By Stephen Regenold

About
Stephen Regenold, a nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist, writes The Gear Junkie column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Albuquerque Journal, Greensboro News-Record, Billings Gazette, and several other publications. Regenold's writing on travel, adventure and the outdoors appears regularly in the New York Times.
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The Gear Junkie Scoop -- Heidiskis :: Gear Review :: August, 2008
By STEPHEN REGENOLD

The Gear Junkie Scoop: Heidiskis
By STEPHEN REGENOLD

In the vast and multi-billion-dollar snowsports industry, there exists dozens of boutique ski brands that are small, privately-owned operations catering to connoisseurs willing to drop large cash for boards customized to their particular snow-sliding niche. The outfits, including the likes of Aluflex, BumTribe and Grown Skis, might manufacture a few hundred pairs a season, selling to a demographic of likeminded freeskiers, powder seekers or heli enthusiasts.

“I compare the boutique brands to independent surfboard shapers,” said Kelly Davis, director of research at SnowSports Industries America in McLean, Va. “A lot of people are living their dream, trying to make the best ski possible.”

Into this fray enters Heidiskis, a Montreux, Switzerland, brand created by Heidi Blum, a former college racer and American expatriate from Marin County, Calif.

Heidiskis are handmade in an Austrian factory from planks of Swiss white ash.

The company (www.heidiskis.com) made its debut last season with a built-to-spec luxury custom ski concept that sold for 3,800 Euros. Its slogan: “Your ultimate personalized hand-made wood core skis.”

Indeed, that price tag made Heidiskis—which were built in an Austrian factory to the exact anatomy of each customer—among the priciest planks on the planet.

For the ‘08 – ‘09 season, Heidiskis will sell three retail offerings in powder, freeride and all-mountain profiles with prices starting at 1,200 Euros, or upwards of $1,500 per pair.

What makes Heidiskis so special? The skis employ Swiss white ash for a full tip-to-tail core touted as being higher quality than most anything in the industry. “To my knowledge, they are among the only ski brands who take the wood core the full length of the ski,” said Drew Simmons, a company spokesman.

Swiss white ash is known for its mix of flexibility and strength, as well as its ability to hold its camber forever, Simmons added.

Other Heidiskis notables include: artsy top-sheet designs; high-end “World Cup quality” P-TEX 4000 bases; Rockwell 48 extra wide steel edges; ABS sidewalls; and carbon reinforced mounts. Said Heidi Blum, Heidiskis’ namesake founder and lead designer: “Our goal is to change your expectations for how a ski should perform.”

Heidiskis’ retail offerings for the ‘08-’09 ski season.

To those high claims—and to the high price tag Heidiskis is proposing—Davis from SnowSports Industries America said: “Bring it on, I would love to demo a pair.”

In other words, Davis could not comment on Heidiskis’ performance. But she said the materials cited and the touted Austrian craftsmanship, though not exclusive, would put the pricey sticks in an upper-crust category marketed to “wealthy enthusiasts.”

Indeed, Simmons said Heidiskis will be sold only at a few ski shops in North America, likely in places including Aspen, Colo., Sun Valley, Idaho, and Whistler, British Colombia. “They are marketed to 100+day skiers,” Simmons said. “These are exclusive quality, the type of Austrian craftsmanship rarely seen by recreational skiers.”

Heidiskis’ retail line ships in small batches to shops starting this fall at $1,500 to $2,000 a pair. The custom builds are available online now at the aforementioned 3,800 Euros, or about $5,913 as per this week’s currency exchange. No word yet on the option to trade in a used Subaru to bank on a payment for the skis.

—Stephen Regenold writes the weekly Gear Junkie Scoop for Outsidemag.com and TheGearJunkie.com.

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The Gear Junkie Scoop -- Therm-a-Rest NeoAir :: Gear Review :: August, 2008
By STEPHEN REGENOLD

The Gear Junkie Scoop: Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Mattress
By STEPHEN REGENOLD

(Note: This column marks the first Gear Junkie Scoop, a weekly column co-written for Outsidemag.com and TheGearJunkie.com to cover prototype and to-be-released outdoors gear.)

For the past month, rumors have circulated among the outdoor-gear cognoscenti about a new minimalist air mattress that’d pack to the size of a one-liter Nalgene bottle while providing nearly as much warmth as a bulky pad stuffed with goose down.

Indeed, the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Mattress, announced officially on July 17, is now touted as the “world’s lightest, most advanced three-season air mattress.” Manufacturer Cascade Designs Inc. cites the inflatable pad as being approximately three times warmer than any other un-insulated air mattress on the market.

While the pad isn’t yet available for testing—and it won’t ship to stores until April 2009—the NeoAir is newsworthy for its big claims as well as the fact that this is Therm-a-Rest’s (www.thermarest.com) first foray into the un-insulated air mattress category.

NeoAir pads will come in four sizes, but the smallest iteration—which measures 20×47 inches unrolled and packs to the size of the aforementioned Nalgene bottle—will weigh a scant 9 ounces, or less than the average trail-running shoe.

Testing via ASTM International standards, Therm-a-Rest garnered an R-value thermal resistance measurement of 2.5. According to Doug Jacot, the Therm-a-Rest business director, comparable un-insulated inflatable air mattresses often register an R-value of less than 1.

So how does NeoAir work? Therm-a-Rest engineers developed an air-bladder technology—the “Triangular Core Matrix”—which is a welded-nylon grid of chambers that, according to Jacot, increases the number of individual air cells by 10 times when compared to a traditional air mattress. This minimizes air movement within the pad and the resulting convective cooling, Jacot said.

In addition, an aluminized urethane film holds the Triangular Core Matrix together while reflecting heat back to your body and deflecting cold air from the ground.

The final product—2.5 inches thick, ribbed, puffy and sporting a bright yellow “Limon” color scheme—looks more like a pool toy than a “revolutionary” piece of outdoors gear.

But Therm-a-Rest, which committed five years to the development of NeoAir, seems to have the data to back up its hyperbole. The company has applied for multiple patents on this product and invested in a manufacturing process in its Seattle factory.

NeoAir debuts next year for $120 – $170, depending on size. If all is as the company claims, this pad could be a panacea for backpackers looking to cut bulk and save weight while still sleeping cozy in a bag on the cold hard ground.

—Stephen Regenold writes the weekly Gear Junkie Scoop for Outsidemag.com and TheGearJunkie.com.

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