RealSkiers

A new, free AI program can write ski review copy that sounds convincing even when it's dead wrong. We gave ChatGPT's AI program two assignments, and this is what we learned.

I've just completed a cursory analysis of the 2023/24 Alpine ski market. This episode provides a preliminary overview of what the not-so-distant future holds for America's skiing public.

We skiers are a resilient lot.

We have to be. The sport that feels embedded in the most elemental fibers of our being requires winter. I realize that last statement isn’t entirely true, but anyone who mistakes indoor skiing or sliding on sand or grass or nylon filaments for the real deal is in a deep state of denial. The essence of skiing is inseparable from mountains and snow, bringing powerful forces to bear on any and all who dare to brave both.

One of skiing’s baked-in ironies is that the skiing is best when you can’t get to it. The same storms that dump their abundant goodness on the mountains also visit all the roads that lead there, often rendering any attempt at access an extended exercise in impatience.

There are two shopping days before Christmas. In all probability, you know a skier who continues to use some ancient accessory that outlived its usefulness some time ago. Here are some suggestions for how to upgrade the ski experience for someone worthy of your largesse.

In today’s informative edition, I remind my Dear Listeners that a proper bootfit includes a lot more than just a new pair of boots. You might think a boot bench an odd place to give or receive a ski lesson, but it’s actually integral to the process for anyone who isn’t accessorizing with a numbered bib on the weekends.

In today’s episode, I explain just how the ski boot market works, what are its organizing principles and how to determine where you fit into the grand scheme of things.

Dear Listeners, with Christmas right around the corner, the need for a gift for someone special, whom you have thus far managed to neglect, becomes ever more pressing. As so many of you lean on me to solve your personal problems, I thought I should again serve as your guiding light, with particular emphasis on the neediest cases.

The panacea to all your problems is, of course, a copy of Snowbird Secrets, a compendium of 22 timeless meditations on what it means to step into the gravity stream. To entice you into adopting a copy of your very own, here’s a taste of what lies therein, Chapter 5, On Being Early.

Today, I’m going to share you with you how I fared on my first ski day of the season, which happened to be yesterday, Pearl Harbor Day, another day that will live in infamy.

Today’s podcast is an oral rendition of its parallel Revelation, entitled, Skier, Know Thy Feet. It’s a primer on how you can prepare for your next bootfit session.

Apple News recently published a Men's Journal article titled, "The Best Ski Boots of 2022-23," which is typical of the sort of utter garbage spewed by mainstream media when it attempts to review ski gear. In this episode, I provide a blow-by-blow litany of its serial inanities.