July 6, 2008 – I have recently returned from nine days on the road – two days of travel, and seven days picking skis in the Fischer factory race-room. This was my first trip to the factory, and there was a lot to see – and even more to learn. There was also the largest selection of really good race skis I’ve ever seen in one place.

My trip was scheduled to coincide with the annual race meeting – where the Fischer racing department meets with the various national racing directors. That’s Chris Hall for the US, and the main reason for my scheduling was to be working in the race room while Chris was there picking skis as well. It also meant that Peter Ashley and Pierre Langevin were there, as well as Roger Knight who came along to help pick Fischer Select skis. Those guys, along with racing directors from a bunch of other countries and a bunch of Austrians determined to show everybody a good time meant that some of the days were long. Evenings were scheduled events, and Roger and I (being outsiders) were invited (or as Gerhard Urain put it, “expected”) to attend the social functions. The highlight of the entire trip must have been Peter and Roger trying to explain baseball strategy to Werner Sickinger using Schnapps glasses (empty and full) as stand-ins for people, with the outfield and some of the bleachers filled courtesy of Pierre Langevin.

After the first few days the race-meetings ended, and it was down to business. Gerhard went home for the weekend, leaving us his keys, and we spent several long days just cranking through skis. As usual, I spent the first few days of the trip just getting to know the inventory. The good news is that all the skis in race-room inventory are flat (no NIS plates) to start with, and once you’ve picked everything you just make a pile of skis to get NIS plates. That cuts the number of possible options in half. But there are still plenty of skis to learn about, between RCS and Carbonlite and the various different bases and constructions. Once I had figured out what I liked in the inventory, the picking part went pretty quickly. But it was still down to the wire getting everything picked, sorted into piles, etc. I was working on multiple lists of skis – Canadian, American, USST, etc.

Picking skis is picking skis – fun as far as it goes, but by about the fourth day it’s just work. The best part of the trip from my point of view was working with the various Fischer racing department people. Herbi – the World Cup service guy – was especially helpful when it came to comparing notes on desirable ski characteristics. He spends all winter exchanging skis with the top World Cup skiers as they look for the next magic pair. That means he gets more opportunities to handle known great skis than just about anybody in the world, and if he pays attention, he can learn a huge amount. He pays attention, and anybody with an opportunity to work with somebody like Herbi would do well to do the same.

It was also interesting to meet with Hans Hubinger – the chief engineer in the racing department. I had met “Hubi” once before in NH, but this was a bit different. We discussed observations and ideas about the Callaghan Valley venue, and got into some of the reasons that some things work, and other things don’t. Before I left, Gerhard Urain – the director of the racing program – and I laid out the framework for a working agreement to have me testing some concepts for Fischer. It doesn’t look as though I’ll be any less busy next winter than I was this past winter.