The well-supported athletes on the World Cup have a full service staff to take care of their gear. Most of the top racers have 20 or 30 pairs of skis - a fleet size that is totally impractical for any self-supported skier, or even supported club and team skiers with something less than a full World-Cup service staff at their disposal. World Cup skiers also tend to have the opportunity to test a lot of skis - those large fleets are generally selected from an even larger selection of skis for testing. Putting skis on snow is certainly the best way to identify good skis, but it’s a luxury few of us have.
The vast majority of ski racers take what they’re given, or what they can find on the rack, and build a fleet in a piecemeal fashion. In most cases this amounts to making the best of a bad situation. We can help. The most valuable service we provide is fleet management consultation.
Starting with your experience, we can evaluate your existing fleet of skis and assess their suitability. In most cases there is some “dead wood” to be cut out, and that’s where this process can save you money and time. By identifying the mis-used or just plain bad skis in your fleet, we can avoid unnecessary tuning expenses, not to mention excess baggage charges! Once the situation has been quantified, we help to ensure that the fleet has a sound core - the go-to skis necessary to handle most race situations. If there are holes in the fleet we can guide you toward the most appropriate solutions, taking into consideration your qualities as a skier and the situations you’re likely to encounter in races.
When the process is finished you end up with a leaned-down and optimally effective fleet of skis with appropriate grinds. Our goal is to make your ski selection decisions simple. If you don’t have a test pilot at your disposal on the morning of the race, it doesn’t do you a lot of good to have more than two pairs of skis to choose from!
The process starts with an evaluation of your existing fleet. We charge for this on an hourly basis. We generally save money on multiple flex evaluations (we can evaluate more than five pairs an hour for the same athlete, but might spend a little extra money on consultation time in an effort to better understand your needs. As part of this process we keep quantitative records of your fleet, and a record of our impressions. Whether your needs include grinding or new skis, you’ll know that your resources will be well spent, now and in the future.
Call or e-mail to discuss your fleet.