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Ski tuner fallline machine images11/14/2023 ![]() ![]() Both are embedded in the app to guide you through the drills and challenges. They have certainly chosen well: Eric Lipton is a PSIA ski instructor and member of the USA demo team and Kaylin Richardson is a former Olympian. Working with some of the world’s top ski instructors and coaches they have created challenge and drills sections to fine-tune your technique. The clever team of developers at Carv have more to offer than just monitoring your skiing. The constant monitoring and feedback might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it does help improve your ski technique and it is also fun! I ignore Dr J and chase my target of Level 20, concentrating on symmetrical edge angles. I roll my eyes as this sounds like hard work and not my thing but after the first couple of dings, I am addicted. Each metric has 20 levels and each level require lots of perfect turns and dings to pass. Get enough dings and I can’ level up’ and move on to a progressively more demanding criterion. If I do well, I will be rewarded with a ding in my ear buds if I do badly, a dong. Ava and her all-seeing boot inserts are going to crunch the data for each turn and decide if it’s worthy of a pass or fail. I barely have time to look at my metric data before Dr J has set me up to be tested on the Monitor section. The data is also presented on my phone and I can evaluate how many of my bad habits remain.ĭr J explains that the data is collected and with the use of cutting-edge gaming technology they are helping skiers of all abilities to improve by providing them with accurate feedback loops. Not only do I get a score, but some recommendations to improve. Once you stop the data is crunched and computed, and Ava whispers my IQ score into my ear once I am back on the ski lift. I am not the first journalist to test the device and Dr Jamie has a leader board, so the pressure is on and FL’s reputation is in my hands.Īs I ski, Carv effortlessly monitors my outside ski pressure, turn symmetry, edge angle, posture and balance and a bewildering bunch of other measurements – up to 35 different metrics per turn. We start with a ‘free run’: I ski and the system analyses my skiing data and will give me a skier IQ. He has already explained how the system works, linked my iPhone to the hardware and given me a set of ear buds so sexy-sounding that Ava can massage and shatter my ego at the same time. I am with Dr Jamie Grant, one of the company’s co-founders, and the man behind the concept. Once on, it is unnoticeable with your trouser legs pulled down. The tracking unit is slim and compact, as well as very stylish – in black with a chic backlit logo. All this is packed into a thin, boot-shaped insert that is compatible with every alpine boot on the planet. Forty-eight of the highest-grade pressure sensors are in each insert add to this the three accelerometers, the three gyroscopes and the three magnetometers. ![]() The technology behind the system is mind-blowing. ![]() Ava is the voice of the app, can give you a verbal weather report and knows where you are on the mountain all the time, as every ski piste in the world is compressed into the app databank. The tracker unit connects to your smartphone and the downloaded app does the rest, providing real-time updates on your skiing and offering suggestions on how to improve, simple really. Some users will find the data and its evaluation a little too honest for their rose-tinted glasses but it is very, very accurate.Ĭarv is a boot-shaped insert that slides easily between your shell and inner boot this insert is linked to a tracking unit that clips to your booster strap by a low-profile cable. It’s a very clever bit of technology that provides accurate data on how you ski. I am going to spend two days with the team from Carv, trying the inserts and trackers, having my photo taken and seeing if it will improve my ski performance. Why me? Well, I have been deputised by Fall-Line’s backcountry editor Martin Chester as his stunt double, a combination of his mega-busy diary and me being already in Austria. ![]() It’s October and I am there looking after 14 junior ski racers getting some pre-season training but have slipped away to test the Carv digital ski coach products. I’m on the Hintertux Glacier, in Austria. I don’t need any encouragement – I point my skis down the fall line and make the best turns I can trying to please and impress my new ski mistress. “Go get them tiger,” purrs Ava, the voice of Carv, in her slightly worryingly sexy machine voice. Accelerometers… magnetometers… gyroscopes… an alluring, all-knowing voice in your headphones… IFMGA mountain guide and Head of Skiing at Glenmore Lodge Andy Townsend gets addicted to a digital ski instructor created by a British team of ski-mad tech wizards. ![]()
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