Ski Instructors opinion needed

A buddy pointed me to this - he saw at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. I need to have a discussion with him to get more data as there is really nothing on the website but a teaser.

http://www.snowcookie.eu/

I'll ignore your instructor prerequisite. Do you really need your iphone barking at you hey buddy you are tired. I like the detect falls and auto call for rescue. What about that full on tumble in 2 foot of powder that has you grinning ear to ear.  Better yet is the "detailed telemetry report available on their smartphones at the end of the skiing day". Hey Joe you want to have a beer. No I'm going to listen to my telemetry report

Dumbest use of technology for skiing so far

Oh wait. I like how its going to tell me where to ski

skimore wrote

Oh wait. I like how its going to tell me where to ski

It's like Waze for skiing?
It looks like a giant PITA to me.  Steve Jobs coming back from the dead to nag me while I'm skiing? No thank you.  Do they share the data with NSA?  Will the Secret Service come after me and make me stay on the blues?
My favorite data collection method is to point them down the hill.  I'll figure out soon enough if I'm doing it right.

MM

I agree it seems communist. Too many cameras and not enough food.

The thing would keep telling me to lean forward. I think I'd rather hear it from Matt.

Milo Maltbie wrote

  Do they share the data with NSA?  Will the Secret Service come after me and make me stay on the blues?

MM

Kind of like 98% of the smart phone apps that people don't read the fine print on and OK the mining of all the data on their phone. Then they wonder why they just drove by a pizza joint and got a popup for PapaJohns or the website they just visited knows his buddy is Mike

You guys not the market they are going after. There are people out there that would buy any new piece of technology. That carbon fiber mountain bike, the micro-chip embedded in the ski for active damping, the latest iphone or apple watch. There is a sucker born every minute. But is there a use for this, maybe - but probably not for what they are going after. Is there a market for this, I would think so - for those terminal intermediates who would love to be able to ski those narly chutes and hoping that this will make them better. Kind of like all the crap golfers buy hoping that they will find magic sauce for their swing.

I'd rather own a Ski-tote

I wonder how hard it would be to hack one of these and start using it to control other skiers for my entertainment...

These guys assume that everyone wears headphones when they're skiing.... I don't own headphones.  If you need an app to tell you when you're tired, you probably shouldn't be on the mountain.

I am on the same page as skimore, I hate the whole concept. Yet at the same time I agree with Ptex, the sad reality is there's probably a market and somebody's gonna make money off this

My assumption is that this thing is going to mount on your skis and tell in you are balanced aft - if you have to ask you are

Will be able to measure angle that the skis are tipped at and if these angles match

Will measure accel and decel rates to look at how you shape your turns to measure what I call the Z or S effect

For fatigue my guess is it will consider vibration and how you absorb it

No idea how that is going to get you to correct any of this.  Waste of money.  Take the money and develop a relationship with a good ski pro by taking an occasional clinic.

All these things a level 3 cert can tell you about in a run and then work with you over time to help you fix it.

skimore wrote

I'd rather own a Ski-tote

Best post of the summer

FTW

You want effective - hook this gizmo to a shock device so every time you get in the back seat in your boots it sends a shock to your backside to move your hips forward over your feet where they belong.

Detecting a pattern here

campgottagopee wrote

skimore wrote

I'd rather own a Ski-tote

Best post of the summer

FTW

concur!  hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha  

Ski Tote comment was perfect!


I look at this similar to that funny golf club that bends in half when you swing wrong.  Or maybe even the meters you use to judge distance from the pin.     Might they work or assist? Yes.   But at best a fad, a waste of money for the 99% who either don't care enough about the "game" to buy or drag this stuff around, or may want to improve but this stuff would be working on the 5% when what they actually need to work on is the 60% somewhere else.    

To bring it back to skiing.....as an instructor we are looking for the big, "big".  What movement or lack of movement can we focus on that will "trickle down" to help the immediate need and then allow a foundation to work on others.  I'm not worried about pole use in the bumps if my skier has his boots on the wrong feet.   Honestly, video is the best tool I have seen.  Go Pros make that easy and when complimented with drawing/side by side software, amazing.      


I can see ski patrol getting perturbed when call volume goes through the roof......and cannot stop but laugh when I think that someday I will be that old lady on the "Help me, I've fallen an can't get up! " commercial.    


As for suggestions of other slopes to ski/board.   I don't think that is a big a deal as it sounds.  Most people I run into fall into two categories.   1) they want to see or try all the slopes in their ability. So suggestions are useless here.    2) Folks that would love to visit other slopes but are afraid of getting lost or not adventuring enough to go look.  They can see a map,     Black, Blue and Green are not hard to interpret.   That said--maybe blue can be split up similar to Europe, where Red modifies hard blue/easier black.    

Good perspective. I can't help to think though that just like the IPhone aps that track your ski day this will be attractive to the same crowd. I can imagine the Jersey Yuppie coming in the bar at the end of the day saying to his buddy, "I really cut up the slopes today, look at the stats on my snowcookie - think I'll post my exploits to facebook". There is no end to the crap people will put on facebook and it seems there is a big market for things that will allow people to generate more crap.

Its like these fucking goggles

Coach Z wrote

You want effective - hook this gizmo to a shock device so every time you get in the back seat in your boots it sends a shock to your backside to move your hips forward over your feet where they belong.

Yes

skunkape wrote

Its like these fucking goggles

I want those!  I'm gonna write an app for them so it looks like Ninjas jump out of the woods at me, and I can shoot at them with my poles.  Then I'm gonna add a feature that makes it look like I'm skiing in a foot of pow, face shots and all. It will be like skiing in a James Bond movie.

MM