CARV Digital Ski Coach  

I've heard various reports, some sceptical and some viewing it as a useful tool. I'm yet to hear an impartial whole hearted endorsement. It's an expensive piece of kit to speculate on in my opinion. 

I've also been thinking of getting CARV. Mostly because we are stuck in Australia and not getting a chance to do workshops with CSIA L4s. At least not until the world returns to some sort of travel normal....

In reality it's not going to replace an instructor however from what I've heard from users it's a good tool to help work on specific aspects of your own skiing. Are we actually directing pressure to the outside ski? Are both skis edging simultaneously and the same amount? 

It's not cheap - about the cost of a pair of lower end skis/bindings. IIRC there was a sale on prior to Xmas which made it a more attractive proposition so I'll wait for the next one. Don't need it until next July at earliest.

I’ve contacted them a couple times asking if I could test and review a set... but no luck yet.

The concept certainly has some potential if the machine can put its feedback into the appropriate context. My concern is people will get fixated on on things like ‘maximum edge’ angle when that may not be the appropriate action for the objective. I can see a situation where it might aggravate a problem. 

It will be interesting to see how it evolves. Just watching the ads it looks like they’re developing more and more useful features.

I suppose the nice thing about a system like CARVE is they just need to add a software update to make massive improvements. So I suspect it will get much better as they gather more data from users.

I read a comprehensive review in another forum which is very positive. I've also read that further features will be added to later versions (which might already been done). However, it's been suggested that CARV might not work indoors, as it relies on GPS. Anyone has any info about this?

This was a concern of mine too borsky, doing so much skiing on indoor snow as you well know.

@adrian_hamilton

Just been on CARV’s website and found that it currently doesn’t work in an indoor entertainment because of weak GPS signal. But apparently they’re currently working on a solution 

Interesting. I never even thought about that. It was more to do with the requirement to sample some turns before setting a plan for the run. It looks like you need about 15 turns which would be the other side of reception and into the car park at Chill Factore in Manchester.