stukinarut

Sweet! Congrats to the whole Firestarter crew for another amazing project. Thanks for the 2025 journey.

No stealing here - just pure inspiration from a time when budgets were whatever you had in your own wallet, and honoring an era of freeriding that followed ‘the waves’, or in this case, the zones where locals were shredding.

@ryansaadat: definitely! Local shops have had to shift their approach in recent years. For years the local shop was often the only avenue to source certain brands as a consumer. Much of that changed when brands introduced DTC, and also began to slash retail pricing, with only a small percentage of said brands also ensuring dealers are able to maintain some semblance of a margin. Free shipping for DTC however hit that reduced margin even further. This past season we saw a few dealers even introduce the ‘Kona Process’ approach. My thoughts are: even though everyone wants a good deal, if money isn’t necessarily a concern, contact your LBS. They will definitely work with you in getting a great deal. Demo and Rental fleets at times are available: great bikes with shop support. If the budget is tight: check with your LBS to see what their inventory is like - specific or alternate options. Most will match sale pricing if they have it in-store. And it helps them clear some of their inventory.

Direct to Consumer: massive discounts killing ‘shop local’ / ‘support dealers’ approach to the industry.

Who are the trail ‘judges’? Will the rating scale change each year?

Stupid is as stupid does.

@brainbckt: was about to ask if there is a list of judges over the years. Ideally we would see a rotation of judges every few years - new faces, women judges, fresh insight, etc. It’s difficult to trust a group of individuals that feel they have a lifetime membership to the judges tent (conveniently located away from the coral / in camouflage - haha ). In these events the ‘old guard’ should have no place.

Social psychosis at it's finest. How some individuals process their thoughts and opinions, and the actions by which they follow through with will forever boggle my mind. Not recognizing the safety of others through this action. Sigh