You are 100% correct. Its tough for ski brands for sure.
We have been doing a lot of research to see how other ski brands comparable to Surface handle their warranties. Despite what a few people say on this website, we are right inline with other brands like Line and Armada.
Rail damage and abuse always void the warranty. Its a tough one too because park skiing is progressing like crazy but all ski companies, including Surface, would all go out of business if we warrantied every park ski that came back to us. We have to evaluate each warranty case individually and do our best to be fair.
Obviously when we tell a customer no, they are pissed and come directly to this website to yell and scream about what a shitty customer service they got which in most cases, it was user error i.e. kids landing on their back, slamming into rails and boxes and urban features etc.
A good example is a dude that skis for Surface, John Ware... he very rarely snaps a pair of skis. As a matter of fact, he only snapped one pair this season. No offense to any of you (me included), but John goes harder than most of us combined. Its because he skis well and actually lands on his feet. He's learned to crash properly.
And you are completely correct about the Blanks.. its exactly why we launched the program. Plain and simple, we are genuinely trying to make it easier on park skiers to stay on the snow after broken skis.
The Blanks are $250.00 and hands down the cheapest ski on the market... and we are selling them as singles too in case you break only one ski.
Thats it.