Gear
Getting Ready For The New Season
Tongue-In-Cheek Tips For Dusting Off All Your Stuff…And You. You know it’s time to get ready for skiing when leaves are falling and there have been snow flurries in the mountains. You’ve started having ski dreams, and everyday you check SeniorSkiing .com (and your other favorite ski sites) for new postings. Here’s what you need to do: Get in shape.[Read More…]
Keep Your Gear In Shape
Originally published in the 2020-21 Masterfit Buyer’s Guide and realskiers.com How long your gear remains in tiptop condition depends entirely on how well it’s maintained. At least once a season, it’s good to get skis tuned by a specialty shop, where tuning machines can reproduce a factory finish on the skis so they perform like new. Here are some tips[Read More…]
Here’s How to Store Ski Gear and Clothes for the Off-Season
[Editor’s Note: We’ve published Don Burch’s article on storing gear in the past. It’s an excellent reminder that a little care goes a long way.] Hopefully your ski equipment has taken good care of you all winter. It’s time for you to return the favor. Some simple steps now can save you the frustration of rusty edges, musty clothing and[Read More…]
Buying NEW XC Ski Equipment
For newcomers to cross country (XC) skiing, deciding on the best skis can be intimidating, especially if you don’t want to rely entirely on retail sales people or on-line outlets for advice. The following guidance about selecting and using XC gear is general and intended to help you be an informed consumer. Note that as a rule of thumb, standard[Read More…]
Bindings Made Simple
Originally published in the 2020-21 Masterfit Buyer’s Guide and realskiers.com Bindings are rugged little devices, but like any mechanical unit they can wear out quickly if not kept clean and lubricated. At the beginning of the season, do a binding check. Annual shop inspections of the ski/boot/binding system will reveal any deviations in the release system that may require a binding to be[Read More…]
Things to Remember when Choosing Alpine Ski Equipment
SKIS The ski shop makes more money renting out or selling higher performance equipment. Be honest with yourself – if you don’t ski hard and fast you probably don’t need it. Higher performance skis perform worse when not skied hard – they need higher momentum, and more force to get them to work well. Skied slower they can be harder[Read More…]
Dahu: The Tesla of Ski Boots
Isn’t it remarkable how electric vehicles are taking over the automotive industry? By 2035, virtually all General Motors vehicles will be battery powered. Our grandkids will look back and tell their kids about a time when combustion engines ruled. I think a similar new frontier is being established with the Dahu ski boot. The company has parted ways[Read More…]
Tips to Buy New XC Ski Gear for This Winter
Last winter XC ski gear was in demand like never before and all segments of cross country ski equipment sold out, with few or no options for retailers to reorder. There also was an uptick for backcountry gear and snowshoes. Retailers are still experiencing demand and supply issues. Coupled with global supply chain challenges, everything from the components that complete[Read More…]
Older Skier? Here’s a list of the Best Skis for You
When it comes to skis, buying without trying can be confusing. I prefer demo days or demo-ing from shops at or near the mountain. Reading how a ski performs can provide helpful guidance in your selection process but using those skis – especially on familiar terrain – really helps in deciding how to make the best purchase. That said, we’ve[Read More…]
Demoing Demo Skis
Guidelines For An Objective Assessment. One of the great things about ski rental shops today is their willingness to rent top of the line skis. This is a great deal because for $35 – $50/day, you can try skis that will set you back $1,000. For the CPAs, math and economic majors, the break-even at $50/day on a $1,000 pair[Read More…]
The Skiing Tune Up Pack
DIY: Prepare And Repair Ski Bottoms. Here’s What It Takes. Way back when I used to drive to ski resorts, I used to slide a toolbox into the back of the car with everything needed to tune a pair of skis, fix a gouge in the P-Tex and wax the bottoms. The biggest and most important item was my Toko[Read More…]
Why I Don’t Read Ski Test Reports
[Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] Seven Ways To Make Ski Tests More Objective. Way back in the late 20th Century, while running the SKIpp Testing program for SKI Magazine, John Perryman and I learned the most difficult problem to solve and the biggest variable was the ski tester. In conversations with almost every[Read More…]
The Personal Ski
Does The World Need A Custom Ski Just For You? [Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.] Way back in the winter of 2018, long before Covid raised its ugly head, I asked the heads of marketing (none of whom would qualify for a SeniorsSkiing/com subscription) from three manufacturers a simple question: “Has ski[Read More…]
New Rx Goggle: Full-Range and Fog-Free Vision
One of the downsides of not skiing this season is that I am unable to experience some new and interesting products in a skiing environment. I make clear in each article I’ve written about these products that it is not a product review. These pieces may be about the product’s features and benefits and how I think it will benefit[Read More…]
CARV: Your AI Ski Coach
A Digital Coach Speaks As You Ski. Among the many things that attract me to skiing, one is the opportunity to improve at something I enjoy. I’m an advanced skier who started skiing as an adult without the benefit of regular lessons. Over the past three years I took mid-week lessons which made a real difference, but COVID cancelled those[Read More…]
Senior Skier? Here are the Best Skis for You.
This is the time of year when, with input from the Realskiers.com website, we publish SeniorsSkiing.com’s annual listing of the best new skis for older skiers. Arrival of the pandemic virtually wiped out implementation of the comprehensive women’s test. But Realskiers.com was able to collect sufficient data to pick the best models for senior male skiers. The 2021 Best Skis[Read More…]
2021 Masterfit Buyer’s Guide Sets New Standard
Remember the old Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs? For many readers, those thick bibles of material culture were a fixture of my youth. The comprehensive, new Masterfit Buyer’s Guide is close to being their skiing equivalent. In addition to it’s gear reviews, the guide has numerous helpful articles about how skis and boots are reviewed, kids gear, packing for a day[Read More…]
Best 2021 Boots for Seniors Skiers
It’s the skier’s truism. Boots are our single most important piece of equipment. While many consider their main function to be comfort and warmth, their primary role is the efficient transfer of energy and movement from skier to skis. A SeniorsSkiing.com reader survey conducted a few years ago showed that in a given season, 25% of you purchase new boots.[Read More…]
Putting Away Your Skis And Stuff
It Pays To Spend A Little Extra Effort On Your Gear. Here’s How. [Editor Note: Don Burch’s article on storing your gear was published last year around this time. We are reprising it to help remind you that a little care for your stuff goes a long way.] Hopefully your ski equipment has taken good care of you all winter,[Read More…]
Recipes For Toes And Nose
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com is asking our readers to contribute to support our online magazine. Yes, we have grown in the number of subscribers and advertisers. But our expenses have also grown. You can help us defray some of these expenses by helping us out with a donation.] Support SeniorsSkiing.com by clicking here. ______________________________________________________ Nifty Tricks For Your Feet And Schnoz.[Read More…]
X-C Skiing: What To Wear
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com is asking our readers to contribute to support our online magazine. Yes, we have grown in the number of subscribers and advertisers. But our expenses have also grown. You can help us defray some of these expenses by helping us out with a donation.] Support SeniorsSkiing.com by clicking here. ______________________________________________________ Don’t Wear Your Ski Parka. Choose Specialized[Read More…]
“I Felt Like I Skied One Run, Not Eight”
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com is asking our readers to contribute to support our online magazine. Yes, we have grown in the number of subscribers and advertisers. But our expenses have also grown. You can help us defray some of these expenses by helping us out with a donation.] Support SeniorsSkiing.com by clicking here. ______________________________________________________ Roam Elevate is a computer-driven exoskeleton that[Read More…]
Reporting From the Annual OR/SIA Snow Show
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com is asking our readers to contribute to support our online magazine. Yes, we have grown in the number of subscribers and advertisers. But our expenses have also grown. You can help us defray some of these expenses by helping us out with a donation.] Support SeniorsSkiing.com by clicking here. ______________________________________________________ The week before last, more than a[Read More…]
Jeeves, Bring Me Some Skis…
…And Boots. Ski Butler Service Takes The Schlep Out Of Ski Vacations. I’ve always wanted a butler. After watching all of those episodes of “Downton Abbey,” who wouldn’t? And like the wise and efficient Carson on that popular TV show and movie, Ski Butlers offers an indispensable service, making the lives of traveling winter recreationists a whole lot easier. Ski[Read More…]
