better than I can imagine and I have been there many times. Better than I remember it. Better than any other job in the world!

Now I'm getting all worked up too. I hadn't been thinking about the trade show much yet with business as brisk as it is this time of year, but it is getting close enough that I am getting pretty excited. I guess I had better just jump into the shower and go to work!

Happy New Year!

Well, as we head towards the second decade of the third century of the Christian calendar, things are looking good here. We have just had a Christmas that was as white as it can be. From Texas to Copenhagen Denmark (for the Global Warming summit- where there had not been snow on Christmas for 30 years) there was a white Christmas. A friend called from Frisco Texas to tell me there was 3" of snow on the ground Christmas morning. The storm blanketed the entirety of middle America. Usually each winter, some areas have good snow and others are dry. This year for the first time it seems that everywhere people can ski, they are having a good snow year. That is great!

Here in California the ski resorts first opened on October 11. Then many resorts had a "soft opening" at Thanksgiving. Now the storms have hit big to ensure that we had a great skiing Christmas and into New Years. And the skiing masses are responding!

The shop has been incredibly busy! Every day we are working hard with more staffers on hand than ever before. Some days are close to out of control. People are asking if they need to take a number to get a boot fitting done. Rentals are crazy. The store needs restocked from upstairs every day. Clothing racks are getting depleted. The ski wall is shrinking. We are having a record year!

It seems like we are not the only ones either. Most ski shops are having the kind of year we are. I would love to think that our strong sales numbers are something I can take credit for, (and there is probably at least SOME of that?) but the weather is the key factor and all the snow farmers are having a good harvest. Which makes me happy. Other shops need to do well. Lot's of people need to get to ski a lot and have a great time doing it. The resorts need to prosper too. It is good for the sport and the industry.

So I am enjoying it all. I went skiing with the family last Wednesday at Dodge Ridge. The girls cut there skiing teeth there when they were young and so we did a "flashback day". After they had a first year of lessons, and then a year with passes at Donner Ski Ranch, we had Dodge Ridge passes for two seasons. Super fun! Dodge is a great family resort and a convenient drive from the Bay Area. Great terrain and a friendly low key staff. Two of my employees call Dodge their "home resort" for good reasons. Give Dodge a try. I think you will like it.

With the girls home for break from college, they are available to work too. Jennifer has been at it since a week before Christmas. Rebecca got home later and will be here for the first half of January. I love having them around and they are quite useful too! An extra employee that can do anything from waxing and scraping skis for Martin in the shop to dealing with rentals all day long is a great thing to be able to plug in during the busy time of year. It's also just nice to drive in with them to work and chat. Jennifer worked yesterday and then we went to a movie afterwards. So nice to take an evening off from after hours working on boots or the books to spend it with my daughter!

Next up for me is to take a few days off at New Years and go to Northstar with friends. We will ski, we will skate, we will watch fireworks, we will take in the ambiance of a winter playground. I will relax and recharge. Then it is back to the grindstone. I hope you will all do the same. There is nothing better for the soul than a ski vacation!

Last week on the lifts Jennifer and I had a conversation about the things people do and how "weird" she thinks we are as a species. We invent games and sports to play just because we like to. We hike to mountain tops just because they are there. Weirdest and most eccentric of all she decided was that we build contraptions (lifts) that go from many different points below to carry us to the top of a mountain. Then we only use them during the period of year when there is snow on the ground. All done so that we can use gravity to stand on sticks and slide back down and do it over and over! Why do we do this? Because it is just plain fun!

I agree with her. When you think about skiing, it is kind of a strange idea to even have this activity available to us. And if it wasn't such a unique experience we wouldn't go to all the trouble. But it is special so we make it possible. We build the lifts, we buy the chains for our cars, we make the trails on the mountains, we get up before the sun to go there. All because it is soo fun!We certainly are a weird and wonderful civilization to do all this.

So let's all be as weird and wonderful as possible this new year! Ski lots, have fun, be safe. Best wishes from me to you going into 2010!

Game On!

Yahoo! I skied on natural snow at least four feet deep yesterday. John called last night at about nine o'clock. He was still at work. They had a massive day and he was sounding like he needed to go home and sleep. Just a few more boots to get to and then he would head home. I almost felt a bit guilty but hey, a man's got to ski right?

So with the snow dances paying off in spades we are suddenly in top gear at the shop. The timing was sort of perfect. It gives us some time to spread things out before Christmas. The 10-20 day a year skiers came in as soon as the storm hit to get there season started. Now we will start seeing the Christmas shoppers and the families that do one trip a year and it happens right after Christmas. All hands are on deck and we are doing huge numbers at the register (for us anyway!).

Jennifer is home now and Rebecca gets home Monday. It is so exciting to have them home for a bit. I can't wait to ski with them! I expected Jenn to want to go with me yesterday but she had other plans already. I did make it home in time to catch the Campolindo vs. Miramonte girls varsity soccer game with Jenn last night. She went a bit early so she would have time to hug most of the players and all the coaches before the game started. They made all the "you should put on a uniform- we could really use you" jokes. It was sort of a returning hero scene. A few other players that graduated last year showed up part way through the game too. They were talking about doing an alumni and coaches verses the team game. Sounds like good fun! Count me in!

Alright then. I guess until the next time I ski it is work, work, work. That is where I am headed right now. That's where I will be well into the evening. There is no place I would rather be today. Thanks again for the snow dances. We seemingly did an excellent job this year!

Dancing for Uler

Is the mass of weather out in the Pacific the one to trigger our ski season? Can we go now? Are we there yet? Can we start now? Is it soup yet?

After the opening of the store each August the speculation begins. When will the season start? This year has been pretty good so far in my eyes. October 11th there was skiing at Boreal. On Thanksgiving most resorts were open for business using some combination of natural and man made snow. You could have skied a lot of days already on a single lift servicing a single ribbon of white. We have had a normal "soft opening" and are prepped for the real McCoy.

This next week appears to be the real thing. A series of storms that should blanket the Sierra and open things all over the resorts. I'll believe it when I see it, but it looks like it is going to happen.

This will bring a big sigh of relief to my entire industry as it does every year. This year more than others though. After a very poor sales season nationally last year, the manufacturers and retailers all had too much gear left over from the winter. The big factories in Europe (and Asia) don't want to slow production of goods but there is too much inventory already in "the pipeline". We need a cleansing year to get things right. The economy plays a part in all this of coarse. More important is the weather. If we have a great snow season, people will ski. They will buy skis and boots. Helmets and goggles. Jackets and base layers. Chapstick and lift tickets. Destination resorts will see the skiers come. Local resorts will see skier days rise. All will be right with the world. At least that's what all the sales reps are saying.

And they are probably right. Low sales have meant much belt tightening in the industry. Reps have lost lines as companies cut budgets. Brands have overhauled their business plans. Retailers ordered soft for this season because of high amounts of gear carried over from last year. Manufacturers have cut production surplusses to make sure they do not get stuck with overstock situations again.

Sales reps have been peddling the closeouts that they still have left from last year. They are also pushing us to reorder 2009/10 items we think we may need now later as the inventories on this years products is already getting pretty slim. We have barely sold any of the new stuff yet and they want us to reorder! Nobody wants to be stuck with overstocks items on their hands. Some of the retailers are biting too. Now a number of the "big boys" have started offering discounts to "pick me, pick me!" on reorders. Everybody has been nervous about the future-both short term and long term. There has been talk of major brands that are "in trouble" pulling out of the US market next year if things don't go well again this winter. And all the time they remind us that a good winter will make it all work out ok. As we are in a hold pattern waiting to see when snowfall will make sales numbers zoom, everybody seems to have not much else to do but worry.

Well I for one am tired of the speculation. Tired of the stressed out sales reps. Tired of waiting to ski. Tired of worrying about it. I hope that this storm is a great one. For me and my business it would be a good thing. For a lot of people and companies that I know and care about in the industry it may be a necessity at this point. If it happens, everybody can relax a bit and just get down to doing our jobs. And skiing!

With that end in mind, I have staffed up starting this Saturday and through the next weekend. If it doesn't happen, I will simply have a high payroll for the week and need to drum up some more "projects" to keep everyone busy. If it does happen, I can stop worrying and start working.

Uler is the Norse god of snow and he is the one that holds the key to all of our fortunes at this point. So I will do my snow dance again and again seeking Ular's love. The photo of Rebecca above shows that she has been doing the dance. Please do yours too.

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!