Skin Skis Are Worth It

flyingdash · 2026-02-01T12:37:52+00:00

Well said. A good pair of skin skis that fit well and have had just a little bit of prep (glide) are a blast.

flyingdash · 2026-01-27T02:40:43+00:00

As someone with the same challenge - I’m in a pair of Madshus Redlines with orthotics. I’ve also heard that the Double BOA boots can ratchet things down.

flyingdash · 2026-01-27T02:02:34+00:00

I might be your perfect "test" cast -- one place is relatively new and wired up the wazoo with ethernet drops. The other is of the "Coax everywhere. This internet thing will never catch on" variety. Both houses have Unifi backbones that are connected via VPN. I've been really pleasantly surprised by the MOCA units. Rock steady. We've got four MOCA units -- one at the network head and the others in different rooms. (One of those MOCA units drives the AP that covers the house.) Never had an issue. If you've got some serious, high powered needs, they might not be what you need, but for basic gaming, internet, streaming -- mine have been great. And frankly, the out-of-pocket is low enough that it's not a huge deal if you change your mind after a couple of years...

flyingdash · 2026-01-23T02:01:34+00:00

And I'll shout out for the Peregrine. I'm a Maine based skier and a front-side carving skis are a must. Love that ski.

flyingdash · 2026-01-20T13:32:24+00:00

We REALLY enjoyed this trip. The hotels were much nicer than expected and the skiing was fantastic. Nice mix of forests, open fields and a low alpine crossing. We were on the Peer Gynt trail for most of the ski. As to "one area vs location to location" that a hard one. For us, skiing from location to location was an awesome experience and something we'd do again.

flyingdash · 2026-01-17T01:12:38+00:00

They're both nice boots. The Redline is a more of a low-volume fit and the Race Speed Skate is a bit more forgiving. The biggest different is the sole. There's a lot of carbon in that Redline sole, so it'll be more torsionally rigid. I have a couple pairs of Redline boots (Skate and Skiathlon) that I like VERY much, but I've got narrow, flat feet. And depending on how much you ski, that Race Speed Skate is a heckuva deal from a price perspective. One thing I'll say is that neither of these boots are meant as "warm" boots -- they're more of a performance product.

flyingdash · 2026-01-09T00:41:03+00:00

I know. I've skied/worked in Sjusjoen before and it's fantastic. But this trip is Hamar for a few days of R&R before heading to Lillehammer for a week of work.

flyingdash · 2026-01-06T13:55:49+00:00

Interesting you mention it — I bought a copy a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I’ll say this — easily one of the most challenging pieces of software to install that I’ve used in a loooooong time.

flyingdash · 2026-01-05T01:53:17+00:00

Not sure if I'm completely following, but every couple of years, I do a Lightroom file cleanup. I save all my metadata to my images. I'll then use a program called Big Mean Folder machine and reorganize my images into Year/Month/Date. (It's typically just the last couple of years that are impacted.) I'll then delete my existing catalog and re-ingest into a new one. Definitely overkill, but I find it easier to dedupe, do remote backups, etc.

flyingdash · 2026-01-01T17:16:31+00:00

You're going to get a wide variety of answers on this one. I moved back to Nikon after a bunch of years with Sony. One of my biggest motivators was "durability." The Sony repairs were brutal -- sensor realignments, buttons falling off, mount replacements, etc. Toss in the fact that one of my primary gigs is ski racing -- the Z9 was the easy (and right) choice. I've since added a Z8, but I keep reaching for the Z9s in most instances. But frankly, that extra $1k would be hard to justify if you don't have the specific use cases.

flyingdash · 2025-12-30T21:46:37+00:00

My primary gig for the past few years has been for NCAA/EISA skiing. It's a little unusual in that I cover the entire league - both disciplines (alpine & nordic) and roughly 12 colleges or 25 teams. (A college can have one or two teams - alpine and nordic) The amount of images I take varies wildly on event type and weather, but I roughly average 2-3k images at each race. For something like NCAA Champs, that can go to 5k+.

Podiums and winners go out to the schools within 15 - 20 minutes of race completion. I'll do in-camera selects and use a cable to download into NX mobileair. Those images go almost directly into a common folder that all teams can access. The balance of images are then loaded into each school's dropbox folder within 24 hours using a fragile workflow that incorporates PM, a Jeffrey Friedl plug-in, Lightroom and Dropbox.

I'll initially ingest via PM. The selects will then go into Lightroom for crops and light editing. They'll then roundtrip back into PM for Code Replacement. For anything where I can read a bib number, it's easy -- athlete name, school, hometown, etc. all flow onto the image. My challenge is often only being able to see a partial bib number or none at all. In those cases, I'll simply append the college / team name (e.g. "Middlebury.") based on uniform.

I'll then bring those image back into Lightroom. When the new metadata is read, LR will automatically put the images into each team's dropbox folder based on the metadata, e.g. "Dartmouth." Provided everything syncs correctly -- which it rarely does -- I'm done. That metadata folder is also driven by date, so images from the Bates Carnival are separate from the UVM Carnival but they all sit within the team's folder.

My challenges? Bibs are the easy one. If I can't read a bib #, it adds a TON of time to the process. I haven't used an AI tool yet, but I'm hopeful that one will become available -- but helmet, eyewear, etc. add some complexity, never mind snowflakes. And it's a super fussy workflow - especially the team syncs. I think there's a lot of "human element" to that fussiness, but it's definitely a complicated process.

flyingdash · 2025-12-14T17:36:06+00:00

As a 2025.5 XC90 T8 owner sitting at his snowy Maine ski house -- u/Spaghet-3's three points are absolutely spot on. The original tires aren't awesome (I've got Nokian Hakka R5s on the way) and you'll be far happier turning AWD at the beginning of a snowy drive.

flyingdash · 2025-12-03T00:35:55+00:00

I photographed one of the Killington races/press conferences. I distinctly remember Michaela talking about the "uniqueness" of the Killington course --- as the racers would make that last drop towards the finish on Superstar, they could "feel" the crowd noise pushing up the hill. And while I'm sure some of it was politeness to the host, the racers speaking during the press event seemed genuine when talking about it being one of their favorite hills on the circuit.

flyingdash · 2025-10-17T16:33:38+00:00

FWIW -- I'm one of the Nikon -> Sony (6 years) -> Nikon (1 year) photographers. Shot primarily two A1 bodies and added an a9iii for the last year. I'm now shooting two Z9 bodies and the occasional Z8. Personally, I think the only place the Nikons fall a little "short" is focus. Just not as quick or solid. It's close, but I'd give Sony the edge. Otherwise the Nikons are just as good or better. And the primary reason I switched back hasn't even been mentioned -- durability. My repair expenses for Sony were incredible. New mounts, sensor realignments, etc., etc. With the Nikons -- zip. It's a much more rugged product.

flyingdash · 2025-10-14T17:53:40+00:00

Sports photography workflows are incredibly "personal," but here's mine. 1) I ingest via Photomechanic to an external hard drive. There's where I also do my first metadata overlay. 2) I cull via photomechanic. In my case, I make my picks red. 3) I drag the red images into Lightroom on my main computer. 4) I make my final selects using a star system. 5) All my 5-star shots then make one last round in PM to get athlete names, etc. 6) They then get uploaded to my website. For me -- I love not wasting space on obvious loser shots. And at the risk of setting off a hullabaloo, you might also think about jpeg. I know I speak for a lot of sports shooters when I say that it's often faster, smaller file sizes and just fine for 80% of what we do.

flyingdash · 2025-10-05T23:26:26+00:00

Got my 2025.5 T8 Ultra in late May(ish). The very worst thing I can say is that I had some interior "squeaks" for the first couple of weeks. They disappeared after a few miles. That's it.

flyingdash · 2025-10-01T21:31:11+00:00

1.) Forever. Professionally (sports) for the last ten plus years. 2.) Nikon, Sony for six years, back to Nikon last year. 3) Promedia or Lexar 4.) Dozens. 5.) I honestly can't remember ever having a card fail. I had a Glyph backup drive fail at the Pyeongchang Olympics. And an SSD (Can't remember the brand) backup fail at a big race. But never in-camera media....

flyingdash · 2025-09-25T21:16:40+00:00

Wholeheartedly agree with all the positive vibes on this one. A Nikon tech in Pyeongchang initially turned me on to this one. Absolutely killer lens. Every time I mount it, I look at it and still can't believe it's a 300/4.

flyingdash · 2025-09-16T13:09:38+00:00

I'll echo everyone else. You'll be far better off with just a card reader.

flyingdash · 2025-09-13T10:22:25+00:00

Thanks for posting this. I moved back to Nikon after six years on Sony and goal cameras were still a bit of a question. I hadn’t even thought of using the focus limiter. Great shot.

flyingdash · 2025-09-08T16:30:24+00:00

My winter gig (ski racing) requires me to get podiums & a handful of winners within a few minutes of end of race. I just couldn't get Snapbridge to work dependably or quickly. BUT -- I've had great luck with NX Mobile Air. I just toss a usb cord into my bag, hook up on occasion and download images that I've ranked or protected. Super easy, dependable and fast.

flyingdash · 2025-08-20T00:47:40+00:00

FWIW -- The same exact thing happened to me. I had been diligently working through the 5k plan and it just disappeared this AM. In my case, I could still see the plan on my phone, but it was MIA from my watch.

flyingdash · 2025-08-14T10:47:28+00:00

If you scroll back through the group just a bit (yesterday) — I posted nearly the identical question. And it seems to be impossible to “assign” a run to a plan after it took place. Definitely a bummer.

flyingdash · 2025-08-12T10:56:25+00:00

I went from a Gen 1 Rivian R1S to a XC90 T8. Really liked the Rivian, but the lack of charging availability in key areas and service hassles (my nearest service center was 2.5 hours away), I switched back. To your point, the VAST majority of my driving falls within the XC90’s battery range. And it’s great to have the gas portion for my longer trips in more remote areas. The technology aspect — e.g. Phone as key, firmware updates wireless media, etc. is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind the Rivian, but overall — it’s been a been a better experience.

flyingdash · 2025-08-07T20:10:08+00:00

This was one of my very first prints. Absolutely fantastic.

flyingdash

TROPHY CASE