Quote:Originally Posted by
Rossi Smash 
TeleBetty said the most entertaining part of the day was listening to Philpug and I having some gear talk over a cold bear in the sun after the last run....both her and Tog were just rolling their eyes.
We need more people next time, so grab those skis from the basement and show them a little love.
I would say it was highly entertaining. It would be difficult to recreate the dialog between Phil and Rossi. Essentially it would take hours to create, and I just don't have the 'material' down so I'd need consultants - gee guess who? Basically, it's almost anything from "that" era - skis, boots, bindings, even poles - though those apparently aren't really 'worthy' of collecting. The back and forth of model numbers and then sub models to those models then the next model numbers and variations on those models is quite staggering actually. Probably the military could develop Phil and Rossi into some sort of 'code talkers' because well, I doubt many others could understand it.
It goes something like this:
[note all inaccuracies in model #'s are my fault- I'm just making up stuff. They got them right- trust me, some things you just know!]
-[me] Hey Rossi, what's you're favorite ski of the '70's?
-Hmmm....well you'd really have to split that into three groups.[I think it was three] That was a time of massive changes. [right, I forgot that the 'dark ages' had a lot of different shades of colour. Of course we did burn witches once too]
You had the early 70's till about '73, then the mid '70s and the late. Very different and...
Some ski gets mentioned here, I think it's a K2 and now Phil comes in and they're discussing models.
-You've got the 244?
-Yeah I've got the early vesion of the 244
-You really need the 255 and the 244 short to round that out.
- Yeah I did just get that foam core VO .
- You know I've got that VO slalom in factory wrapper, unmounted with race room stock, handwritten flex rating.
-[as if this is the Hope Diamond] It's in the wrapper? What's the flex?
...
[note at this point I've been left in the dust, they're not even interested in the question, just the models and they've hit the turbo here]
- I've got that with the NT17
- That was good. Then they changed that toe roller on the NT27 and started painting it in the 44. The 17 was really the best....
-(me) Is that like a Nevada 77? I had those. [This is like asking if 'Ford' is a car]
-Yeah same thing just the toe was configured for a cam pressure roller with 2 spots lateral... [gibberish]
-This is why I like the current Look R16's...metal. These will be the Look __ of our day!!
[if you want to get in on the 'classic of our day', ask Rossi, or Phil to find out the model. All I know is that Stonehenge is in England]
[here for some reason Phil launches into a brief history of the Soloman __ binding. Maybe it was the barbeque wings]
-It started off as the 4421 then they enlarged the toe in the 42, new heel spring in the 44, changed the mount point in the 441, raised the toe height to make the 443, added a heel retainer shim for the 445....
[this goes on for only about a minute but goes through probably 40 iterations. Really, there's no way to recreate it]
- ....No I won't go through the whole thing, but that's a short history of the Soloman__binding
-[Rossi now] Yeah my mother had that 445 on her Rossi ___
-[me] Dude! You remember the binding model number on your mother's skis? How old were you?
- [as if this is like remembering the street you lived on] Yeah of course! I was 13.
[now they're into Rossi models]
-The 650, yeah maybe the best ever...
-Really liked the look of the Comp better but people who had both liked the regular.
- Yeah that was it. Got to get a pair of those.
- I've got a set. - The Comps though..
-Really you've got to have both...
Ok, this goes on endlessly with a few interruptions such as me saying, "What about that Kastle over there?" - This is some black straight Kastle ski on the rack that someone is using as their primary ski.
-[in unison] Nah...that's nothing...
I then attempt to get Rossi to say he would actually uh...cut that ski in half to make furniture or something. - Couldn't do it, even that "nothing" ski he would not consent to using it for other things.
See, you've got to go to Retro Day!
I still feel more comfortable on the old skis than the new ones, at least until it gets really soft and piled up. They have great edge hold and turn just fine thank you. AND they actually track in a striaght line instead of 'dancing' under you if they are not on edge.
I'm in
. I was 14. I must have tried to glue them back together four times before admitting defeat. Had to trade up to Vuarnets at some point didn't we?