Blossom ski

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Blossom ski

Postby h.harb » Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:29 am

Skiing with JBotti the last two days gave me the opportunity to ski the Blossom "Whiteout" ski. I had previously skied the GS skis in Europe and they were horrible. So you could see my hesitation about the Blossoms. I was and so was Diana, pleasantly surprised at what we found. We skied it everywhere and on all conditions, the ski performed extremely well. In fact, it was so good we are looking into carrying it at our shop for PMTS skiers.

I'll give an objective evaluation of the Whiteout's characteristics. Coming from a ski like an iSpeed you immediately feel the ease at which it begins a turn. This is due to the rocker and the light feel. Easy into the turn doesn't always mean good carving or holding for every ski that does this, but the "WhiteOut" ski surprises you. Tip it further and further with the lower body, (ankles, knees, and legs) basically, the better it holds and carves. This ski is a brushed carve champion at moderate angles and if you really tip and flex the inside leg it arcs a tight radius with a really nice controlled, energetic, rebound. Quick short turns, even on steeps like "Dreamcatcher" are not out of reason.

It is very stable at higher speeds approaching GS turns.

The one thing that will not work on this ski is just dropping the hip inside. The width and the sidecut will not give you what you want with this kind of move. The "Whiteout" needs to be tipped through the whole radius, called "continuous tipping". The ski is too wide and doesn't have the sidecut to pull you through the turn by using hip angles alone. Also, if you are using a hip thrust to start your turn you will overturn it and lose any carving. If you use a push off and have to wait for your hip to drop for angles, it will not ski well.

If you do test the ski and find this is the case; I recommend that you don't give up on the ski, it can teach you. This ski because of its width requires foot tipping to get angles that will make it perform. Learning to make this ski do what you want it to will tell you if you have achieved proper lower body angle development through proper continuous tipping.

What I'm saying is that really good PMTS skiers will appreciate the ski and improve as they learn to get the best out of the design.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby HeluvaSkier » Wed Mar 27, 2019 8:56 am

Harald,
I'm glad to see you finally were able to get on a pair of White Outs. I've been singing their praises since I got my first pair in 2012 (you all thought I was crazy back then... you were probably right... but that doesn't mean they aren't good skis!). ErikCO and I were skiing ours at Loveland yesterday and had a blast on them.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby h.harb » Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:04 am

I had bad experiences with the product before this, is all I'm saying. The GS was horrible, unskiable. I used it for 5 days almost destroyed my knees. A ski company can ruin its reputation if it makes a bad GS ski and it's the only one you skied. That experience doesn't bring you to wanting to try other skis they make, especially if you already have skis that work really well.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby Vailsteve » Wed Mar 27, 2019 7:25 pm

Please carry them!! I need a new pair of Blosson/Hart’s. My Hart Pulse’s are pushing 120 plus days over the last two seasons and they have definitely softened up.

But I am REALLY enjoying my new Speedzone 14’s. This ski rocks!! Took awhile though...probably 25 days straight skiing on them as of today. They have become the first pair I pull out of the locker room...they are as good if not better than my Stockli’s.

GREAT recommendation, as usual, from HSS.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby A.L.E » Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:55 pm

I'm on my 16th day on my new White Outs. Twelve days last month in Big Sky and now into the first few days of two weeks here in Telluride. I'm enjoying every moment on them in all sorts of conditions.

They were difficult to get hold of though. I ordered them through the Canadian distributer, I'm not sure there is one in the USA and there is none in my Australia. Anyway, from my experience all I can say is the Canadian distributer guy is dodgy. I would not recommend anyone deal with him. It took nearly 4 months to get the skis and in the end I had to make direct contact with Blossom in Italy to get delivery action. Until then I'd been given endless excuses as to why the skis hadn't arrived. They were all lies. Blossom I'm sure would be pleased to have someone reputable to distribute in the USA.

Harald, the guy I was dealing with at the Blossom factory is Davide Menicatti. If you'd like email addresses etc let me know or PM me.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby h.harb » Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:00 pm

We are looking into carrying them. I will contact the Italians. If you can get me some idea of how much demand there is; we would order enough to satisfy everyone and more. If we don't we will be conservative with the order and may run out of the skis fast.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby ErikCO » Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:04 pm

I love my set (I have 170s). Got lucky and purchased them from a private individual who had an extra pair after trying, unsuccessfully, to get them on eBay.. I would echo A.L.E. on the eBay Canadian distributer. I tried to get a set from griffintowninc. Am now 4 months into the process and still getting the run around on a refund, as the skis haven't arrived and all I get are delayed assurances that they are shipping at some point or another. That seller lists the skis as if they are in stock, then says he had to order them from the company when you actually purchase them. (Mods, please PM me if you want this info removed. Just thought I would echo experiences so others can avoid a bad experience trying to purchase a ski that Harald is commenting positively on.)

I've been skiing mine in basically all conditions. They are amazing on groomers (and I'm surprised at how fast they feel from edge to edge, considering they are 77mm under foot), have done well in 6-8 inches of powder as well as wind-blown snow in the various bowls in Summit County. They cut through crud very well. The only area I don't like them in is bumps. I really find them to be too stiff for my bump ability level and end up getting bounced around a lot with hurting feet and shins. This is almost certainly a deficiency in my technique (still need to do a dedicated bumps camp), but I don't have the same problem skiing my iSL's or SS iSpeed in bumps.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby A.L.E » Fri Mar 29, 2019 6:46 am

Erik your experience/situation with the Canadian distributer (Gennaro Petti - GriffintownInc - Canadian ABC) is exactly the same as mine. A whole bunch of emails over 3-4 months giving excuses as to why the skis hadn't arrived. The truth is they have not placed the order with the factory. You need to contact Blossom directly and give them the details. In my case Blossom contacted Gennaro Petti immediately and got it sorted out, the skis arrived 10 days later. I will direct message you the contact details of who to email at Blossom.
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby speedcontrol » Mon Apr 01, 2019 6:45 am

Is the ski sutable for advanced PMTS skiers only or also for more starting levels ?
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Re: Blossom ski

Postby HeluvaSkier » Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:22 am

speedcontrol wrote:Is the ski sutable for advanced PMTS skiers only or also for more starting levels ?


Advanced and up. Re-read this from Harald's original post:

h.harb wrote:The one thing that will not work on this ski is just dropping the hip inside. The width and the sidecut will not give you what you want with this kind of move. The "Whiteout" needs to be tipped through the whole radius, called "continuous tipping". The ski is too wide and doesn't have the sidecut to pull you through the turn by using hip angles alone. Also, if you are using a hip thrust to start your turn you will overturn it and lose any carving. If you use a push off and have to wait for your hip to drop for angles, it will not ski well.


This is quite advanced PMTS skiing. The type of skier who can let this ski 'teach' them is already a proficient PMTS skier. Specifically, the mastery of tipping required to make this ski really work, is quite high, and the width makes that more challenging. I have coached on the White Out before, which means doing a lot of tipping drills, and even for me, the White Out makes many PMTS drills less accessible (especially phantom turns, or anything where you balance on just the BTE and LTE edges).
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