Dumbest thing a shop guy has ever said to you....

Well when I went to Dick's so have my ar6s mounted, I asked for them at true centre, and left them for the week. Came back friday night (needed them the next day) and "Ohh, we haven't done them yet. So I stand there and he's going on about how his boss took the Look bindings jig home and he'd have to use the Marker one or something (Wtf?) and then says it's weird that armada doesn't have a line for true centre. He measures it out and sketchily with a jig that won't even go wide enough for the skis puts the bindings on. He gives them to me, I take a look and can tell straight away they're 2 back. Lay them on the floor nose to tail and they are. He says oh crap well you'll still be able to ski them and I say no I can't these are my PARK skis buddy. So I made him remount (debated that) and he got them 1cm OVER!! Not a good experience
 
i got my bindings mounted to my VCT;s and we agreed to put them 2 cm forward from this line on the ski we both agreed on. then i get them and they are +4 instead of +2 and i went back and talked to the manager

and he is like well we cant do anything until jp(guy you mounted them) looks at them

and im lik well you can oviously see that he messed up, these are 2cm off

and he goes well im not certified to tell

like wtf you cant tell 2cm off, dumbshit

all in all they replaced the skis and ima get them mounted elsewhere
 
walked into the Armada store with some Scott rental poles on me, from the European Armada boss himself (no joke):

- are those your poles?

- yes.

- they suck! you need better poles, like these new Armada poles!! $150 a pair!

- why?

- because they are better!! 

- mine were for free, and have ergonomic grips... the grips on your $150 poles suck!!! they have no shape at all..

- yes, it's called PROGRESSION man!

- so what, it's just a stick of aluminium, you don't even need poles.

- yes you do! without poles you look like an idiot!

- Pep Fujas kills it without poles.

- yeah I skied with Pep once. He used to be good, until he got injured...

- you're an idiot. stop ruining freeskiing.
 
boss is probably the wrong word, he's the importer for Europe or part of Europe, and he has a boutique store to go with it, only selling Armada, Orage... the conversation is accurate.
 
One thing I can't understand about a lot of the stories on here (although they are damn hilasious), is why you would trust people with obviously very little skiing experience to mount your skis? Even if it costs $20 more (a mount shouldn't be more than $30) at a real shop, you don't have to deal with the hassle of people that don't know shit. Support your local shops! not shitty sporting good stores
 
i went to a ski shop up in redmond and the guy there tried convincing me that mounting a ski at the traditional mounting point (instead of core center or something) made no difference on how the ski handled switch.
 
I was talking to my local shop tech and we were talking about my next pair of ski's i mentioned Armada and he was like bahh " Armada's are garbage you might as well ride 2x4's in the park' i quickly exited that conversation
 
i ride fks 155 on all of my skis and brought them into the shop just to have a core shot filled. the guy looks at my park skis points to the bindings and goes "is it hard to teli in the park" hahaha i tried so hard not to laugh and just told him they were an old style of alpine bindings we was so confused
 
bitch my knees are already fucked why don't you do me the favor, you didn't know something and you got told whats up now shut the fuck up and deal with it
 
as funny as a lot of these stories are and you guys can rip on alot of shop guys for not being knowledgable of the product but remember this:

- most shop guys won't go looking for information on skis as they go by what they are given by reps

- most guys on the floor never see their reps from independent companies (when i worked in a shop that carried armada i met the guy once in 2 years)

- freeskiing doesn't matter to most shops as they profit more from carving skis and racers

- freeskiers give shop managers headaches (coming in for warranty when they run into a rail or tree)

- twin tips are such an unimportant part of the market that shop owners do not care

so you guys can rip on shop employees as much as you want but just remember they're more than likely the product of their environment.

 
i mean this is a great shop but they kind of fucked up on this one:

Me: yeah i want my thrusters to have a center mount.

Guy: oh no problem man.

(I pick them up they are mounted -3 behind)

so from now on i ask for a true center mount and i repeat myself.
 
I was thinking about this the other day, why don't more snowboard shops start to carry freeskiing gear? Leave the racing skis and gaper gear at the mom and pop shops. Snowboard shops are way more laid back, easier to go in and browse around looking for what you want rather than directed and led around like sheep.
 
well they are called "snowboard" shops. and i alot of snowboarders that ride park just feel that freeskiers are someone else to get in thier way in the park. (i dont feel this way just saying my 2 best friends ski and i shred the rad with them al the time)
 
that might be the case in 15 years when all us kids are grown up with fat paychecks, but untill then, downhill carving skis rule the industry
 
oh my god dude, drop it. you're the moron arguing that the shop guy was right to say the purpose of twin tips is to initiate turns better...
 
never going to happen.

retailers have these things called "programs" basically to carry certain products they need to carry other products. for example, if a store wants to carry atomic's twin tips, they're going to need to carry a certain number of carving and race skis. sorry but no snowboard shop is going to do that.

why do brands do this? to get their products out there. you want to sell this year's hot new ski, you're also going to carry several other skis from that company.

snowboard shops are snowboard shops and will stay that way. and btw, these mom and pop shops with the "gaper gear" are the driving force in the industry. these are the people with the top bootfooters and the best technical know how.

 
are you blind? i never said that was their purpose, i said that they also help initiate turns better so the shop guy wasn't completely wrong, never said shit about that being the entire purpose of twin tips, and to answer the above response, i think i'm a human being that gave a reason to back up what the sales person told you proving that he is not completely incorrect, he actually is correct in stating that they help initiate turns better, because they do, you're negative response lead to another negative response and you should check yourself
 
You've got a damn good point about bootfitting and other services, i just hate the vibe at most ski shops, And i was unaware of the "programs" requiring the sales of carving skis or whatever, that's bullshit.
 
the board shop in my town started carrying skis but they only have line, armada and lib tech. I dont those companys have carving skis
 
It's not about carving skis

Retailers just have to carry most if not all of the products sold buy a company, so if they sell rossi's twins for example, they would also have to carry rossi carving skis.

But in the case of line, armada 4frnt ect. all of those companies skis are freeski oriented

 
we dont have a program at all at my shop. we carry lots of atomic twins and the only ski we have with a flat tail is the Squad. but yeah i love reading these threads and feeling lucky i live where i do where everyone knows their shit
 
Its really about just finding a small dedicated freestyle shop that knows whats up. In Seattle, I only trust two shops after REI almost broke my leg by BADLY mismounting my bindings. Talk to the people in the shop and make sure they know their shit.
 
I'm guessing you mean sorry Jay or Jason, as in Jason Levinthal.

And most of these conversations have to do with sports stores. if you want your shit done right, you have to go to a ski shop, not a sports store/outlet.
 
Location: Sports Den, SLC.

I am 6'3 and 165.

I am looking at a pair of 179 Hellbents. I want 189s, because 179 is obviously too short.

Here comes stumpy, the shop guy.

Stumpy: pretty sick skis huh?

Me; Yea, do you have 189s by chance?

Stumpy: not right now, the first pair we got in sold the day we got them, but we will have more. Why are you looking for a 189 anyways? You don't need that much ski.

Me: I'm 6'3 and 165, I ride 189 Maden's and they feel short. 

Stumpy: but look how fat they are.

Me: Yes, perfect, in a 189.

Stumpy: The EP pros are going to be a much better ski anyways. They are way stiffer and have the tapered sidecut in the tip, so you won't hook up on turns. Plus the "Early Rise" is mmuch better than the Rockered skis. EP pros would be better for oyu, you should buy them. they would be the hot ticket.

Me: These are definately better skis for me. I know for a fact they are stiffer too. the Ep only comes in a 184 by Line's measurements, which is miniscule compared to the way k2 measures a 189.

Stumpy: Whatever dude, You don't need that much ski. I'm probably a much better skier than you and I don't even need that much ski. Plus Line measures longer than k2, K2 measures short.

Me: What do you ski on?

Stumpy: I have Pocket Rockets.

At this point I looked at him incredulously, and said something along the lines of "you obviously don't know what you are talking about," and promptly left.

The time before that I was there they tried to sell me Thugs, telling me they were the best Big Mountain skis ever or something (conveniently marked at 950$ where the Made'ns were marked at 620$)
 
I don't like sports den much myself.

With that said, everytime I have spoken with them the employees who tend to deal with the ski department know what they are talking about.

My general qualm with them is that for some reason that store exudes a vibe that expresses I'm better than you.

But what I have most come to realize is that they can see us coming from a mile away. They know very well that we are not the people who are gonna walk in and buy skis off the wall from them, they market towards a slightly different crowd. I go to sports den often to look at things cuz its in a convenient location and they often have the inventory.

I think in many cases, shops general behavior is only a reflection of ourselves that we are neglecting to reflect on.

My point is, that sure sports den could cater to the freeski crowd a little (or a lot) better, but they have been doing well for years and they are sticking with what works for them. If you want legit service than go to Decade.
 
hahaha yea just picturing a guy named stumpy standing there with some of those blue pocket rockets leaning against his shoulder makes me laugh so much. with old guys like that I feel bad cuz all they really know about twins is probably what they read out of the catalogs which doesn't help considering catalogs don't really have a lot of legit facts about comparing skis, just why one ski is the best. I'd just try to educate poor stumpy so he can be the man and know what he's talking about next time a freeskier comes in. after all it may be hard to imagine but I think there are people out there who dont spend hour after hour scouring NS learning all about twin tips and freeskiing.
 
At the shop at my mountain there really good, but this mom and pop shop near my town there pretty bad with everything.

So i go in there an I say do you have any movies?

guy- (seriously) this is a ski shop, though i think theres a blockbuster down the street

me- no any movies with skiing in it?

guy- if you want to learn how to ski they have a pretty good program at the mountain
 
no.......he told them exactly what skis he came to look at/buy and the shop guy just went on about pro riders using only solomon and armada
 
well most people are having stories from people at REI or places like that, and of course they are not going to know as much as a small dedicated shop
 
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