RealSkiers

Getting the right boot begins with finding the best bootfitter you can, then placing one's bottomless trust on that person to guide the process to a successful conclusion. You'll never find the perfect fit unless you take the leap of faith.

One of the most recognized and filmed skiers in the world, Scot Schmidt's pioneering style and remarkable ability inspired generations of adrenaline-sport athletes. Scot is arguably the greatest ski film star of all time and inarguably the most watched skier of the 1980's. In this compelling podcast, Scot describes his thoughts as he faced certain death, and other highlights of his life on skis.

Today’s podcast is helpfully titled, When to Buy in 2022, This Spring or Next Fall? It’s an age-old question, but for 2023, the answer is more nuanced than ever. Allow me to enlighten you as I answer the perennial question of when its wisest to buy, this spring or next fall?

Jimmy Petterson has skied in 75 countries and has chronicled his travels in two remarkable volumes, both titled Skiing Around the World. He has done most of it on a shoestring, having never lost the thrill of skiing a new mountain on a free pass, the ski bum's Holy Grail. It would take weeks to encompass all that's contained in Skiing Around the World; this podcast is a good place to start.

Mainstream publications with strong brand recognition are using their presumed journalistic integrity to pawn off shoddy "Top Skis" and "Top Boots" lists that steer the consumer straight to Amazon and its ilk to buy. This is particularly disturbing when there seems to be little to no integrity in the "best model" lists, such as a recently published "Top 8 Boots" list created by Popular Mechanics. "Sham" is too kind a word.

Today’s podcast is a clarion call to America’s specialty ski shop personnel to take advantage of every opportunity to try out whatever new models you can while the getting is good. While you’re at it, take a moment between runs - lift rides, for example, provide a suitable opportunity - to jot down how each ski fared according to the criteria listed on the Realskiers Test Card app.

Don’t have the Realskiers Test Card app on your Apple or Android phone? Why not? You don’t have to be affiliated with a shop to download it or put it to good use. If you’re an unaffiliated consumer, please enter the letter “c” in lieu of dealer name. If you are ski shop owner, manager, employee or designated gear tester, all the better. Please remember to always include comments with your completed score card and don’t forget to save each entry!

Anyway, there’s a link on the Realskiers.com free, public home page - right next to the Apple and Android app store icons - to a video in which I explain how to download and operate the app.

Bindings are a tricky topic because skiers tend to have strong beliefs about what certain bindings can and cannot do, beliefs that may have only a glancing connection with reality. This despite the fact that bindings are the most knowable piece of gear a skier owns. Despite the dangers inherent in the topic, in this podcast I delve into a new binding from Tyrolia that may help reduce knee injuries in backward twisting falls.

This week’s Revelation is another bulletin from the front lines of the American ski market. It’s more newsy, topical - and brief - than my usual weekly tirade. It’s also a call to action for anyone who has been putting off getting new skis or boots this year.

Today’s podcast will be short but sweet, more in the style of a news bulletin than one of my more dreamy reveries. It’s my first report on what’s in store for next season, but certainly not my last. As the news is hot and time is short, I’ll get right down to brass tacks.

About ten years ago, I was partly responsible for Greg Stump breaking his foot to bits, which has rendered him a non-skier ever since. I hope to help rectify this situation next weekend, when for the first time since his injury, Stump will attempt to put his feet in ski boots. The driving force behind Stump's return to skiing is his impending induction in the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, where he hopes to join other inductees on the slopes of Sun Valley.