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2007 Winter Outdoor
Retailer & SIA Trade Show Video Interviews
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Rottefella President
Ulf Bjerknes
November, 2007-- Long before Ulf Bjerknes became
famous for coining the memorable term "pink horse with golden
hair" in an extrodinary exchange with Black Diamond President
and CEO Peter Metcalf (see TeleNews), we had the following on-camera
chat with Rottefella's head honcho at the Winter OR Backcountry
Basecamp. On this day, the long awaited North American on-snow
debut of Rottefella's NTN, Ulf shared his thoughts on many things,
including the importance of getting the NTN off to a good start
in the U.S. market, Rottefella's future NTN development plans,
and more. |
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Scarpa-North America
CEO Kim Miller
February 5, 2007--
It's usually our idea. Not this time. Kim Miller met with us
right from the start with props in hand, locked, loaded and ready
to deliver his strong message of support and enthusiasm for Rottefella's
NTN binding and Scarpa's own NTN boot. In the process, Kim makes
what very well may be the best case we have ever heard articulated
in favor of the NTN.
"What the binding and the system bring
to the market is a new way of thinking about the possibilities...
and the future of telemark..." So begins Miller as he endeavors
to tell the NTN story from his own unique and passionate perspective,
that is as someone who has been close to the action going back
to the days of "the consortium" nearly a decade ago,
and right up through the North American debut of the NTN the
morning we shot this interview late last month.
In part two, Kim Miller talks about the
versatility of their NTN boot, showing it in a Dynafit AT binding
and discussing its possible use in other AT bindings as well.
Interestingly, Miller also made it clear that Scarpa see's itself
as a kind of Switzerland in what we have called the "Battle of
the Titans," saying, "we are binding neutral...
if BD comes up with a cool new binding system our only hope is
that they will let us build boots for it."
Kim Miller is a class act. He has been
one of the most well liked and respected individuals in the telemark
and backcountry skiing industry for many years. He came to us
with a clear and well thought out message for our viewers, whether
you agree or disagree with what he has to say about the NTN and
it's potential importance to the future of telemark skiing, Miller's
thoughts are well worth hearing. |
Top: Kim Miller makes
his case for the NTN. Bottom: Miller shows Scarpa's NTN boot
in a Dynafit binding
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K2's Mike Hattrup
January 30, 2007-- Hattrup runs through K2's lineup
of popular tele skis in this interview shot a couple of days
ago at OR. He tells us about the changes to the now 102mm waist
Anti Piste and to K2's Work Stinx before we get to what was really
on both of our minds: Rottefella's North American debut of their
New Telemark Norm (NTN) binding. "In my eyes the new binding
is a level above everything out there in terms of edge hold,
precision and steering power," says Hattrup.... and that's
just the beginning as Hattrup is clearly excited at the prospect
of competing boot/binding systems from Rottefella and Black Diamond.
About BD, Hattrup says, "that's a super progressive company,
their passionate and it's going to be very interesting to see
what they have coming down the pipe." Indeed. |
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Even Wollo &
Oyvind Aaanes
January 28, 2007-- Wollo is Rottefella's lead NTN
designer and Aanes is in charge of the launch of the NTN. From
both the skiing side and the engineering side of things, no one
knows the NTN system better than these two gentlemen. If you
have questions concerning how and why the NTN works the way it
does, and skis the way it does, Even and Oyvind have the answers,
so it was a real pleasure to talk with them at the Backcountry
Basecamp demo event and learn more about the new NTN boot and
binding system. We learned a lot in this nearly 11 minute chat
and we think you'll find what they had to say to be very interesting
and informative as well. |
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Steve Kvinlaug
on Crispi's NTN Boot
February 6, 2007--
Steve Kvinlaug is Vice President of Sales at Alpina Sports, Crispi's
U.S. distributor. We have chatted with Steve for years at the
shows and, well, let's just say that Steve isn't very excitable,
especially as compared to those of us who tend to run a little
hot. And surprisingly for a sales guy, he doesn't seem to have
a rah rah rah bone in his body. So we weren't exactly expecting
the relatively energized, enthusiastic and fired-up-on-the-NTN
Steve Kvinlaug we met with at OR recently. The passion with which
he talked about the project and its potential impact on the future
of telemark skiing was surprising. In this 5 minute video, Steve
gives us the rundown on Crispi's 4-buckle NTN boot, scheduled
to hit store shelves this coming fall. |
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Karhu's Graham
Gephart & Lorenzo Worster
March 30, 2007-- With Karhu coming under new ownership last summer,
we figured there would be some changes at the venerable tele
and backcountry ski company, but they weren't the kind of changes
we thought would take place. Instead of new faces at the show,
we met with most of the crew from the old days, like ski designer
Francois Sylvain, GM Charlie Lozner, and longtime Karhu team
athlete Lorenzo Worster. All three have continued on under the
new owners. But even more unexpected (until just last December)
was to be working once more with Graham Gephart, who I first
met and skied with years ago at Mad River while he was still
in college. |
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Our paths also crossed regularly over the
course of the last few years while Graham was working as managing
editor for Craig Dostie at Couloir. So instead of new faces at
the Karhu booth, we hung out with old friends... the unexpected
change at Karhu came in the form of a new company-wide focus
on environmental consciousness, and activism... although the
progressive side of the formerly Vermont-based Karhu was still
very much in evidence, as Lorenzo proudly told us about their
new 130mm waist tele ski, due to hit the shelves this fall. Check
those monster boards out in this almost 12 minute long interview
from OR...
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Paul Parker at
the Garmont Booth
April 4, 2007-- In this interview from OR, Paul Parker has his
Garmont project manager hat on and he talks about boot fit and
some of the goals Garmont's designers work towards when engineering
the flex of their tele boots. He also offers up some brief, guarded,
but interesting comments on Rottefella's NTN, as well as on Garmont's
participation in Black Diamond's competing boot and binding system,
currently under development and set for a Fall, 2008 introduction...
and more.
Length: 7:27 |
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