Things ridiculous ski shop customers say

As a shop employee I told people how to turn up their own dins. I was not allowed to turn them any higher than the din sheet allows, but felt they should know how to do it.

My best conversation starter was. “You going on any big trips this year?”. Got em talking and excited about skiing every time.

When I was boot fitting I’d ask customers what size shoe they were and they’d tell me something like, “13”. I fit them up for a 27.5 and they're pleased. I give the big reveal that they’re actually wearing a size “9” boot. They always looked so demasculated. “I’ve never worn a size 9!?!? No way!” Possibly fave thing to tell a customer. (I used to think I was a 28 and now wear a 25, so I’ve been there)
 
To be fair my dad lives in CT now but when he lived out here in the mid 90s he was a gnarly skier. He still has his old 210s from then but doesn't ski anymore since he hurt his back. When I was little I remember seeing him rip a zipper line in the early 2000s in his 40s when he was teaching me to ski. I still cant do that.

13933718:Kulkea said:
Ha, love when Dad chimes in: "I like to ski bumps!"

**This post was edited on Jul 25th 2018 at 6:10:54pm
 
I tried to get an old rossi racing board that was way too big for me and set to ski binding style screws mountains with some burton freestyles I bought at the shop. This was 98-99 though. Bought it at a garage sale for 5 bucks. Luckily one of the shop guys mentions they were having a big sale at the ski area nearby in October. Bought a board that worked. I got them "mounted" at the shop I think when buying some boots and then went from there.

Also was looking at a board that was too small for me because it was cheaper. Idk, I totally get when people aren't trying to spend an absurd amount of money to ski.

There's that balance point of being safe, comfortable, but not necessarily needing top of the line everything. It's frustrating for the shop guy explaining it 50 times a day, but also the same on the family who probably still doesn't even understand why their son wants these special trick skis.
 
13933726:860media* said:
Yea a monkey could adjust din settings....but so can a shop. This "tactic" has been working just fine for years so preach what ya want!

**This post was edited on Jul 24th 2018 at 3:23:53pm

But you can't?
 
A quick question for all you employees who know gear, what brake do I put on my attack2 13s, also if anyone in SLC wants two pairs of tyrolia powerrails 110 for their store for the upcoming season I'll buy you a six pack of your preferred beer to take them off my hands at a reasonable price, or trade if possible for a pair of brakes that actually fit on my bindings.
 
13933850:freeskibum82 said:
the test procedures for bindings fail this exact scenario. If the binding does not return to center if fails the tests.

real question here: Is this true? I always have to kick my pivot toe piece back into place after ejecting "barrel roll style", I always just thought it was spring tension that kept it from popping back.
 
13934103:Melbourne. said:
real question here: Is this true? I always have to kick my pivot toe piece back into place after ejecting "barrel roll style", I always just thought it was spring tension that kept it from popping back.

With the marker binding form i've used it is part of the test procedures. Just think. if it can get stuck out, what makes you think it wont get stuck in and not let you release? This was the issue with many marker m900, m1000,m1100 style binding toe pieces. Usually i do the same test several times on the bindings because many of times it just hasnt been exercised in that direction from either sitting all summer or the person just never released that way.
 
13933825:altasupport said:
Actually this one was truly the worst. A lady had purchased new skis with rossignol axial bindings. These bindings have the same toe piece as fks14s, so they allow the boot to twist out of the binding barrel-roll style. That's what they're designed to do, but sometimes they get stuck in that barrell roll position, and you have to use some force to push it back. The lady comes in, having just prereleased, with the toepiece in that barrell roll position.

I push it back in position, hand it back to her, and she goes "I'm gonna need you to do A LOT more than that." I was confused, and explained to her that it happens all the time, the binding is designed to do that to protect your knee. I explained that it can be easily pushed back into position, by her or a tech, and if she wants the ski to stay on better, she can change her skier type from type 2 to type 3, then we can adjust her DIN. She starts to argue that we sold her a disfunctional binding.

This is where it gets bad. I explained that theres nothing wrong with the binding. She demands to speak to a manager, who inevitably tells her the same thing. She continues to argue. We call the rossignol rep, put him on speaker, and have him explain that the binding is designed to do that, her knee may have been hurt if it hadn't. Still she continues to argue, threatening to sue us and calling us all kinds of names. Finally, the owner, who happened to be in that day, talks to her, again explaining that the binding is functioning exactly right. She won't shut up, and at this point there are several other customers who are not being helped because the entire shop is arguing with this idiot. The owner caves and gives her a pair of Salomon z12s, our cheapest and by far shittiest binding, I mount them, and get her out of there. She insisted not to change her DIN, and went home with a significantly worse binding than the one she started with. All because she thought a binding broke when it did exactly what it was supposed to do. She ignored a ski tech, a manager, a company rep, and the owner of a ski shops advice about how the product is designed to work, just because she was mad about falling and wanted something free. I still get angry thinking about that dumbass bitch.

hahaha i ride the axial on my skis and they got stuck like that one time before i knew they worked like that. took em to the shop and they explained it to me and i was like sweet thanks. that lady is insane
 
Just to clear the water, I own a screwdriver and I know how to mount skis hahahaha. I have done it multiple times to multiples different pairs of skis. Just trying to say it would be rad to see some policies change, so that shops could actually help you out as a customer. Sorry for stating my opinion, go back to doing what you do.
 
13934182:860media* said:
Just to clear the water, I own a screwdriver and I know how to mount skis hahahaha. I have done it multiple times to multiples different pairs of skis. Just trying to say it would be rad to see some policies change, so that shops could actually help you out as a customer. Sorry for stating my opinion, go back to doing what you do.

Just to clear your the fog in your pea-brain. Your 'shop' isn't going to take on the 'liability' of giving you something, with which, you can seriously hurt yourself.

It would be 'rad' if the shop paid me to mount my skis. That would help me as a 'customer.'
 
13934184:SnickleFriz said:
Just to clear your the fog in your pea-brain. Your 'shop' isn't going to take on the 'liability' of giving you something, with which, you can seriously hurt yourself.

It would be 'rad' if the shop paid me to mount my skis. That would help me as a 'customer.'

I was thinking more along the lines of me signing away my life...the shop getting money for mounting my skis and dont have to worry about being liable for me haha
 
13934184:SnickleFriz said:
Just to clear your the fog in your pea-brain. Your 'shop' isn't going to take on the 'liability' of giving you something, with which, you can seriously hurt yourself.

It would be 'rad' if the shop paid me to mount my skis. That would help me as a 'customer.'

It's very easy to kill yourself on any pair of skis so maybe we should just stop selling skis to anyone and just never go outside.
 
13934195:paperboy said:
It's very easy to kill yourself on any pair of skis so maybe we should just stop selling skis to anyone and just never go outside.

Good point Dexter. It is especially easy when doing shitty flairs.
 
13933695:860media* said:
Shop "dudes" are the WORST. I usually have to go to a few shops until I figure out what shop will mount my skis. Usually takes about 3 or 4 times before they accept my skis to be mounted also.....new skis and boots 2 years ago and the bindings weren't up to standard I guess. Year after that the same bindings passed, but my boots with brand new soles didn't. Had my dad bring in my same setup and they mounted them no questions asked HAHAHA. This year I had a completely different setup with all new stuff and they told me "THOSE AREN'T THE BOOTS YOU RIDE" so they wouldn't mount my new setup for me. So had to go get my skis mounted by my friend about 2 hours away and miss work/a few days of skiing. If you don't buy your skis from that certain shop a good chance they will give you a hard time mounting them. So overall I would say i'm not a huge supporter of shops around me. To be honest I go to snowboard shops more than skiing ones....Sucks because I would really love to support the people who help run our sport. But, until they start loosening up policies and hire people that know about the freestyle part of skiing we will always have trouble getting stuff mounted.

P.S. if ya wanna high dim tell them your weigh way more than you actually do....I usually say i'm in the 200Lb+ club

I swear this is the central ct/southern vt MO. I feel you
 
13933850:freeskibum82 said:
the test procedures for bindings fail this exact scenario. If the binding does not return to center if fails the tests.

So if your look pivot heel piece stays rotated after releasing, then its a binding fail and unsafe? marker and look are different bud.
 
13934370:karlmarx said:
So if your look pivot heel piece stays rotated after releasing, then its a binding fail and unsafe? marker and look are different bud.

we're talking about the toe piece troll.
 
Shops often hate tech boots. I have Dalbello Lupo AX's with tech inserts and alpine soles (passed the release test in my fks 180's) and when I wanted to put jesters with quiver killers in my jj's (already quiver killered for kingpins) they freaked out and said I can never use that boot in a non touring binding. Sucked it up and used my kingers inbounds for the week and my shop at home did it without any issue. They even set the dins to 11 and only got a warning that they're not responsible when my knees explode.
 
13933984:BigPurpleSkiSuit said:
A quick question for all you employees who know gear, what brake do I put on my attack2 13s, also if anyone in SLC wants two pairs of tyrolia powerrails 110 for their store for the upcoming season I'll buy you a six pack of your preferred beer to take them off my hands at a reasonable price, or trade if possible for a pair of brakes that actually fit on my bindings.

For real though, please, I want brakes.
 
13934522:BigPurpleSkiSuit said:
For real though, please, I want brakes.

Where did you buy them? They should be the Tyrolia D brakes I believe. Did you buy from somewhere advertising as working with the attacks? If so you should be able to send them back no?
 
Lol all the times a kid has came in the shop, asking for a screwdriver, and claims he knows how to “mount his skis.”
 
13933761:EvanMeyer said:
"Would you recommend I wear my timberland work boots snowboarding I already spent $500 on this board and binding setup and don't think I need snowboard specific boots"

Aha the guy who can't see a difference between snowboard boots and other boots.

"Yeah I don't need to rent boots these ones fit in the bindings and they're pretty warm" (Holding up pair of generic winter boots)
 
No I got them from backcountry and it was my first time buying a setup. Didn't try to mount them until it was past a month so I'm kind of stuck with them

13934535:mystery3 said:
Where did you buy them? They should be the Tyrolia D brakes I believe. Did you buy from somewhere advertising as working with the attacks? If so you should be able to send them back no?
 
13933844:HiasKrallinger said:
Can i ski like dollo with that ski?

12 year old skinny kids 150cm tall:

What is your preferred ski width?

Id say smthn around 100/105

you ski offpiste too?

No Park only!

I guess you are a very good skier than?

yeah i can do a 360 and now iam learning railslide to switch!

so i would say take a thinner one than thats easier to handle.

Why?

and i guess everyone knows the rest of the convo.

You sell trackpants too?

Fuckouttamystore

You sell track pants too lmao this is the quality content I came back for I'm dead
 
13933732:Kulkea said:
I use paper jigs these days, they're free! However, it is a bit nerve wracking.

You can also photocopy the bottom of your bindings and use the paper as a guide.
 
13935123:elm. said:
You can also photocopy the bottom of your bindings and use the paper as a guide.

say what? the template at least has the spacing for BSL. if i just photocopy the bottom of my bindings how do i know where the toe and heel are to be set for the bsl of my boot?
 
13934103:Melbourne. said:
real question here: Is this true? I always have to kick my pivot toe piece back into place after ejecting "barrel roll style", I always just thought it was spring tension that kept it from popping back.

Anyone have a picture of this? Never happened to me, but the toe piece getting stuck open would be weird. Can't be normal.

Just to be clear y'all are talking about the toe piece, not the AFD or the heel piece?
 
13935171:IsitWinterYet17 said:
Anyone have a picture of this? Never happened to me, but the toe piece getting stuck open would be weird. Can't be normal.

Just to be clear y'all are talking about the toe piece, not the AFD or the heel piece?

This is the farthest I have ever had it pivot when I ejected. All I had to do was hold my ski with one foot and kick the toe piece with the other and it popped back into place.
 
13935132:freeskibum82 said:
say what? the template at least has the spacing for BSL. if i just photocopy the bottom of my bindings how do i know where the toe and heel are to be set for the bsl of my boot?

By measuring. Most heel pieces have some amount of adjustment, so if you count the amount of clicks and set it to the middle position, then you drill and put them in and you're a millimeter off it's no big deal. Bindings like marker griffons have a stupid amount of adjustment, like 40mm where as FKS it's pretty minimal.

Some people, mostly ski techs who rely on jigs, will bash me for this and tell me it's unsafe or you'll probably mess up, but whatever, I've done it several times successfully. The hardest part is making sure the bindings are straight. If you're confident in your measurements it's not difficult.

Another DIY thing you can do instead of buying a special drill bit is putting some sort of "block" on the drill bit. I usually wrap duct tape around several times so the drill bit only goes as deep as I want it to and no further. Call it sketchy but it works and saves me money and time.
 
13935182:Melbourne. said:
This is the farthest I have ever had it pivot when I ejected. All I had to do was hold my ski with one foot and kick the toe piece with the other and it popped back into place.

Holy fuck! I would totally think this is broken. Is that really normal operation? It doesn't show that in the release diagrams. Just lateral at the toe
 
13935207:IsitWinterYet17 said:
Holy fuck! I would totally think this is broken. Is that really normal operation? It doesn't show that in the release diagrams. Just lateral at the toe

I thought it broke the first time, but that has happened more than once on both skis after that. I mean I ate shit decently hard so it really didn't surprise me to much. But if this isn't supposed to happen can someone tell me that? Should I just start a gear talk thread?
 
13935182:Melbourne. said:
This is the farthest I have ever had it pivot when I ejected. All I had to do was hold my ski with one foot and kick the toe piece with the other and it popped back into place.

13935207:IsitWinterYet17 said:
Holy fuck! I would totally think this is broken. Is that really normal operation? It doesn't show that in the release diagrams. Just lateral at the toe

Yeah, the time this happened to me I was like WTF, luckily I was with a dude who said no I got it and kicked it back into place

No idea if it's "normal" operation but fwiw mine happened while I was literally tomahawking, really nasty fall
 
13935197:elm. said:
By measuring. Most heel pieces have some amount of adjustment, so if you count the amount of clicks and set it to the middle position, then you drill and put them in and you're a millimeter off it's no big deal. Bindings like marker griffons have a stupid amount of adjustment, like 40mm where as FKS it's pretty minimal.

Some people, mostly ski techs who rely on jigs, will bash me for this and tell me it's unsafe or you'll probably mess up, but whatever, I've done it several times successfully. The hardest part is making sure the bindings are straight. If you're confident in your measurements it's not difficult.

Another DIY thing you can do instead of buying a special drill bit is putting some sort of "block" on the drill bit. I usually wrap duct tape around several times so the drill bit only goes as deep as I want it to and no further. Call it sketchy but it works and saves me money and time.

im glad its working out for you that way but how do you then check your forward pressure? I would never do that method to mount a pivot as they have very little adjustment of the heel. Yes the griffons have a decent amount but you really are better off just going on another forum on the internet where i hear paper jigs are easily found. If you are consistently mounting the same binding, print out that jig, cut out the areas and laminate it. I've had to do that in the past.

As for saving time, your method is way slower than just going to a shop on their slow night with a 6 pack and having a certified tech do it with a jig. 20min job max. There is no way the time it takes to find a photocopier and spend all that time measuring and making sure its centered is faster than going to a shop. and $30 to mount really isnt that bad.
 
13935260:freeskibum82 said:
im glad its working out for you that way but how do you then check your forward pressure? I would never do that method to mount a pivot as they have very little adjustment of the heel. Yes the griffons have a decent amount but you really are better off just going on another forum on the internet where i hear paper jigs are easily found. If you are consistently mounting the same binding, print out that jig, cut out the areas and laminate it. I've had to do that in the past.

As for saving time, your method is way slower than just going to a shop on their slow night with a 6 pack and having a certified tech do it with a jig. 20min job max. There is no way the time it takes to find a photocopier and spend all that time measuring and making sure its centered is faster than going to a shop. and $30 to mount really isnt that bad.

You check the forward pressure the same way.... I don't get the question. For FKS and common bindings I'll use a paper jig. Laminating is a great idea.

I think I can do it faster than a shop when you factor in driving to the shop and back and telling them where to mount it. Takes me 20 mins, too. And $30 is cheaper than any shop I've been to. I find it to usually be around $45.

This doesn't matter, though, because in reality it takes a week for epoxy to fully cure (even the 5min epoxy), and probably two days for skis to be safely skied on, so you shouldn't ski right after mounting anyways. I'm not saying you can't, just that you're more likely to have problems in the future. Rotting skis can happen because of this.
 
13935254:LukeTheWaffle said:
In a shop I over heard someone asking if a candide 3.0 was a piste ski

Was in austria once when I heard a guy ask if Benchetlers were suitable for piste riding with his family.
 
Was in a ski shop recently and I wanted to make a shout out to the incredibly composed employee who was getting berated by some moronic ski mom about how they mounted the skis wrong on her son's "twin tips".

"He's been skiing twin tips for years! These skis are mounted like a traditional ski and definitely not center. It's OBVIOUS! Is he even going to be able to land backwards with those!?! I want a refund."

"ma'am, the skis are mounted at core center. We can move them to true center but there might not be enough thickness to do so. I wouldn't recommend it."

"whats true center?"

"True center is if you took the length of the ski and mounted them in the dead center. They are mounted right now at the manufacturer recommended center point as it says here on the ski, see? You did not specify this when you dropped them off, but we will gladly remount them for you. "

That's the jist of what happened. This lady went on for at least 15+ minutes. I would have lost it. If your son is such a good skier, why is his mommy dealing with what he wants and doesn't want from a shop. Sheesh.
 
^If you don't know that center means the center of the ski then you shouldn't be mounting bindings. "Core center" is a stupid term and should never be confused for center. It's called recommended. I would be pissed if a shop tried to use that excuse. Any good tech / shop employee double checks with the customer anyway.
 
I was listening in on a convo at my ski shop

Customer- "These are what I want"

Employee- "Ok any specific binding requests"

Customer- "Oh I thought they came with these" *points to binding*

Employee- "We can do that, let's ring you up"

They get ringed up and I am on the other side of the store looking at goggles and hear

"THESE ARE HOW MUCH???"

I'm assuming she didn't read the tag that said just fhe skis without any bundle of bindings and poles or boots. I was talking to one of the employees who I know well and he starts laughing at that and said that it happens on a daily basis
 
13935254:LukeTheWaffle said:
In a shop I over heard someone asking if a candide 3.0 was a piste ski

It is if your piste is big. I demo'd them and thought there were great for in-bounds in Tahoe.
 
13934103:Melbourne. said:
real question here: Is this true? I always have to kick my pivot toe piece back into place after ejecting "barrel roll style", I always just thought it was spring tension that kept it from popping back.

I think the technical form of this question we should be asking is basically, "Does a toe piece which does not recenter conform to ISO 9462?"

I believe the answer to that is highly likely to be "No" because ISO 9462 has a section 6.4 called "Energy adsorption (recentering)" which includes 6.4.1 "Requirements" and 6.4.2 "Testing." That said, it costs money to obtain a full copy of the ISO spec and I'm not about to drop $150 on that just to answer this question. Seehttps://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:9462:ed-4:v1:en

**This post was edited on Dec 8th 2018 at 6:27:02pm
 
13969975:Lemuel said:
^If you don't know that center means the center of the ski then you shouldn't be mounting bindings. "Core center" is a stupid term and should never be confused for center. It's called recommended. I would be pissed if a shop tried to use that excuse. Any good tech / shop employee double checks with the customer anyway.

Yeah I guess you're right. It was just humorous listening to this lady. I may have gotten the complete story wrong and what she asked for may have been what they did but the summary was that it was mounted wrong and this lady was losing her shit. They even offered to replace the skis and bindings if her son didn't like them and she was still livid. Meanwhile the shop employee was chill as hell and took one hell of a beating for something he may have had no part in.
 
13933726:860media* said:
Yea a monkey could adjust din settings....but so can a shop. This "tactic" has been working just fine for years so preach what ya want!

**This post was edited on Jul 24th 2018 at 3:23:53pm

860media cannot read forward pressure
 
13933707:pholtan said:
“Do these gloves fit?” (Holding hand out in front of you)

I looked the customer straight in the eye

"You know the saying 'fits like a glove?'"

Customer: "Yeah."

Me: "I'll be at checkout whenever you're ready."
 
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