5th Annual Blister Awards, SIA

• ‘Best Graphics’ Award •

Men’s and Women’s 4FRNT Hoji

The 4FRNT Hoji has always looked great, and the newest iteration not only lives up to previous versions, it arguably bests them. Unfortunately, the picture below doesn’t do them justice, but these things are stunning. The men’s Hoji is pictured here, and the women’s one looks just as great.

 

SIA Tradeshow 2015, Blister Gear Review
15/16 4FRNT Hoji

 

 

Capita Snowboards – Jess Kimura’s Pro Model

Yes. Just Yes.

SIA Tradeshow 2015, Blister Gear Review
And again, Yes.

 

• ‘Worst Graphics’ Award •

Blizzard Gunsmoke, Peacemaker, and Regulator

SIA Tradeshow 2015, Blister Gear Review
No, seriously.

Ok, so many thoughts and questions here. We’re going to have our editor-in-chief attempt to distill them:

1) Ever wondered what the Teletubbies pro models would look like?

2) When you think of the words “Gunsmoke,” “Regulator,” and “Peacemaker,” do you think of rainbows and cartoon cows that appear to be tripping on acid?

3) Or maybe these are ghost cows?

4) Why is one eye bigger than the other? Are these teletubbie-ghost-cows wearing monocles?

5) Blizzard’s 15/16 freeride lineup (Spur, Bodacious, Cochise, Bonafide, Brahma, LatiGo) all look great, and the current (14/15) line won our ‘Best Graphics’ Award at last year’s SIA. In fact, the current Bodacious may be my favorite graphic ever. So how in Ullr’s name does this happen???

6) Honestly, we hope you all disagree with us on this one, because we can vouch for the Gunsmoke and the Peacemaker – they are very good skis that don’t deserve to be covered with acid tripping, monocle wearing, cartoon ghost cows with a rainbow backdrop.

7) Actually, when you spell it all out like that … it sounds pretty awesome.

Ok no, these graphics are still bad.

 

• The ‘WTF is That?’ Award •

Capita & Spring Break Snowboards Collab Board

Spring Break comes up with some pretty weird snowboard designs, like this coffin-shaped board. And this plywood, tuning-fork-looking thing is no less weird, and it took us far too long to figure out that it wasn’t, actually, a giant plywood tuning fork.

SIA Tradeshow 2015, Blister Gear Review
?

 

• The ‘SIA in a Nutshell / A Picture’s Worth a 1000 Words’ Award •

 

SIA Tradeshow 2015, Blister Gear Review
SIA is fun, but it also takes a toll…

And that’s a wrap. We’ve already been getting time on some of this stuff, and the reviews will be rolling out soon.

16 comments on “5th Annual Blister Awards, SIA”

  1. first thing that came to my mind when I saw the gunsmoke was “looks like a lego ski”, second thing was “nah, a lego ski would be nicer”

  2. There’s no doubt that the new Gunsmoke, Peacemaker, and Regulator are ugly. On the plus side, they’re no worse and possibly less brutally hideous than the current ones, so at least there’s that? Either way, it’s too bad because they’re all great skis, but graphics matter. When it came time for me to put my money where my mouth is, it was between a Peacemaker and a SFB. They’re roughly equivalent skis made to do pretty much the same things, the main difference being that one wasn’t ugly. So I bought the SFB.

    Blizzard needs to get their twin tip graphics together, there’s no excuse given what they’ve done in their freeski lineup. Do graphics matter? Judging by how I’ve seen piles of these skis glued to the wall this season despite shop staff and reviews raving about them, I’d say they do.

  3. I actually don’t mind the new graphics, they are certainly better than last years. Cowboys and indians on my top sheets, no thank you! Regardless the peacemaker is one of my favorite skis ever and I would gladly rock the strung out bull all day long.

  4. Bindings should not be allowed on the Capita snowboards. They are too beautiful to be sullied in any way.

    Blizzard graphics = South Park Cows.

  5. Thanks for the article guys. I noticed that the Tecnica Mach 1 boot has a low volume model now. Do you guys know the actual volume in the heel/ankle? As in, like the R9.8 98mm volume, or the cochise 98 mm volume?

    Thanks

  6. Can’t help it, kinda digging the Blizzard “Southpark” style cow graphics. With those on your feets you have to ski stronger to stand up to the ridicule! Maybe PSIA should adopt this into their instruction program, all of my students would instantly want to get good enough to ski off piste so that the deeper snow would cover the top sheets. Brilliant!

  7. While I absolutely agree with Scott Andrus` perception of Will’s decision I would still love to read the Kartell review. Maybe somebody else could review the ski.
    Any idea when we can expect the review?

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