Ski School Students No Longer Need Cell Phones

Getoutdoors.com Outdoor Blog

Monday, February 16. 2009

Ski School Students No Longer Need Cell Phones

I saw a group of ski school kids wearing these at Steamboat this weekend, and wondered what they were. Now that I've read a press release about them, I'm still not sure what they are. They're flaik GPS tracking devices that can tell you how many runs you did, how many vertical feet you skied, etc. Copper Mountain just decided to start putting them on their ski school students, too.

“The flaik system is already proving to be a valuable differentiator at Copper and Steamboat and could become a standard feature across all our resorts,” said Intrawest Chief Marketing Officer Andy Wirth. “Our instructors appreciate it, the kids think it’s cool and parents appreciate the peace of mind and comfort level they gain with this technology.”

Awesome. Are you serious? Are you guys really losing that many ski school kids that you need these things? If so, I think you're taking a step in the wrong direction.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say they're not going to catch on. But hey, in Colorado, where ski resorts are famous for making moves that don't really add any value but get them a few moments in the PR sun to sell more real estate, I guess anything's possible.

Posted by Runout in Ski & Snowboard at 00:01 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)
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I saw these at Sun Peaks in BC last year. At first they seemed great but after a short while they were pretty much just another "thing" to lose. I went back there this year and asked someone about them and they told me the company went broke. I was not surprised because the product did not really seem to do anything except beep and be a heavy weight on my arm. I looked at the internet later and it was ok but not really enough to make me want to spend $10 a day on it. Ski hills are expensive and I just felt these guys were taking advantage of this and trying to overcharge me. I don't like people who try and rip me off.

#1 firstname.lastname on 2009-02-17 13:20 (Reply)

flaik is definitely still in business. They moved from Australia to Boulder. flaik units were in test last year at Sun Peaks until the FCC approved their use in the U.S. Steamboat and Copper have been using the system this season and other mountains are in the pipeline. The Helly Hansen Big Mountain Battle series will be using flaik devices to track and time races starting this weekend at Squaw.

#1.1 Anonymous on 2009-02-17 15:25 (Reply)

Hey everyone.

Thanks for checking flaik out! We're definitely not out of business and will be expanding to more mountains soon.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to call or log onto our website at http://www.flaik.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Drew

P.S. Show me a mountain with 100% cell reception and I'll show you one that's not worth skiing.

#2 D. Frey (Homepage) on 2009-02-17 17:35 (Reply)

i saw it too, looks pretty neat but its expensive. Not sure I want to spend ten bucks (or about half a beer) on one though

#3 Anonymous on 2009-02-17 21:03 (Reply)

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