![]() ![]() Not only do I get a score, but some recommendations to improve. Once you stop the data is crunched and computed, and Ava whispers my IQ score into my ear once I am back on the ski lift. ![]() I am not the first journalist to test the device and Dr Jamie has a leader board, so the pressure is on and FL’s reputation is in my hands.Īs I ski, Carv effortlessly monitors my outside ski pressure, turn symmetry, edge angle, posture and balance and a bewildering bunch of other measurements – up to 35 different metrics per turn. We start with a ‘free run’: I ski and the system analyses my skiing data and will give me a skier IQ. He has already explained how the system works, linked my iPhone to the hardware and given me a set of ear buds so sexy-sounding that Ava can massage and shatter my ego at the same time. I am with Dr Jamie Grant, one of the company’s co-founders, and the man behind the concept. Once on, it is unnoticeable with your trouser legs pulled down. The tracking unit is slim and compact, as well as very stylish – in black with a chic backlit logo. All this is packed into a thin, boot-shaped insert that is compatible with every alpine boot on the planet. Forty-eight of the highest-grade pressure sensors are in each insert add to this the three accelerometers, the three gyroscopes and the three magnetometers. The technology behind the system is mind-blowing. Ava is the voice of the app, can give you a verbal weather report and knows where you are on the mountain all the time, as every ski piste in the world is compressed into the app databank. The tracker unit connects to your smartphone and the downloaded app does the rest, providing real-time updates on your skiing and offering suggestions on how to improve, simple really. Some users will find the data and its evaluation a little too honest for their rose-tinted glasses but it is very, very accurate.Ĭarv is a boot-shaped insert that slides easily between your shell and inner boot this insert is linked to a tracking unit that clips to your booster strap by a low-profile cable. It’s a very clever bit of technology that provides accurate data on how you ski. I am going to spend two days with the team from Carv, trying the inserts and trackers, having my photo taken and seeing if it will improve my ski performance. Why me? Well, I have been deputised by Fall-Line’s backcountry editor Martin Chester as his stunt double, a combination of his mega-busy diary and me being already in Austria. It’s October and I am there looking after 14 junior ski racers getting some pre-season training but have slipped away to test the Carv digital ski coach products. ![]() I’m on the Hintertux Glacier, in Austria. I don’t need any encouragement – I point my skis down the fall line and make the best turns I can trying to please and impress my new ski mistress. “Go get them tiger,” purrs Ava, the voice of Carv, in her slightly worryingly sexy machine voice. Or B) go to another shop and say that you are there due to the poor grind and want to be assured you'll get a good grind from them.Īs you point out, none of these infelicities are going to be detrimental to how the ski skis, but certainly an un-centered margin structure looks bad and the long peckerhead is unsightly, too.Accelerometers… magnetometers… gyroscopes… an alluring, all-knowing voice in your headphones… IFMGA mountain guide and Head of Skiing at Glenmore Lodge Andy Townsend gets addicted to a digital ski instructor created by a British team of ski-mad tech wizards. Two solutions: 1) Return to the shop, speak to someone of authority that can guarantee a good grind and try again. Without eyes on the ski, it is hard to say which. The diagonal one is possibly a scratch that was too deep to be removed by the grind OR possibly the result of poor handling of the ski. This happens when the erroneous piece of stone material eventually breaks/falls off the stone and the intended structure is left. You will note that the long mark eventually disappears. Re-dressing the stone is the best solutions for those very bad one. You can't readily do that with an automated machine. In the old days, we'd remove the pecker heads with a nylon tool. Our machine has a device that helps reduce those. The long one is pretty bad but I'd allow a ski through with a few short ones. They are what happens when a bit of the stone that is intended to be ground off during dressing the stone remains proud and contributes to the structure (for better, but usually worse). The long straight line and the shorter straight ones, running along the longitudinal axis of the ski are what we refer to as 'pecker heads'. I wouldn't be able to explain that with the Wintersteiger I have no where to begin guessing how it would happen on the Montana. That said, the margin 'thumbprint' or 'chevron' structure should be centered on the ski. ![]()
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