The Run-Down with Ski Shop Manager John Byrne

Is it possible to be a ski-bum and live in Florida at the same time? Apparently the answer is yes, and you can just ask Ski Shop Manager John Byrne if you don't believe it. John managed a ski-shop in sunny Florida (that is a serious fact) before relocating back to Maine three years ago to take over the reigns of the Sugarloaf Ski Shop. To say that John knows skis is an absurd understatement, and he has filled the shop with a staff whose combined skiing knowledge might put wikipedia to shame.

With winter quickly approaching, we caught up with John in the shop, upacking this year's newest arrivals and prepping for Homecoming weekend.

1. Summer has to be a lonely time for a Ski Shop Manager. What do you do to pass the time? Cuddle with left over Jon Olsson Pro Models?
I spent most of the Summer in the Sugarloafer Shop, getting to know many of our off season guests and their families while they were here on their vacations. It was a lot of fun. I also assisted Bonnie Holding with the Wilderness Cookouts up near Bullwinkles every week. That was a great time, hanging out with guests in a more social setting, and getting a terrific meal out of it too. Since Labor Day I have been back in the Ski Shop working tirelessly unpacking boxes and getting the new inventory out on the sales floor and ready for Homecoming. It is like Christmas everyday.

2. Equipment wise, what should people be doing at this time of year to prepare for the season?
It is very important to take a look at your gear before you get to the hill for your first day of the season. Make sure that your edges haven’t rusted over the summer, and if they have, bring them into the shop to get checked out. Also, it is very important to get your bindings checked at least once every year, to ensure the safety and functionality of the springs and to reduce the chances of a season ending injury. You also want to make sure that your skis have some good wax on them, as early season man-made snow is often tough on bases and hard to get going on.

3. Any good specials on early season tunes coming up?
The best deal going is the free tune for Gold Pass holders. We have some of the best technicians in the state in our back shop and you can’t beat getting their expertise for free. In addition to that, we had such great success with our Homecoming tune special last year, we decided to do it again, so if you drop off and pay for your tune Homecoming weekend, you will save $10 on the tune, and you know they will be ready to rip on opening day.

4. What ski companies have you excited this year and why?
There is a lot of great gear out on the market this year, and I am really looking forward to getting out on the wide variety of skis in our demo fleet.

Volkl has retooled a lot of their most popular free skiing models, adding in early rise technology and dialing in the shapes of the skis themselves. Stockli continues to offer some of the highest quality skis on the market, and they absolutely haul. They will get you down the mountain in hurry, if that is your thing, and you will feel like you are on railroad tracks.

I really liked the Rossi Phantom 87 for an all-mountain, mid-fat ski, and the Carbon 82 was a terrific carving ski for anybody to get out on and enjoy. K2, Salomon, Atomic, and Fischer all continue to produce fantastic skis for every type of skier out there too.

All of the vendors have also really stepped up their women’s offerings, providing some really great, ripping skis for the women here at Sugarloaf, who are not generally looking for a girly ski.

It is, obviously, hard for me to say who I am most fired up about, because it really depends on what the day is like outside, and what kind of mood I am in. I do strongly feel that skis are a lot like cars and my driving style suits me for one type of car, while yours will make you prefer a different type. The best thing to do is get out on the hill and test drive a few and see for yourself.

5. If you could pick the ultimate Sugarloaf ski, what would it be?
For me, I think that the Volkl Mantra would be the best Sugarloaf ski. It is wide enough to keep you afloat on powder days, and yet with two sheets of metal and a slim 96mm under the foot it is burly enough on every other day of the season. That being said, if you still wish you were crashing gates on a daily basis, you should check out the Stockli SC or SL. They will get you down the hill in a hurry. For those days when you just want to cruise, making a variety of turn types on mostly groomed trails, the Rossi Carbon 82 is a great choice. I had a terrific day out on these last spring, cruising around, enjoying the sun and the mountain. Your ultimate Sugarloaf ski may very well be different from mine, but I guarantee that we have it here for you.

6. Say I want to try this ultimate ski before I buy it. How would I go about doing that?
Once you’ve read all the reviews, talked to the salespeople and your friends, there is only one thing to do in order to ensure total satisfaction, and that is to try out the ski itself. Our demo program provides you the opportunity to try before you buy, and gives you the most assurance you can get that you are going to be happy with your purchase for a long time to come. For $50 per day, you can take out several pairs of skis (we recommend no more than three per day, otherwise they start to blend together) and when you find the ones you love and can’t possibly think of living without, we will put however many days of demo fees you have racked up back toward the purchase price. Thus you aren’t out any money, and you know you got the best ski for you. To make this process go as quickly and painlessly as possible, talk to your salesperson in between skis. Tell him/her what you liked or didn’t like about the ski you were just on, and they will help guide you toward the best choice of what to try next. We here in the shop have skied everything on the wall, and want to make sure you get the best ski for you.

7. We’ve all been hearing a lot about rockered skis lately. What exactly does the mean, and why should we try it?
Awesome question, rockered skis are suffering from a lot of misconceptions and it is time to try and set the record straight. You do not have to wear baggy clothes, be a punk, or only ski powder to enjoy these skis. There are three types of rocker, traditional rocker, early rise, and reverse camber. A traditional rockered ski has a little bit of regular camber under the foot, then the tip and tail of the ski will rise up off the snow roughly 20cm from the binding. A ski with early rise will have almost a normal amount of camber in the ski, with the tip and/or tail coming up off the snow a little earlier than a on a traditional ski. Finally the reverse camber ski looks like the letter U when you put it on a flat surface instead of an N.

That’s it for definitions, now for why this is important to you. This is the first big improvement to skis since shaped skis took over fifteen years ago. Any type of rocker in a ski is going to allow it to plane up above the snow making the ski a lot more versatile than the GS skis you are forcing around the mountain now. Think about how hard it is to walk through water versus being on a pair of water skis flying over it. This is what rockered skis do for you. You are now pushing a lot less snow around, thus are not working as hard and will have more energy toward the end of the day. This makes it a lot easier to ski in all of the variable and ever-changing types of East Coast snow, from crud and mashed potatoes to death cookies and corduroy. Anther great benefit is that the ski’s rocker reduces the amount of pressure at the tip and tail of your ski, making it a lot less likely that you will catch an edge. Your ski is now easier to control. And all of you who have been saying for years that long skis will come back can tell your friends “I told you so.” Because of the shorter length of surface contact, you will want to get these skis a little longer than what you have been skiing on the past five or ten years. Oh, and it can make three inches of fresh snow feel bottomless, and what’s so wrong about that?

8. What is the fattest ski that you own?
My fattest pair of skis are the Volkl Kuro. They are 132mm under the foot. I got them last February, just in time for a big storm, and ended up skiing them for the rest of the spring. They were unbelievable in the powder, and I was very surprised as to how good they were on regular groomed trails, even holding an edge across scraped off icy patches. This is the ski that sold me on rocker being a good thing.

9. It’s been said that ski shop salesman-extraordinaire Jay Riley (pictured) could sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves. Is this true?
You bet it is. I have seen him do it. What makes Jay a great salesman isn’t his ability to pressure the customer into closing the sale, it is the breadth and depth of his product knowledge. Here in the Ski Shop, we all eat, sleep, and breath skiing; I think Jay has it in him at the molecular level. His knowledge, coupled with his honest desire to find the right product for you, not just the product that is here in the store. He would rather send you elsewhere to get the right stuff than sell you the wrong product. This sincerity has quickly earned him a lot of loyal customers.

10. There has been a scary rumor going around that 90’s era neon is making a comeback. Please tell us this is isn’t true.
What was old, is new again, this one is not a rumor. The ski companies, and more traditional clothing manufacturers are resisting the trend, but you will be seeing a lot of Bright colors out on the hill this winter, especially on freeride skiers and snowboarders. In the Ski Shop, you will see neon sneaking in, mostly in accessories like poles and goggles, but there will also be some bright colors beckoning you into the clothing department. I say, relax and enjoy it; I’m sure we’ll be back to earth tones in no time.