Electric Bicycles at Larson's!

Just arrived at Larson's are the Ultra Motors A2B electric bicycles! 

With two wheels, pedals, a chain and seven speeds it looks like a bicycle (a very mod, stylish one), but twist the throttle and you are silently zooming along at 20 miles per hour.  It's a whole new way to get to work, zip to the store or get some fresh air - and compared to driving your car it's more fun, easier to park and reduces fuel costs and your impact on the environment. 

We have two models in stock:

The Velociti has a 400 watt motor, up to 20 miles of range, normal bicycle wheels and tires (24" x 2.35"), front suspension and a top speed of around 18 miles per hour.

The Metro has a 500 watt motor, up to 20 miles of range (with the battery in the main frame tube or 40 miles of range with an optional extra battery), motorcycle sized wheels and tires (20" x 3"), full suspension and a top speed of 20 miles per hour.


Stop by to check out this new way to cruise around town and take a test ride!

Ski Show in Denver!

John, Ryan, Eric and Karen all trundled down to the convention center to check out the Ski Industry trade show over the last couple of days.  There was tons of cool stuff to look at that will be available for sale, starting in August of this year.  There wasn't anything that was tremendously different than this year.  But the colors sure are bright!  The '80s really might be coming back into fashion!

Learning to Wave Sail!

I have always been a little scared to actually try to windsurf in the waves.  Big chop, gorge swell, high wind, big sails....none of those have ever presented a problem, but the thought of actualy breaking waves, being held under water and breaking gear - that's the stuff of nightmares!  So now that I am in Florida more often, I decided that now is the time to learn to wave sail (disclaimer: learning to wave sail on the Gulf Coast of Florida is already starting in the kiddy pool - I know this). 

After having spent quite a few hours paddling a stand-up board (and a few of those in small surf) I felt ready to give it a try in the surf with a sail.  The perfect day presented itself last Saturday at North Beach in Ft. DeSoto here in St. Pete, FL.  There was small surf and some wind - but not really enough for the hard core wave guys to be out.  So I rigged a 5.6, grabbed the Fanatic 10'6" S.U.P. and headed out to see if I could sail in waves without being too scared to breathe. 

It was an absolute blast!  I was grinning from ear to ear and laughing out loud!  The board bobbed out thorugh the waves with ease, I was in control and didn't feel like the ball in a pin-ball machine ricocheting from wave to wave.  Coming back in, I could actually think about riding a wave and maybe even turning on the wave!  Wow - this wave sailing stuff is fun, it might even be the most fun ever!

So if you have ever thought about wave sailing but it is too intimidating - think about giving it a try on a stand-up board.  Rig a sail that is smaller than you would need to be fully powered up, control is your friend and you don't need to be fully planing for the board to be stable.  You can use the board in flat water and light wind for freestyle and cruising and if you have a paddle with you, you don't have to wait for the wind to blow.  The length means you might have to tie it to the roof of the car instead of putting it inside or in the trailer - but that's a small price to pay for the hours of smiles! I wouldn't head to South Texas without one!  Or better yet - come see me in Florida (in St. Pete or Cocoa Beach) and rent one for a few hours.  You can be a wave sailor too!

Your eco friendly ski shop

Everyone is talking about going green these days - and if'it's not going green in an eco-friendly kind of way it's holding on to more of your green, hard earned dollars! 

It can be hard to wade through all the conflicting information about what is and is not environmentally friendly.  It uses less fossil fuels to shop closer to home, but maybe a restaurant that is a little further away uses locally grown and rasied ingredients.  You can buy clothing made from bamboo, thinking you are having less impact on the environment by using a more renewable resource and then find out that the processing of the bamboo is just as bad as making polyester! (see the Wall Street Journal article from Nov. 20)

Here at Larson's we have been doing things that are good for the environment for years....we just thought we were being frugal!  We turn off lights at night and in the basement when no one is down there and we reuse everything we can - from cardboard boxes to file folders in the office to buckles off of otherwise broken ski boots.   Almost all of our employees live within 5 miles of the shop and serveral of them regularly travel to or from work via motorcycle or bicycle. 

Even in our repair shop we try to be effecient about how we use resources.  Our belt waxer that we use for hot waxing skis and snowboards wastes less wax and emits less wax vapor into the air than hot waxing with an iron and our Polyjet machine uses less polyehtelene for repairing ski and snowboard bases than using p-tex candles.

Our retail store is stocked with quality items that will keep you warm in the snow for years to come, so you don't have to replace them as often.  Wool socks from Point6 and wool base layer pieces from I/O Bio are both examples of items that come from a renewable source and will give you years of service in cold weather!  And our ski swaps are a great way to save money and reduce your impact on the environment by passing on gear that your kid's have grown out of to other people who can use it.

We don't claim to be making ski boots out of recycled newspaper or growing our employee lunches out back - but we do try to act responsibly and save money anywhere we can so the savings can be passed on to you!

Just When You Think You Have Ski Technology Figured Out....

Along comes the 2009/2010 ski season and all the crazy talk about reverse side-cut, reverse camber, water-ski technology is enough to make your head spin! 
The good news is that just a little bit of knowledge can demystify this newfangled rocker stuff!


Traditionally (you know, in the good old days….two years ago) skis were all narrower under your boot (at the waist) and wider at the tip and tail – the difference in the waist and tip and tail measurements is side cut. So, a ski with reverse side cut is wider under foot and narrower at the tip and tail. Only the most extreme, specialty skis of the new crop of models fall into this category (like the Pontoon or the Spatula- which have been out for a few years now and really started this whole trend).

Camber gets a little more complicated. When you set a ski flat on the ground without any weight on it – the middle of the ski is bowed up off the ground. That shape that’s built into the ski is also what gives the ski rebound or energy. When you flex the ski, it is bent against its camber and wants to return to that shape – the speed and intensity with which it rebounds is the “energy” in the ski.

So, reverse camber or rocker is bending the ski in the opposite direction. In general, the goal of all this fancy ski construction is to help the ski float in deep snow. So a little reverse camber in the tip of the ski helps the ski tip to rise in deep powder instead of diving.  Rocker is measured three ways; where the rocker is (tip or tail), the height off of the snow of the rockered portion of the ski and the length of the rockered portion of the ski.  So, the higher the rocker and the longer the length of the rockered portion of the ski - the more powder specific a ski becomes.

There is a great explanation of how rocker affects ski length on the Black Dimaond web site at  http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/blog/index/view/slug/how-rocker-affects-ski-length And, Larson's now has Black Diamond AT boots and bindings and telemark bindings!  Come in and check out our ever expanding back-country section of skis, boots, bindings and accessories!

A New Year!

Sorry for the long stretch with no news – it’s not that nothing has been going on, it is just been hard to find the time to put it all down.  So here’s the quick recap:

In late October Joanne, Ryan and I drove to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida for the Liquid Surf & Sail Fall Showdown.  We drove 24 hours straight through to New Orleans in the pouring rain (because Ryan had never been to New Orleans) and stopped at Café du Mond for hot chocolate and beignets.  A quick tour of the still hurricane ravaged gulf coast and then we were on to Ft. Walton Beach.   We had three days of racing and it was tons of fun.  From there, Joanne and Ryan flew back to Denver and I drove down to St. Petersburg beach to leave my van for the winter.

The next trip down was for the women's clinic that Dominique Vallee and I ran at the Banana River Windsurfing resort in Cocoa Beach, FL.  We had great wind (but it was a bit chilly) and the women who made the trek down from Colorado had a great time and improved a ton.  A special bonus was the night-time space shuttle launch that took place during the clinic.  And, as if getting to see a night shuttle launch wasn't enough - Dominique and I got to be on the water, windsurfing when it happened!  It was by far one of my most memorable windsurfing sessions ever!

Finally, the week between Christmas and New Year's we held a youth racing camp.  14 kids from the US and Canada spent four intensive days working on their racing skills.  Each day started with a run and stretching on the beach before breakfast and most days the last board wasn't off the water until after dark.  The kids worked on their pumping skills, racing strategy and tactics, did lots of start drills and even held a mock protest.  It was so exciting to be able to sail with and coach these kids - I'm confident that several of them will be finishing well at future world championships and we may even see them at the Olympics in 4 or 8 years!  You can see more about what's going on with the kids at www.teamusa-windsurfing.blogspot.com.  

And to make me feel even luckier than I usually do.... I got to spend a big part of New Year's day on the water, blasting around on small gear in the morning and my RS:X in the evening. Sunshine, wind and good friends to sail with - I can't imagine a better way to start the new year!

Toucan Open

Another Toucan Open has come and gone and once again we were lucky enough to have decent wind and weather. It only rained at night and the sun came out most of the weekend! You just never know who will show up at the Toucan and this year was no exception. Pete DeKay, editor of WindSport magazine stopped by on his way back to Toronto from Hood River, bringing PWA freestyle sailor, Phil Soltysiak with him. Who knew that Ogallala, Nebraska is exactly half way from Hood River to Toronto? Bobby Nabors, owner of Liquid Surf & Sail (with shops in Ft. Walton Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, FL) came up to escape from the stress of owning three windsurfing shops and hang out on the beach with us. Britt Viehman from North Beach Windsurfing in St. Petersburg, Florida also came to hang out with us and get back to his long board racing roots - actually he thought he was coming to race formula, but the combination of light wind and an F2 380 course board was all the convincing he needed.

We had most of the normal crowd from the Denver area and across Nebraska - it seems like a lot of our friends stayed home this year-I'm sure the cold, rainy forecast put a few folks off. On the other hand, participation has been on a downward trend for the past three or four years. So...does that mean everyone is losing interest? Are high gas prices to blame? Forecasts for cold weather? Or maybe we aren't promoting the event enough and everyone forgets when it is? I don't know what the reason is - but I do know that the Toucan is a pretty special event in a special place and I would hate to see it not happen.

In the last few days I've come up with this vision of the Toucan getting back to its roots. An event that just happens because everyone wants an end of the summer camp out/windsurfing party. No one would really have to organize anything. Anyone with a good idea for a shirt would have a couple dozen made up and bring them out to sell, everyone would bring a flag pole and raise a flag of some kind over their section of beach. The windsurfing clubs of New Mexico, the Rocky Mountains and Nebraska would decide to run a race. A few people from shops and magazines and windsurfing manufacturers would show up with a few things to give away and maybe the kiters would venture down and hang out with us.

Who's in?