Featured Image: Courtesy of Carv
We’d all be better skiers if a professional followed us around on the mountain—someone to correct our (sometimes) lousy technique, explain ways to improve and force us to do drills. Enter Carv, the latest innovation in digital ski coaching that brings personalized feedback to your headphones, revolutionizing how skiers dial their technique.
The brainchild of Jamie Grant, Carv was born out of a personal quest for improvement on the slopes. Grant’s determination to quantify his skiing chops led to the development of Carv. But first, he had to answer the question of what makes a good skier a good skier and find a way to make it measurable. He tested and tested, and nearly 10 years later, Carv has distilled skiing into 13 essential categories, culminating in the creation of the Ski IQ metric—a score that represents a skier’s overall proficiency.
Alex Jackson, Vice President of Product and Marketing for Carv, explains, “Ski IQ is like fuel economy in your car—it’s the one thing that represents how good you really are.” At the heart of Carv is its cutting-edge technology—a thin pair of inserts positioned between your boot and liners, coupled with a sophisticated algorithm and user-friendly app. The pressure-mapped inserts track your form turn by turn while the app analyzes everything from your ski positioning to the type of terrain you’re on. The result? Personalized feedback that adapts to your skill level, learning pace and current terrain conditions. With over 400 million ski turns analyzed to date, Carv offers unparalleled insights into a skier’s performance, from edging and balance to rotation and pressure.
But Carv isn’t just for beginners. Seasoned skiers, including Olympic ski racer Ted Ligety, have embraced the technology for its ability to pinpoint areas for improvement. “After two runs using Carv, we’ve had high-level ski instructors be like, ‘Wow, this is way too accurate. It knows exactly what I struggle with,'” laughs Jackson. Ligety’s partnered with Carv to foster further R&D while also acting as one of the voices in your headphones. It’s like having a one-on-one coaching session with an Olympian.
The brand harps that it isn’t just about solo improvement; it’s about building a community of motivated skiers. With features like leaderboards by location, Carv encourages healthy competition and curiosity about techniques among users. And far from replacing ski instructor jobs, Carv is generating more demand for in-person instruction by inspiring skiers to seek further guidance to complement their digital coaching.
