We believe that the industry should be a resource to consumers, supporting the pursuit of the best and most rewarding experience that skiing has to offer. In most respects the industry is a great resource, providing continual innovation and product refinement, and making great performance accessible.
Apparently everybody loves Noah. We always get a positive response when we post stuff about him. Well, we’re pushing the boundaries here with two videos totaling 25 minutes and 51 seconds of the Hoff. Think you can take it? Our first video is a compilation of ski technique video shot over the three days of [...]
Today was Chris Osgood’s birthday. More than any other single person, Chris is responsible for my involvement in skiing. And now – over thirty years later, he’s still my favorite person to ski with. Happy birthday Oz! In the past 17 or so years working in the ski industry I’ve had plenty of opportunity to [...]
Uncle John has a bunch of old wax he was thinking of getting rid of. I told him I wanted to come take a look at it. Anybody need some Rex Arctic?
Kris Freeman has recently returned from the USST on-snow camp in Canmore and is in the final build-up to his race season. Today he came over to drop off the skis he had in Canmore, and to do a skate intensity session. Here’s a little video from...
This year Gunnar asked for Madshus skis. Why Madshus? Because that’s what Noah Hoffman skis on, and Noah is the second best classic skier in the world (silver medal at U23 World Champs makes you the second best in Gunnar’s world). Apparently these athlete sponsorships work. All a company needs to do in order to [...]
Last Spring Dan Josephson sent me some skis for grinding, including a pair of Nikki Caulfield’s skis. There was also an email making note of some gouges on Nikki’s skis, and a note saying “Don’t worry about these too much, they were made by a hatchet.” Well, I had to ask for the story behind [...]
We’ve got a small shipment of scraper sharpeners in the shop. I tend to get excited by simple, high quality tools, and this thing makes the grade. It’s absurdly expensive, at $70, but it’s one of the tools I value most highly. A sharp, clean plastic scraper is the key good and fast waxing. You [...]
We’re in full swing here. A good time for a tour of the operation. Video inside.
We have a carefully crafted new website, thanks to Brayton Osgood. We feed him coffee and skis, and good things happen. Well, mostly good things. There are still some glitches to work out. Like every image that was uploaded to the site prior to August 2012. But it will all be in working order soon [...]
Chris and Mary Osgood found this tin of wax behind the cabin at Mary’s parents’ house that Martha Rockwell used to rent. They asked me if I’d ever seen it or heard of it before. I had to confess that I hadn’t. But, let’s see… It’s old and it’s ski wax. I know a guy [...]
Ski Factory Impressions This summer I was fortunate enough to visit several different ski factories in Europe with Zach. After our first year back in operation as Caldwell Sport, we felt that investing in my understanding of skis from the ground up was important for our business. We’re a small business, and it’s necessary for [...]
Our summer season is bracketed by two ski picking trips to Europe. Tomorrow we fly to Geneva to kick off our second trip with a visit to Salomon headquarters in Annecy. This second trip has a pretty laid-back schedule with some free days in Annecy, and some time in Ramsau to enjoy life a bit. [...]
Amy and I left home Saturday morning, flew out of JFK in the afternoon, arrived in Oslo Sunday morning, took a train to Lillehammer, picked up a Madshus race service vehicle from Per Wiik, and drove to Sognefjell (about three hours) in time for afternoon training. If you think that sentence was long, just imagine [...]
We’re in the final stages of planning our June trip to Norway and Austria. This process involves two ski companies, two national teams, a school calendar, three sets of grandparents, at least two siblings, and some as-yet-undetermined vehicles. So it’s taken a little while to get the details ironed out! The major excitement for us [...]