Thread: Dan Birdos' vision

Visited Dan Birdos today in Andermatt to talk a bit about an AT ski. Very nice person indeed. He also showed me the evolution of his powder skis over the last 5 years. Totally amazing. Let me put it in this way. I've seen protos with cambers, sidecuts and rockers that were used by indies and majors some years later than Dan. I do not want to mention small indies here, but for instance Dan made a JJ-style stick at least a couple of years before armada...

Checked out his skis last year when I was in A-Matt. Some sick shit! Now I need a pair for less than a grand.

Heh... I do not think Dan wants to have a ski factory... for what I understand he prefers to spend time skiing in the winter and climbing in other seasons. Producing a lot of skis (and thus being able of selling them for less) is not really in his chords... I do not blame him.

I hear you...seems like the shop hours were about 12-1 and 6-7 the challenge for me is that I see other "handmade" companies (i.e. Moment, Praxis, Bros, etc) at about 60% of Birdos. That is that CH premium for ya. Did he say hom much he would sell the business for..looks like a nice model Maybe I will save up my CHFs and pick up a pair one of these years.

Originally Posted by geo039

I hear you...seems like the shop hours were about 12-1 and 6-7

no, only 6.30PM (ie after-ski, and after-after-ski beer) -7PM

I'd even say he's one of the few brands that got the whole rocker-design dialed! (together with, quite amazingly, this year's Atomic sticks!)

yup, he says that different ski techniques might or might not fit well with a fully rockered ski.... so you should go to anadermatt, spend a week with him trying 4-5 different sticks and finally decide what's best for you. Unfortunately the scandi bum troops there will somewhat limit your access to untracked powder ;-)

Scands. Messing things up again. I would like to hook up with Dan, maybe a road trip ahead...

Hi Gav, the road from verb to A-matt can be gorgeous... furkapass is really nice, but until the nufenen pass is open to cars, I'd drive that way, it's really wild...
We should also convince Dan to come to verb with a few of his sticks for a scandi-free demo day ;-)

But there's a lot of finns in Verbier

the "lot" you know in verb is nothing compared to the troops in A-matt. The gemstock lift is like the helsinki metro....

hehe, yea i know. but still I think more swedes and norwegians in a-matt than finns?

in my last trip to amatt I've seen more finns, but we should ask to locals.....

That's easily solved, have the test at the end of January when all the Finns are broken from drinking related injuries.

Good idea though.

Originally Posted by verbier61

in my last trip to amatt I've seen more finns, but we should ask to locals.....

Half of them are locals... well, at least in the sense that they actually live in CH year round and either own or rent a chalet/appartment in Amatt .


Still, I mostly saw Swiss peeps and a few Swedes when I was there.

uraner schwitzerdeutch does not sound exactly like ugro-finn, though
;-)

If they wore knives, they were finns...

Originally Posted by rabbit

If they wore knives, they were finns...

And if they were wreckin' the bar and hanging from chandeliers, well they were Swedes...

It's always cool to hear that Dan is still putting out skis. I had almost forgotten but I remember him describing something like the new JJ to me in a train station in Andermatt in January 2004. I didn't really connect the dots on that one.

Originally Posted by verbier61

no, only 6.30PM (ie after-ski, and after-after-ski beer) -7PM

fortunately for him, his shop is surrounded by bars