GET CARV

About 9 years ago, I discovered this little known company that was promoting its product on Kick-starter.  They called it CARV and the idea was to make a device that could ultimately become a ski instructor in your pocket. 

 

I became an early adopter and eventually was asked by one of the founders and developers, Jamie Grant to provide feedback to them on what I thought of the concept.  This turned into a number of long conversations by Skype and completing well orchestrated questionnaires that Jamie had developed in order to solicit what people in the ski instruction business thought was important and should ultimately be a part of the product as it evolved.

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Fast forward to 2024-25 and to the newest iteration, it continued to evolve taking the necessary steps to reach prime time and into something that even the neophyte skier can benefit from. 

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So what is it exactly?  They are referring to it as a digital ski coach and that in a nutshell, is a fair description of what it is.  Will it put ski instructors out of business?  Hardly, and not anytime soon but what it does do is put you and mainline instruction on the same page (all of a sudden.)  So much of ski instruction historically has been hidden in the caverns of instructors manuals, many outdated by the time they were in print and others lost in translation from various languages and none of it ever offered a way to provide measurable instant metrics that a person could use to compare and grow with. 

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From a hardware perspective, under the hood ie. gone are the sensors in the boot and replaced with "Motion AI". The tracker also houses the battery that keeps it running and the Bluetooth transmitter that connects everything to your smartphone and the CARV App.  With me so far?

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This year 2025, the CARV2 gets a big upgrade and eliminates the sensor insole and wiring and everything needed to track your movements are contained in the not-so-simple module that clips onto your ski boot strap.  Once connected up to your phone, you're set to go.  This has made everything infinitely more user friendly and setup a breeze.

 

The unit itself now boasts "Magical AI Analysis" for everyone from the intermediate skier on up allowing the skier to get measurable feedback on the essential elements of skiing with instant metrics on your Balance, Tipping (Edging), Rotary & G-Force Pressure etc. Your input is instantly compared with data from some of the best skiers in the world; how good is that?  Really, how good is that?

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There are various ways to tap into the feedback ranging from analyzing your results at the end of the day or even after each run by looking at your device after your run or day to hooking up headphones so that you can instantly hear the feedback on any and all of the metrics.  Not only that, there are mini tutorials on all the measurable components that will give you the WHY it is important to be improving your effort until you're scoring within the target zones.

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I've had people ask me "does this work off piste?"  The official word at this point is that CARV2 is optimized to detect any type of slope and snow you are skiing on.  There are now 10 different essential skills you can monitor.

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CARV has moved to a subscription model for all of the instructional parts and it is sold on as an annual pass; your hardware is included with your initial purchase.

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The big question is this worth the investment in time and money to you?  For starters, analyze your own degree of curiosity as that should go a long way to providing the answer.  I know that the current product is well tested for durability and they also have great customer service which is important.  If you're reading this and are a member of the SST Program and if you'd like to try them out here in Whistler, you're in luck as one of our instructors, Peter Shandro, has a couple of pairs that he has available for a trial run.  

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To give them a whirl, send me a request by email and I'll get you linked up.

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Full Disclosure:  I am not receiving any form of compensation from CARV other than they have provided me with three generations of the product since inception when the early models of the hardware broke down and needed replacement.  The current hardware is working flawlessly.  I have since purchased the CARV 2 upgrade.

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