Rider Story

 

What ShredShox Did to a Pair of Skis I Thought I Knew

 

By Taylor Cady · ShredShox R&D Rider · Big Sky, MT

 

Twenty-one seasons on snow, an engineering brain, and a "duplicate" pair of skis to experiment on - here's what happened when I bolted on full suspension.

 

I was born a skier. Then my dad talked me into trying a snowboard, and honestly, I've never fully recovered - to this day I can't decide what to grab on my way out the door in the morning. Twenty-one seasons on snow later, that's still the hardest decision of my day.

 

A little about me: I'm 27, born and raised in Kalispell, Montana, and I recently moved out to Big Sky, where I run lifts and study engineering at MSU. When the snow melts, you'll find me wrenching on cars or hunting down a new spot to camp. And somewhere on my list of life goals, in all caps, is this one: ski every single month in a single year. I'm working on it.

 

But this isn't about me. It's about what ShredShox did to a pair of skis I already thought I knew.

   

Before ShredShox, these were my playful all-mountain pair - medium stiffness, twin-tip, the kind of ski I could reliably grab any day of the week and even take a few park laps on. A great quiver ski. The only problem? I already had a set just like them. They were a duplicate. So I figured this was the perfect pair to experiment on.

 

What Changed

 

Once I had the ShredShox installed, that "duplicate" turned into something I'd genuinely never felt before. They unlocked a level of carving and charging I had no idea these skis had in them.

 

The first thing I noticed was the mounting. The wider mounting points let the center of the ski flex more through the middle of a turn - it forcefully drives the center of your arc.

 

You're not just steering the turn - you're powering it.

 

I took a run with a couple of friends while tracking on the Slopes app, and I beat my all-time top-speed record. I also got a few compliments on the trenches I left behind me. I'll take both.

 

Then there's the end of the day, when the groomers go bumpy and the pow's all chewed up. That's usually when my legs start filing complaints. But the weight and the suspension just float over the minor imperfections in the snow. For tired-legs, last-chair conditions, it's seriously confidence-inspiring.

 

And being able to dial in the pressure and rebound myself? That part got addicting. Tweak a setting, drop in, feel the difference, tweak again. As an engineering student, I might be the exact wrong - or exact right - person to hand an adjustable ski to.

 

The Season, by the Numbers

 

Slopes clocked me at 63 days this season. The real number is closer to 70 - my home weekend hill has cell service thin enough that the app basically gives up, so a handful of my days there never got recorded. Either way, the math that matters is this: of all those days, on every kind of snow, the ShredShox pair quickly became my go-to.

 

Bottom Line

 

ShredShox took a set of skis I'd basically written off as a backup and turned them into something I'd never experienced - more carve, more charge, more confidence when I'm running on empty at the end of the day. They've earned a permanent spot in my quiver, and most mornings, they're the first thing I reach for.

 

Now if I could just figure out the ski-or-snowboard thing.

 

Taylor is part of the ShredShox R&D rider program.

 

ShredShox - Full Suspension for Skiing.