The Down Side

The worst part about running a little ski company is letting people down.  We (I) may make 100 people extremely happy with our service and or product. This is the expectation the status qua of sustaining a business, and it does feel good.  What feels BAD is when we let someone down.  That happened this week.  We had issues in production, sourcing, manufacturing process, growing pains that contributed to bad service.  These are all issues/ poor excuses that everyone deals with and everyone must contend with.  What we (I) didn't do was communicate. We preach this in house. Be honest and upfront.  Be the "waiter" that explains the kitchen is backed up and offer more "bread", be the friend that calls if they are running late.  COMMUNICATE.  We apologize to Todd for not doing that.  Sometimes we get lost in shallow communication called email and facebook.  If you are running late, make a call, make things right.  We learned a lesson, and we thank Todd for bringing it to our attention.  Sorry goes out to my Mom too, when I didn't call when I got to my friends house in the summer of 1981...I should have learned the lesson then!

DWL

2012-2013Grace Jake Review from New Zealand

I Have had 2 more days on the Jake, BIG fan, I very much have enjoyed myself on these skis. We have had some excellent conditions of late that really suit this ski. 

I have been skiing boot deep coastal powder and packed powder, the skis handled very well, they have a really nice flex pattern to them and I never felt that the ski over flexed and gave up or gave out which is great, this is a ski you should attack with and not be timid with. 

The down side to the ski came on day three when the temps went up and we had a  thaw / freeze over night, I mentioned this previously, with a radius over 30m and a softer tip that didn't want to engage the ski was hard work to bring around on firm variable conditions and not very responsive.

But lets keep it on context, as a side/back country powder ski that will mainly be in softer conditions it is great and will be a hit!!!! You mentioned Carbon, I am a big fan of the responsive nature of the bamboo, this really helps get you out of heavier conditions when you ski through different elevations or aspects, not sure if carbon would be as responsive as it generally has a damper nature. So all in all, well done, it's great, I am looking forward to some spring touring on them and will send a bunch more photos of Jakes adventures.

Cheers

Tim Williams


Director
Alpine New Zealand Ltd
tim@alpnz.com
www.alpnz.com 

Jake reviews are in from NZ

We sent a pair of Jake 196 and KIWI 196 to our friends at The Adventure Project to NZ.  Neither ski had been skied on yet and we were looking forward to some professional reviews on the product.  

Jake, the all mountain 108 underfoot ski, was finally tested in NZ by our friend Tim Williams, director of Alpine New Zealand.

"After a week of showing off the skis I had them mounted and began my assault on the local hills. I have been skiing the Jake for the last few days, we got 65cms recently so it was the perfect test ground. The snow however was tricky to say the least, the first day we had cloud sit on the snow which made for some of the most goopy snow I have ever skied, it then froze over night and made life even more interesting the next day. This however was a very good thing as I have skied Grace in beautiful powder in Gulmarg and know how they handle in that stuff and we can often get very variable situations like this in NZ so it was the perfect test ground. I have to be honest, I was well impressed. 

The first day when it was super wet the rebound from the Bamboo core made me look/feel about 30lbs lighter than I am, I didn't work anywhere near as hard as my mates had to and still felt like I was able to ski dynamically and not in survival mode. Having extra length certainly aided this, the pivot point of the skis seems to be spot on as I didn't feel I had to make any adjustment to my stance. To be sure of this I went out on another ski of similar dimensions that same day so I could compare apples to apples. 

 

The second day in the snow had a firm frost crust on top, I was more tentative about how they would handle as they are a lot lighter than other skis. I got bounced around quite a lot with out being able to plough through it, this is where the ski did feel a bit too soft in the front, with less of a side cut than other skis this also made life a bit more difficult in getting them to come around. Once the snow got beaten up a bit things got a lot better and I felt I could get more out of the ski and flex them smoothly to create turn shape. 

 

All in all I have to say I am very happy with the performance, I took them on some side country for 1 run on the crust day, when I was skiing crusty snow with no other tracks I found I could manage them much better. 

We have been on wind hold (100-120km winds) for the past couple of days so haven't been able to continue testing. The next stage will be some backcountry and also some wind packed powder in the resort. First impressions is that this is a winner, it has a very good combination of light weight and performance that don't often go well together. In good conditions that will make people feel like a rock star."

Tim Williams
Director
Alpine New Zealand Ltd.www.alpnz.com

We are excited about these reviews about Jake.  We are praying for big powder in NZ, so he can get The KIWI on the snow, as well.

Learn more about Jake here and get your pair for the upcoming season.