Friday, December 21, 2007

Local Movers and Shakers

Local ski company gives the big boys a run for their money!



Gardnerville native and self-described ski bum Casey Hakansson had no intention of founding a company back in 2003, when he pestered local snowboard designer Ben Harmon into helping him craft one pair of skis in Harmon’s shop.
“I just thought it would be cool to ski on a pair of skis I made,” said Hakansson, 29. “I put a rental binding on it and shared it with all my friends.”
According to Hakansson, that first ski, loosely based on the K2 Seth Pistol model, rode pretty well, if you were on top of it.
“If you weren’t, it pretty much rode you,” he said. “And it didn’t like turning, unless you were going fast or it was really steep.”
Four years later, Hakansson and his partners, doing business as Moment Skis, are producing several models of skis and poles from a warehouse and selling them through ski shops and over the Internet. Their styles vary from park to all-mountain, have bright andy warhol-ish graphics, and Moment even has the sense to adequately provide for the female skier with 3 different skis. To check out this ski manufacturer locally, go to The Sports Exchange, located at 10095 W. River Street in Historic Downtown Truckee. Priced at in an affordable range ($399-$625), this is a ski you should make some time for if you want to rock the ski industry boat!

No comments: