Jon's Carv story

Hello skiers!

My name is Jon and I would classify myself as a good intermediate to advanced skier - definitely not an expert though. I have been skiing since we moved to glorious Canada from the UK about 15 years ago - the lure of the mountains drew my wife and I over to this beautiful land. My son Jude started skiing when he was three at Big White ski resort in Kelowna. We moved to Calgary a few years ago and now ski in the Rockies (mainly at Sunshine Ski resort near Banff) and as you can imagine is now better than me and I really want to keep up with him and his fearless ways.

The ski lessons at our local resort the wonderful sunshine village are very expensive so I was looking for another way to improve my technique. Along came Carv! I saw the posts, watched the videos and read the reviews.

I decided to take the plunge and purchase the product. I had a few days off work so I decided to head out to Banff and Sunshine Village for a couple of days and give them a try. I can’t deny I was very excited to see how they worked.

I put the insert in my boots, attached it to the sensors and tested the Bluetooth connection- all worked great and was easy to do. Once I got to the hill I would be ready to go once I calibrated the sensor (which is as simple as lifting one foot off the ground and waiting for the app to ping to let me know it was complete).

So day one would be a Thursday; the ski hill should be relatively quiet and there was fresh snow which is always a bonus.

We arrived in sunshine. Got kitted up and took the gondola up to the main area. Here, I finished the calibration for my sensors and I was then ready to go. I set the voice in my Carv as Moira - I always had a love of the Irish accent :)

For the first few runs, I set it in free ski mode so I could get an appraisal.

Did a couple of runs off Wawa chair - and got my ski score and my first feedback once I got on the chairlift. - not obtrusive at all. Apparently I needed to work on my edge similarity

Great- I had my first thing to work on. So for the next few runs I would put it in training mode for the edging.

I headed up to do the same run as a control and followed the plan I was given to work on keeping my skis edging at the same angle - success! I got a lovey little happy ping sound every time I got it right and I was flying through the levels. I could really feel the improvement!

I kept it in this mode for the morning and it was so satisfying to complete the levels - like a real time skiing arcade game - I can’t describe how awesome it felt to get the “great work “ and other encouraging phrase that’s the delightful Moira/Carv would give me - I was really getting it and the skiing just felt really good. My son was commenting on how fluid my skiing looked (he is of course desperate to try it - hands off little man!)

After lunch (this was kept short as we both really wanted to get back to the slopes) I decided to try the balance training. This proved to be a real eye-opener.

We headed up to Mount Standish and tried a few runs off there - including my son's favourite black run, Big Bunkers. Carv was warning me that I was leaning forward to much - which explained a lot and led me to focus on keeping my balance over the top of my boots - what a difference. In combination with the improvement with my edge angle symmetry, I felt so good.

We went up the Great Divide chair to the top of the mountain and I put all the new information to my advantage and we flew down the runs. When I got it right I felt so good - like a ski god - and when I got it wrong (which Moira/Carv would ever so patiently correct me on) I could really feel the difference! It was proving to be a god-send this Carv device. My ski score improved and more importantly my confidence has gone up leaps and bounds.

I know that even if go skiing on my own I’ll always have the assistance of Carv to get me down the slopes to help me get better. She’s like Alexa for skiing and I couldn’t be more grateful for her and the Carv app. I feel this year, with Carv's help I will reach my ski goals and next year me and my son can take a week off and be ski bums and hit the powder highway.

So if you are on the fence about Carv - please let me reassure you. It was the best purchase I have made in a long time - and it cost less than a few group lessons at my ski hill and would be something I could get lots of use from.

My son would also benefit from the device once I had finished with it. However this won’t be happening for a while as there are so many other training programs I need to do and new challenges to complete. I hear there are even more training options coming in the future - I’m hoping for something to help me bomb through the moguls like a pro.

Another day of skiing is in the agenda for tomorrow - how awesome am I going to be after another day with Carv? I cannot wait to find out.

Happy skiing!

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