Blister

[Meadow Skipper]

i’d be happy to review A ski for public conversation

What are your thoughts on the Praxis Rx?

[Shorty_J]

What are your thoughts on the Praxis Rx?

And remember... No bias.

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

[lrn2swim]

Agree with their reviews or not, I can't believe anyone is actually complaining about what Blister is doing. As has been said here in previous posts, the reviews are vastly more in depth and detailed than any other source (powder, freeskier, etc.) I've ever come across. Also, the stats and profile pics all available in one place are an invaluable source of info and worth it just right there, not to mention free.

[LeeLau]

To what Mustonen said, TGR forums are relatively dead compared to what they used to be. Forums generally are dead. Social media puffery is where people went. And to Blister because their content generally is pretty good

And to what TahoeJ said i stil thonk forums have their place. if I want supernerd hyper detail focused picking apart of equipment even though forums are sparsely populated what remains are TGR hardcores who are pure ski and snow addicts. Nowhere else on the internet can I show my 12 pairs of skis and people go. ..so??? I learned a lot about Tecton, Shift and the boots I've picked apart probably almost as much as from these forums as I have from my own use for eg.


I honestly don't recall Blister reviewers directing discussion to their site.

[auvgeek]

I honestly don't recall Blister reviewers directing discussion to their site.

Me either. I recall they would post reviews as thread with links to their site, but that's not unreasonable IMO.

[phatty]

Nowhere else on the internet can I show my 12 pairs of skis and people go. ..so???

My nephew was just asking me how many pairs I have. I actually counted up 9 pairs and him and my brother freaked out. I thought I was doing pretty well. I guess that's what I get hanging out here.

I'm not a subscriber, but I appreciate the info from Blister. I ski differently and am bigger than most of their reviewers, but I respect the work. As to why reviews are less here, I think it is partly because they take a lot of work to do right. Real reviews take multiple days of skiing in different conditions and ability to compare across multiple skis. For some of us giving that time/effort to the collective is enough, for others it isn't.

On the redirecting Mustonen mentioned, I do remember that. It didn't bug me as much since there was still discussion in the thread and it was mostly just a link to the full review on their site. I miss Lindahl and his in depth discussion (I think he's one of their reviewers now) and hope we can get some of that back here. I'm a cheapskate who only buys used gear so all my reviews won't help much, but I love the pros/gear whores who share what they know here.

[Chugachjed]

I really didn’t make this thread to shit on blister I appreciate what they do. I just have a hard time believing that people are willing to pay $60/year for a membership.

[iriponsnow]

Just a perspective: as one of the testers for ExoticSkis.com, it sounds glorious. However, the time, mounts, tuning, shipping, driving to pick up / swap / repair gear..... it all adds up & is not cheap. Then there’s trying to get everyone in similar boots. It’s a labor of love.

And if you’re trying to do a good job, ya spend as much time on the garage stuff as the high end.

[margotron]

Well, I watched it while it was happening. They killed review threads and redirected discussion. I went so far as to copy/paste blister reviews back into the TGR thread, but gave up. They used the TGR user review engine to drive traffic to their site and killed discussion here. It sucked and it made this place less. Good on them for making something cool. I just didn’t like how it was done. And it wasn’t original. They just figured out a way to monetize it.

Too much blame, too little criticism. They provide a service. Don't get mad at the service provider (unless they do dirty or deceptive shit), get mad at the individuals that use the "inferior" service in your opinion.

Some people just love to complain

[Mustonen]

Too much blame, too little criticism. They provide a service. Don't get mad at the service provider (unless they do dirty or deceptive shit), get mad at the individuals that use the "inferior" service in your opinion.

Some people just love to complain

Not to deny my love of complaining, but what the hell are you talking about?

[margotron]

Not to deny my love of complaining, but what the hell are you talking about?

You blamed Blister for lowering TGR review quality

[dump]

Why do we charge for that? I think a lot of you know this, but some probably don't: we don't take any money from any of the gear manufacturers we review. None..

I like blister. They confirmed my katanAs were the right choice.

[Mustonen]

You blamed Blister for lowering TGR review quality

Indirectly. I blamed blister for deliberately inserting themselves into the TGR review paradigm in a way to redirect traffic to their website and monetize the collective. Doing so took the heat out of review discussions on this board and undercut one of the only many to many review dynamics on equipment I actually give a shit about to replace it with a one to many structure that I find pedantic and paternalistic, even if they do a better job with that structure than most. It was direct and it was insidious in its aim to prop up their website with traffic from TGR, though I suspect that eroding the quality of TGR was an unwitting side effect to their quest for website traffic.

Just not a fan of how that was done.

[bodywhomper]

i’d be happy to review A ski for public conversation

Same!

I’ll even do two, maybe three. And I’ll do it with tele, something lacking from blister. Hell, I even have quals. Please send me gear!

[roQer]

Quite annoying are signs popping up on manufacturers sites/promo material stating „Blister recommended“. I like Blister as the only source of in depth ski information but this is getting a little fishy. They don’t recommend skis, they’re just reviewing them. Strictly speaking they might recommend a ski to a particular type of skier for a particular condition, though an average joe looking for a new buy gets the „we recommend you to pick up this ski“ impression.
The selection of skis is to my understanding completely biased by the fact that the manufacturers are sending successively their products to Blister. It’s not like they’re reviewing for example 10 100-110 mm waisted skis in same conditions and pick up one or two of them as clearly superior. Blister shouldn’t allow to misuse their obviously valuable name for this kind of marketing bullshit.

[tpacent]

You can debate their price point all you want and there is never going to be an exact amount where the majority of folks are gonna say - “yeah that’s fair”. You can also disagree with their opinion, but Jonathan has done a good job bringing in a variety of folks that have illustrated a commitment to provide a more in depth review of product (skiing) than any other ski publication I can find. (Bible of bikes is a close second. The board has been the only other place that has provided a lot of insight and feedback on skis that I have guided my purchase but Just like mags disagree with blister reviews, there is the same dissension from folks here. Praxis/moment/ON3P all have cult followings here, but those skis don’t jive with some people, and any inkling of that is heralded as blasphemous. Blister has a niche market as I don’t see anyone out there doing what they are doing with ski gear. I also don’t think they have any issues with letting their readers know how they truly feel about a ski. moment has a ski named after them, and their first impression of the meridian and the recent commander 108 I wouldn’t say were glowing.

[Vitamin I]

...has anyone tried the consumer reports model for gear? review what was bought and paid for at retail? or is that just a nonstarter?

Chris McNamara (big wall climber) is doing it that way with OutdoorGearLab at https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/snow-sports . No idea how successful his business is.
They buy the products from the public market, then test and review them, then sell them used on the public market when they're done...but Chris says his house is full of the worst products that no one would buy at the end, haha.

.

[JFE24]

sweet, no worries. Frankly, I had forgotten that my comments wouldn't go through on your site until this thread popped up last night and I made that post. But I edited my post and sent you an email just to follow up and make sure we're good.

Also, didn't realize you were in CB these days, maybe I'll hit you up next time I'm in your neck of the woods.

Got your email, thank you. I'll hit you back later today. And yeah man, come to CB - let's go skiing.

[JFE24]

I really didn’t make this thread to shit on blister I appreciate what they do. I just have a hard time believing that people are willing to pay $60/year for a membership.

Just to try to clarify this again: for access to all of our Deep Dive Comparisons, it's $29 a year. And as a number of people have attested to in this thread, those Deep Dive Comparisons are really valuable. They are also a massive amount of time, effort, coordination, and money to put those things together in a legit way.

A full-blown blister membership is $60 - which includes access to all Deep Dive Comparisons, access to all of our Flash Reviews, discounts on gear from a growing number of companies (which, if you use even 1 of those discounts, you'll more than pay for the cost of the blister membership), and guaranteed answers to your questions about which gear is likely to work best for you -- or what old gear we like that someone might be able to get for cheap, etc.

And FWIW, we have a growing number of Blister members, with an extremely high retention rate. Which seem to be pretty good signs that people are finding significant value in the membership and / or the content. And some of those people also really want to support independent work.

[TahoeJ]

Worth noting: there are still a ton of reviews and info on TGR, just less formalized review threads. Either in the brand specific threads or someone will say hey I’ve liked X and Y skis in the past, recommend me a new powder ski and people will reply with some options and explain why. That stuff to me is really valuable, especially once you get to know certain posters on this forum with similar tastes as you.

[Eluder]

I really didn’t make this thread to shit on blister I appreciate what they do. I just have a hard time believing that people are willing to pay $60/year for a membership.

To be fair wouldn't you consider yourself leaning more towards being cheap than extravagant when it comes to gear spending.... I mean you are searching for a review on a 4 year old ski. Paying for Blister likely is just a cost some users put towards buying gear.

As far as being critical of their reviews go I only really have a problem with some of their older boot reviews when it comes to fit. That being said they have gotten way better at identifying this in recent seasons, which makes sense now that they have had their feet in more boots. I kinda wish some of the old reviews would get updated though just so people could compare their current boots to new boots better. Reality is with boots you need to find a pro and put them on.

[Chugachjed]

I’m cheap as all fuck. Hell im currently unemployed and skiing every day. And it was actually a boot comparison I was trying to look at. I’m still in first year Vulcans and first year KR2 pros. I will go years without buying any new gear. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like to have current knowledge.

[Ted Striker]

...TGR forums are relatively dead compared to what they used to be. Forums generally are dead. Social media puffery is where people went. And to Blister because their content generally is pretty good.

That sums it up well. When blister went to the pay model I kinda wrote them off even though I like JE, and I think their content is aimed right at most of us here. But the value equation for me was that I always buy the same brands, usually used, and more often than not already vetted by other members of this forum. That said, this thread has lead me back to check them out again, and I think there's easily $30/year value even just for the infotainment.

[galibier_numero_un]

I think an earlier comment needs to be re-emphasized (can't remember who stated it). Skis have gotten so good over the past 6-8 years, that it's really difficult to rank them. I see the same thing with my day job (audio).

The best thing you can do as a reviewer is to characterize a product's best use/application, combined with how well it spans across applications (i.e. how well a hard snow ski does in powder, chop, mank, etc.).

At the end of the day, all you can do is to create a viable short list. Damn! I thought I knew how folks over here ski, and I've made more expensive mistakes in going by their analysis than I have successes. I guess what I'm saying is that all of this is useful input but at the end of the day, you have to get out on them.

A minor tuning issue can transform the complexion of a ski. I don't know if Blister still goes with the factory tune, but most everyone's writing (both here and on Blister) sadly underemphasizes this. When I write up a ski, I go total geek on tuning comments.

Here's an idea for boot reviews: photos taken of the reviewers' feet from different angles - this, to supplement the description (low arch, narrow, bony heel, etc.). It probably would make sense to put this in the reviewer bios, and of course link to them (yuk - toenail shots right below the stokeworthy photos ).

... Thom

[AltaOmega]

I find the best way to use Blister is to find their review of a ski that I own and understand. Then use that as a sort of baseline as they compare it to other skis in their Deepdive and Blister Spectrum. Otherwise you leave it purely up to the testers interpritation of a ski, which is going to differ from your own.