A chasm has opened inside me, of the sort that can never be re-filled. Brian Frias passed away last Friday, February 20, doing what he loved, skiing with the daughter he cherished. He was taken before any of us had the chance to say goodbye.
My oft-repeated sobriquet for Brian was “My IT Angel,” for it was his facility at building and maintaining the nuts-and-bolts of the website that enabled Realskiers.com to survive. (Without him, we’re now one cyber assault from extinction). But Brian was so much more than a brilliant troubleshooter; he was a collaborator and hands-on spirit guide to the mysteries of how web software works. He is utterly irreplaceable.
I first met Brian when I was working for Head and he was a rep for Jeff Brumbach’s well-respected operation. At the time, part of my job was to rep the brand in my local territory, but it was clear I needed to move in-house at Head Wintersports’ new HQ in Byfield, MA. I tapped Brian to replace me because he knew the territory well and because I knew he was a quality person, someone who could be counted on to do the right thing no matter the circumstances.
But it was Brian’s unflagging efforts to bring Realskiers’ content to life that demonstrated just how far he would go to help a friend who desperately needed his expertise, patience and above all, kindness. He was always there to help me put out fires large and small. Again, irreplaceable.
While Brian could read code as easily as an English professor reads Hemingway, it’s not his backroom navigating skills I’ll miss the most, but his good-natured, low-maintenance friendship, grounded in an old-fashioned sense of honor and mutual respect.
Somewhere I hope Brian is able to ski powder every day, but we’re more likely to find after-life Brian casting a line into pristine waters populated with notoriously elusive prey.
Cast on, my brother, cast on. I’ll see you on the other shore.
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Just How Strange Will the 21/22 Ski Market Be?
To (temporarily) kowtow to the cult of brevity, the short answer is, “not very.”
To elaborate, most major ski brands didn’t derail the introduction of new products that were in the works well before the pandemic dropped the hammer. There’s a rhythm to the product renewal cycle that shifts the spotlight every year to a different model family within any brand’s global collection; that rhythm was largely respected despite the unique obstacles imposed on the process this year. If most of the models appearing in 21/22 catalogs seem similar to what was offered this year, it’s because this is how the line renewal machinery ordinarily operates.
What’s difficult to judge from outside the R&D pipeline is what we’re not seeing. That is, were there more new models or upgrades to existing star products ready to launch that were put on hold to avoid overloading a potentially weakened distribution network? Possibly; what might have been a planned six-model launch may have been trimmed to three or four, for example.
Happily, there’s no real downside to this scenario for the prospective ski buyer. All essential model family refreshing and line extensions will unfold as forecast. If you haven’t bought a ski in three or four years – I believe the average span between new ski purchases is over seven – the entire universe of Alpine skis is new to you. You may spot some names you recognize, but the skis that bear the name will almost assuredly be different.
“How Is It in The Bumps?”
This question is one of the last objections a ski buyer tosses into the flow of the sale just as the salesperson has guided it to the brink of consummation. To keep the impending close on course, the suave salesperson will hedge the issue with some bland reassurance without raising the obvious retort, that no ski can overcome all the many and curious ills that plague the untalented mogul skier.
A great skier can manage bumps no matter what ski he or she is on. That doesn’t mean experts don’t have favorite skis for this spine-rattling condition, but they don’t need to change skis just because they encounter a bump field. They’ll manage, and chances are anyone watching them won’t be able to tell if the ski is helping, hurting or just along for the ride.
To get the subject out of the way, there are such things as mogul skis, but they’re made for competitors, not your everyday, all-terrain skier. Their tiny (61mm-66mm) waists and svelte sidecuts were common 25 years ago, but they’re as rare as bacon at a bar mitzvah today. Unless you’re planning to compete, there’s no reason for you to fish in this pond.
The Savvy Shopper: How to Buy Skis
Let’s begin with a recap of the fundamentals.
Realskiers’ model selection methodology starts by dividing the Alpine ski market into seven categories, using waist width as the organizing principle for three excellent reasons:
1. This dimension is the single best indicator of the ski’s capabilities.
2. Waist width is a hard number, not a fuzzy concept like skier type.
3. Suppliers product lines align with this method, creating models in every category according a coherent pricing logic.
