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Individual Review 2019-2020 Whitedot Altum 94

Eric Edelstein

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Whitedot Altum 94 176cm (2019-2020)

125-94-117 r=18.5m @ 176cm


Manufacturer Info:
Whitedot Skis Ltd
91-93 Green Lane,
Leeds, LS16 7EY, United Kingdom
https://www.WhiteDotSkis.com

Suggested Retail Price (MSRP):

598 €

Usage Class:

All mountain twin tip

Rating (with comments):
(1="get me off these things"->10="I have to own a pair")

8+ Hardpack & goomed surfaces
8+ - Mixed surface conditions, chop low to moderate speeds
7+ - Powder for its width

Background:

Whitedot Skis began to really get skis out of prototype mode and sold to the public in 2009. (We tested some of their first production candidate models back in 2009 in France.) The collaborative effort of several enthusiasts who wanted to build unique and effective skis in small batches using designs developed with pro freeriders at Chamonix and Verbier testing grounds. The guys at Whitedot believe in constantly evolving their designs and exploring the effectiveness of different materials, so their models often behave differently from year to year. Whitedot Skis are very popular in Europe for a reason...they seem to work for the conditions found in the Alpes of France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.

Manufacturer's Description:

"The entire mountain is your playground.

The Altum 94 utilises a versatile 94mm waist, an all-encompassing and progressive tip and tail rocker profile and 4mm of camber underfoot. This ski focused on grip and pop over the mountain without compromising on shallow snow ability. Coupled with a progressive, forward mount point all you need to do is point and direct these skis at those natural features you’ve been eyeing up on the lift.

Focusing on resort friendly characteristics coupled with all-mountain ability, the new Altum Series is designed to be your playful daily driver in areas where the snowfall is less fortunate..."


- Website March 2020


Technical Ski Data:
Claimed weight: 1759 grams
Measured weight: 1755, 1762 grams
Flex = 6/10
1.2mm ISO 7200 sintered die cut base
176cm length = 125-94-117mm sidecut, 4mm camber, tip & tail rocker, 18.5m radius, 1380mm effective edge, 1720g per ski
ABS sidewall
1.9mm steel, 360 degree edges
Screen printed ISO foil topsheet with two layers of lacquer
Poplar/ash laminate core with tri-axle fibreglass, carbon fibre/kevlar stringers, dry weave binding retention plate & rubber foil dampening tape

Bindings, Boots & Wax Used:

Tyrolia PRD 12 adjustable bindings
Salomon S-Max 130 Carbon boots.
Green Ice Waxes
1819boot-salomon-smax130carbon_2.jpg



Pre-Skiing Impression:


The Altum 94 effectively replaces Whitedot's earlier "One" model which catered to the resort frontside, free-style park & pipe crowd and under-100mm groomer customers. The twin-tip Altum 94 takes up the same responsiblities in a more modern shape and flex pattern with a definite park-like mount point and rocker profile. The first impression you get when picking up the Altum 94 is "Wow...these things are light." They have a fairly pronounced tip and tail rocker with turned up tails, giving them the look of a loose and agile spinner ski. Tips and tails are on the soft side, with a fairly solid midbody...almost a hinge-like flex pattern, but smoothed-out and definiltely looking like they will ski shorter than they measure. Hand flex shows a moderate level of dampening and rebound, but definitely feeling lightish...nearly tour-like, but stronger. Fit and finish were very good, although the factory tune was a bit railed out-of-the-bag which was easily fixed with a pass on the Wintersteiger grinder after the first day out.

Test Conditions:

Shin-deep dry powder, packed powder, wind-pack, corduroy groomers, eastern hardpack and cut-up fresh powder, some small bumps.

Summary:

Our season in Vermont came to abrupt, rainy end in February and limited our powder testing to a few shin-deep days with light powder and slightly windblown powder before resort closure due to COVID19. We did get a bunch of packed powder, tracked-out powder and some corduroy and boilerplate groomer testing days, so we got a good idea of how the Altum behaves.
The Altum 94 is a park-like ski in all-mountain clothing. Super quick, pivoty and almost drifty by nature, yet having a very secure bite underfoot and ability to cut deep into groomed surfaces when needed. Billed by Whitedot as their progressive-profile, forward-mounted all-mountain ski, the Altum 94 is a super playful, light-feeling frontside ski with a bias toward park & pipe antics rather than groomer-carving at speed. Significant rocker profile front and rear deliver a ski with quick directional changes and ability to absorb terrain easily, with a cambered midsection for security underfoot. The Altum 94 skis significantly shorter than its measured length and prefers low to moderate speeds rather than ticket-pulling warp 9 runs. The appeal of the Altum 94 is its abilty to ski with spunk and fun feel in all kinds of conditions without requiring heavy input from the pilot. Hard chargers and racer-types may feel the Altum 94 is too soft and light for their style, while athletic skiers who spend 50/50 park/all-mountain or advancing intermediates will find the 94s super versatile in their respective favorite terrain types. Whitedot has created a frontside all-purpose ski with remarkably light feel and agility with impressive grip on groomers with a bias toward park & pipe for those who want an alternative to the frontside all-mountain carver type of ski. Blurring the line between pure park and pure all-mountain carver is a tricky activity, and Whitedot has done it nicely.

Hardpack and Boilerplate:

The Altum 94 definitely skis shorter than its measured length due to the significant rocker fore and aft, creating a short effective edge length. Even though the Altum 94 feels very light underfoot, it has a remarkably good, sporty bite underfoot allowing very quick edge-to-edge transistions and punchy, grippy hardsnow handling, including the ability to carve deep and hard when pressured. Since the effective edge is short, the Altum 94 can feel shorter and shorter as you go faster and faster, so keep your speed below GS levels for best stability. You can get the Altum 94 to bite nicely without high levels of exertion, making it secure for a wide variety of skiers ranging from novice to advanced intermediate. Hard core technical skiers and racer-types will overpower the Altum 94 on hardpack if skied in race-mode (which this ski is not designed for). Vibration control is pretty good for such a light-feeling ski, only showing a bit of unsettled buzz and frequency at high speeds on boilerplate. This buzz never appears on packed powder surfaces and typical moderately-firm courduroy. Since the Altum is a light-feeling ski on hardpack, it can feel a bit flittery at higher speeds, even though it has a secure grip. We put some intermediate skiers on the Altum 94 and they loved how well they could feel secure on hardpack groomers without working hard and concentrating all the time.

Mixed Surface & Variable Conditions:

When surfaces are a bit choppy, irregular or fluffed-out, the Altum 94s are happy campers, feeling sporty, spunky, very agile and playful. The ample rocker profile and quick edge-to-edge behavior make the 94s totally fun and playful, encouraging poppy antics and pivots everywhere. This is where you realize the Altum 94 has a heart of park & pipe in its DNA and why Whitedot place the recommended mount position in a definitely forward-oriented, jib location. Pivots, skids, scrubs, pops and any other actions are intuitive and quick with no protests or hangups when you ski the Altums on-center. Deflection is minimal at less-than GS-like speeds, with the tips absorbing deviant impact debris under the surface easily. Higher speeds result in very quick directional changes which are great if you are expecting them. Highly-caffeinated skiers who like to rip along roughed-out terrain with quick foot movements will feel at home on the Altum 94s, the same way older, less rowdy recreational skiers will like the agility and easy handling underfoot. Creating a ski to satisfy both park & pipe skiers and retired groomer-cruiser skiers is not easy, but Whitedot seems to have found a happy medium. Energy is quick and lively without being troublesome, and you never feel like the ski is getting away from you since you can always put it in its place without any protest underfoot. If you typically like higher-speed lines through mixed terrain...definitely size-up the Altum 94 to the next length.

Powder Conditions:

The Altum 94 feels narrower in 3D snow conditions than its dimensions might suggest. The 125mm tip and 117mm tail provide a moderate amount of float, but the relatively soft and prounounced rocker means the Altum's fold into a relatively short platform in powder, making the ski feel short and less floaty than some others in the mid-90s category. Handling is super easy and lots of turn shapes can be delivered with the Altums, making them perfectly fun and easy to take out on the morning of a fresh snowfall. No dive, no fight or fuss in powder conditions, but you get the feeling you might be on a mid-80's width ski. You can bank your turns, smear and drift easily and adjust your depth at-will, while only the higher speed powder runs give you the feeling you wanted a longer ski. The Altum 94 is an ideal ski for resort skiers who might venture out into a fresh powder morning to feel adventurous, yet feel more comfortable when the groomers do their thing to their favorite runs. The light feel is great in powder, and handling is quick and easy, but don't over turn the Altum 94s in powder or you might feel they get a bit darty...relax and let them flex naturally.

Turn Initiation, Apex & Finish:

The Altum 94 feels like a park ski rather than a traditional "all-mountain" ski. The significant rocker profile, short effective edge and light feel give you the impression that the default turn style is loose and quick rather than directional and carvy. If you ride the Altum 94s flat, they feel loose and a bit drifty, easily spun and smeared in any direction you want. As soon as you tip them on-edge, they can bite and change direction quickly, giving you the impression the grip is mostly underfoot with less attachment fore and aft. The Altum 94s like to be skied on-center, although we found sliding the bindings back 1-2cm from the mark gave them more cruising behavior and reduced the desire to pivot so easily. Putting the bindings back on-mark made them feel like they were "back home" where they were designed to be. The rockered tips and tails give turn intiation a short lifespan, meaning when you tip the 94s on edge, the feel of grip and pull happens quickly instead of gradually, and occurs underfoot rather than out on the forebody of the ski. This gives the 94s their pivoty feel and agility as a "punchy-turn" type of ski rather than a deliberate and directional all-mountain carving ski with a longer-lifespan turn intiation. The apex of the turn on the Altum 94 is a quick and very focused thing, rapidly allowing directional change and transition to the tail, which feels shorter than it measures, but having a well-concentrated grip and application of energy to propel you into the next turn. The turn finish on the Altum 94 is quick and well-announced, meaning you need to get into the the next turn or run the ski flat and loose in its new direction. The turn behavior of the Altum 94 is definitely park-like when compared to most other all-mountain designs from other companies.

Manufacturer's Mounting Position:


We played with the mounting position fore and aft of the center mark, and found 1-2cm back from center helped stabilize the ski for groomer cruising, while on-the-factory-mark was best for park-oriented antics.

Analogies: ("This ski is like...")

A crossbreed between a park ski and an all-mountain ski

Quick Comments:
  • Remarkably light feel, nimble and effortess to ski.
  • Skis shorter than it measures, loose when run flat, quick bite on-edge
  • Most secure at less-than-GS speeds
  • Spunky, mischievous, playful park-like feel

Things I Would Change About This Ski:

Perhaps a bit more dampening material to quiet the ski's high-speed feel

Short Answer When Someone Asks "What Do You Think About This Ski?":


The Altum 94 gives you the loose feel of a park ski with the security and all-terrain prowess of an all-mountain ski.

What kind of skier is this ski good for and not suitable for?


Park and pipe types who also want to cruise the mountain with more security underfoot than a pure park ski, but still get the pivoty, smearable rockered feel in park terrain will like this ski. Advancing intermediates who want an easy-handling ski with security underfoot will like this ski. Hard-charging, high-speed racer-types will overpower the skis and not find what they're looking for. All-mountain carving purists will find the Altum 94 to be too rockered for their taste.

Advice To People Considering This Ski:

Buy a size up from your normal length!

Other Reviews:

None found as of May 2020.

Pics: (click for larger versions)






Whitedot Altum 94 Tip Profile

Whitedot Altum 94 Camber Profile


Whitedot Altum 94 Tail Profile​



From Left-To-Right: Whitedot Ronde 96, Altum 94, Altum 114, Ragnorok ASYM​
 

Henry

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This sounds like a lot of fun for US$700. Do you think they'll be available by mail order here in the colonies? (I've ordered skis from Europe before. The VAT refund about covers the air freight cost.)

Ah, Eric...it's damp, damper, damping, as in not vibrating.
Damp, dampener, dampening...that's what rain does.
 

fatbob

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Talk to Jon @ thepisteoffice.com if you wanna get hands on a pair and don't have local retail. He'll mail anywhere.

Apols for the ad. Mention me, he's a mate.
 

Swiss Toni

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Whitedot is not a ski manufacturer, their skis are engineered and manufactured by NBL Sport in southern Poland https://nblsport.com/ as well as manufacturing skis for a number of small brands NBL Sport also manufactures its own range of skis, snowboards, kite and wakeboards which they sell under the Nobile brand.

NBL Sport was originally a snowboard manufacturer, they used to make snowboards for Burton. They have recently completed an 8 million euro factory modernisation program http://nbl.datatask.net/nblsport.com/


Whitedot Skis are very popular in Europe for a reason...they seem to work for the conditions found in the Alpes of France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.​

Whitedot is a very small UK based brand, most European skiers have never heard of them, you would struggle to find a shop in the alps that stocked them. I think they sell most of their skis directly and are currently having a sale, the Altum 94 has been reduced to €448. The address given under “Manufacturer Info:” above is just an office, the skis will most likely be shipped directly from the factory in Poland.
 

fatbob

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Not so sure about factory shipping but Jon as identified above handles a lot of their stock and is very close to the company so literally can tell you how many pairs are left in a model run.
 
Thread Starter
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Eric Edelstein

Eric Edelstein

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This sounds like a lot of fun for US$700. Do you think they'll be available by mail order here in the colonies? (I've ordered skis from Europe before. The VAT refund about covers the air freight cost.)

Ah, Eric...it's damp, damper, damping, as in not vibrating.
Damp, dampener, dampening...that's what rain does.

Yep...I never learned me the Queen's English very good..... I have a habit of using the "Dampen...to diminish the activity or vigor of...." instead of "vibration damping" which is more technically accurate..... guess that might have something to do with all my book manuscripts being rejected all the time..... ahhh.......

Whitedot does sell and ship to North America...and they always have some killer deals on leftovers from a season or two or three ago.. Not sure what the shipping costs are... they are happy to help...just shoot them an email and ask what's left in stock and what shipping to your state in the USA might be...

https://www.whitedotskis.com/

Factory Closeouts:
https://www.whitedotskis.com/collections/factoryoutlet
 
Thread Starter
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Eric Edelstein

Eric Edelstein

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Nice review, @Eric Edelstein , but I swear I read this same review well before yesterday. Was it posted elsewhere?

We posted it at ExoticSkis.com back on May 30....maybe you saw it there?
We also posted a review of the Altum 114 here at Pugski...maybe it was that one?
 

midgetbiker

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Hello all

Just to be clear from the start I am one of the owners of Whitedot (with hindsight I could have picked a username that made that clear, oh well). @Eric Edelstein thanks for the review, and thanks to all for the interest. I've registered on PugSki to correct some mistakes in comments on this review, in the mean time I hope it's not considered spam to answer @Henry 's question. If it is can someone moderate it or let me know to take it down:

@Henry you can email us (use 'contact us' off the website) for a US$ price, or just buy off the webstore, or contact a retailer (again 'contact us' for your nearest, or at least most convenient, not always the same thing).

Anyone interested in the Altums: Eric has some wider versions to try too, and also Blister Gear have posted some nice reviews on their site.
 
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midgetbiker

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Hi @Swiss Toni

Thanks for your engagement with the discussion about our skis. I'ld like to say I was a regular PugSki lurker, but in all honesty I registered just to clarify a couple of assertions you've made, as it's best to have the record straight:

Whitedot is not a ski manufacturer

Depends on your definition I guess. We are a ski brand, we design our own unique skis (as opposed to a white label product) using our own moulds and cavities (not 'open' shared tooling, so each ski has it's own shape and profile) but we don't have our own volume manufacturing facility, in common with most 'boutique' brands from either side of the pond (eg Faction, Icelantic, Black Crow, etc).

their skis are engineered and manufactured by NBL Sport in southern Poland

Sorry, no they are not.

as well as manufacturing skis for a number of small brands NBL Sport also manufactures its own range of skis, snowboards, kite and wakeboards which they sell under the Nobile brand.

This is I believe true, some of the brands are not so small either, but none of them are Whitedot.

Whitedot is a very small UK based brand

Maybe a question of definition. Regards scale: we're not 'garage', more 'boutique' I suppose, but certainly not mainstream. Regards UK based: I guess you have to say yes, as not only is the business registered in the UK but it hubs logistically out of there too. We develop and manufacture at sites in mainland Europe though, and of the four directors three maintain accomadation in the Alps (with the fourth being a Kiwi). I can think of other brands though who are a UK registered company, but which I would definately view as Swiss or French. The UK regime for incorporation is not as onerous as some other European nations.

most European skiers have never heard of them

Again, I'ld have to say "depends". We have only ever in the past made freeride skis, the Altum94 reviewed here is probably the most 'crossover' skis we've yet made. So yes, the vast bulk of one week a year 'vacation' skiers have never come across us. Amongst Euro freeriders specifically then it's a more mixed picture. German/Austrian freeriders might well know us as we won the Freeride World Tour a couple of times under the feet of an Austrian. French riders, it'll depend maybe on where they are (Chamonix, yes, say Morzine, maybe not, etc). Norwegians probably, Italians probably not, and so on.

you would struggle to find a shop in the alps that stocked them.

You can always contact us for help in regard to a particular area.

I think they sell most of their skis directly and are currently having a sale, the Altum 94 has been reduced to €448.

We maintain a direct webstore as it's very fair to say our distribution coverage is not universal, but no, we sell more skis via the distributor into retail route than we do direct. In common with our stockists we reduced our prices as the end of the 2020 season loomed, which as it was then became the Covid shutdown. Those reduced prices are good for any stocks we have left (and we're only sold out on a few due to Covid) until the next (Northern Hemisphere) season looms.

The address given under “Manufacturer Info:” above is just an office,

No, it's our registered office, workshop, logistics hub and warehouse (though let's be clear we are not talking Amazon or Home Depot here)!

the skis will most likely be shipped directly from the factory in Poland.

Nope, definitely not. As explained above we do not manufacture at NBL, and regardless we do not ship to buyers from our manufacturing site. You can buy from retailers (Piste Office in Nottingham, Bittl in Munich, Sport Centre Freestyle in Moscow, Niseko 343 in Hokkaido, etc) and they will hand them to you, or ship them to you. If that's not convenient (no retailer nearby) you can buy off our webstore and we will ship to you from Cookridge, Leeds in UK, not anywhere else.

So there we are, sorry if my second ever PugSki post (the first being the one immediately preceding this) came across as 'no, no, no' (I did throw a few 'yes's in there for balance), but as I said at the start I don't want the wrong info to stand as the only info available.

I've made a right mess of the formatting for sure, I wasn't clear on how to quote someones earlier post, so I just broke up @Swiss Toni 's post and used quote marks to show which bits were him/her and which were me *. Sorry if it's hard to follow.

* Forget that, I think I figured it out (we'll soon see).

Stay safe everyone.

Cheers
 
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midgetbiker

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OK, wow, the formatting worked, but it does look a bit like I'm trolling @Swiss Toni with the number of times it says "Swiss Toni says". Sorry about that @Swiss Toni :( not intended that way.
 

Philpug

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@midgetbiker , thanks joining and clarifying misinformation. I can say Whitedot has not been on our radar, will add I am not sure I have seen them at any of the industry demos we attend. I will add, while I have heard of your brand, there has been some confusion with another brand, WhiteDoctor. Doing some quick searching, I am not sure they are even still around.
 

midgetbiker

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@Philpug so.....

WhiteDoctor was originally called RideDoctor, but then the Ride brand kicked off, so it changed to WhiteDoctor. We did have a word with them about the similarity in name (especially with the logo not being a million miles apart from ours) but they were good people, had done it unintentionally, and we made skis appealing to differing market sectors so just decided not to worry about it. One ISPO trade show though we must have spent half our time sending their appointments to them, and going looking for ours at their stand!

Very much a moot point now though, as super sadly the founder and driving force of WhiteDoctor (Eric Bobrowicz) died maybe two years ago. I believe he was quite ill for a while, and think the final production of skis may even have been branded DarkDoctor (that may just be a rumour). Super sad, he was a decent bloke, always been in the industry and was involved with the original introduction of rocker into the market. An asset to skiing lost.

All the above is just my understanding of events, so don't shoot me if it isn't 100%.
 
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Swiss Toni

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Midgetbiker, many thanks for your detailed reply.

Whitedot is most definitely not a ski manufacturer, a manufacturer makes the product Whitedot and many other small ski brands outsource that process. In an interview with Develop3D magazine in 2018 Whitedot’s head of product design revealed that he wasn’t very proficient with CAD software and could only produce hand drawn sketches and line drawings and that the CAD models were produced by the engineers at the factory, so as well as not manufacturing anything it doesn’t look like you do much in the way of design either. I find it a bit irritating when such ski companies are lumped together with actual ski manufacturers such as Augment who manage to do it all in house.

Perhaps it might have been better if you had said that NBL Sport no longer manufacturers skis for Whitedot. I thought it was common knowledge that they had been your manufacturing partner for a considerable time. Whitedot is still listed as a customer on the Nobile kiteboarding website https://nobilekiteboarding.com/pl/o-nas.html I find it a bit disconcerting that you have moved manufacturing away from a long time partner to a undisclosed manufacturer seemingly after they had competed a modernization program that should have enabled them to make better skis. Who makes your skis now?

Under UK legislation Whitedot Skis Ltd qualifies as a ‘Micro Entity’ for filing purposes, it’s a very small company.

As I prefer to buy skis from local retailers, I clicked on the link to your Swiss distributor on your website, unfortunately it only links to a placeholder and as their Facebook hasn’t been updated since 2016 it looks like they don’t handle your skis anymore. The link to the German distributor is broken, presumably because the company no longer has gone out of business and your US distributor’s website hasn’t been updated to include the new skis. It would make things easier if you could provide a list of retail stockists.

You can drive by your premises on Google maps (the image is from July 2019) it must be a tight squeeze to fit your “registered office, workshop, logistics hub and warehouse” into that building.

Assuming your new manufacturing partner is in the EU, I’m a bit surprised that you don’t ship to your EU customers from within the EU as importing skis into the UK from the EU and then exporting them back to customers in the EU doesn’t sound like it will be a lot of fun after the end of the Brexit transition period.

It also looks like importing the odd pair of skis into the US isn’t going to be as easy as it was, as it seems that the importer will require TSCA compliance certification for all the ingredients in the storage wax https://snowsports.org/epatsca/ perhaps something that will not be easy for a retailer or small ski company to provide.
 

midgetbiker

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Hi @Swiss Toni

Sorry that I seem to have offended you, I did post up the fact that hadn't been my intention.

Whitedot is most definitely not a ski manufacturer, a manufacturer makes the product Whitedot and many other small ski brands outsource that process.
Think that's pretty much what I said isn't it? I was trying to draw a distinction though between companies that just take white label ski designs and brand them up and companies (like Whitedot) who have their own bespoke moulds and cavities for production of their own unique (in the technical not marketing sense) skis.

Perhaps it might have been better if you had said that NBL Sport no longer manufacturers skis for Whitedot
OK, how about this, NBL Sport do not currently produce skis for Whitedot, ie they offer a good service, we've used them in the past, and may well again in the future. For clarity though they've never produced the ski being reviewed here, nor any of the skis in Eric's selection in his picture above in the OP.

In an interview with Develop3D magazine in 2018
I'ld never seen that article before, it's not bad, explains the working relationship pretty clearly, it's a little out of date but not on anything material. Here's a link if anyone is interested: https://develop3d.com/profiles/catch-my-drift-ski_design_manufacturing_whitedot_3D_CAD/

Whitedot is still listed as a customer on the Nobile kiteboarding website
Thanks, I'll check that out. If it just lists us as a sort of reference (example of work undertaken) that's fine we're happy with that, if it says we are current clients I'll ask them to take it down (so it doesn't cause anymore confusion). Never been on the kiteboard website tbh, as clearly we don't make kiteboards.

Who makes your skis now?
Loxee OEM, we moved when the head of production left NBL Sport to go to Loxee, to maintain consistency of 'knowledge' or maybe 'experience' I'm not sure really how to word it best. We followed the manufacturing knowledge base really.

You can drive by your premises on Google maps (the image is from July 2019) it must be a tight squeeze to fit your “registered office, workshop, logistics hub and warehouse” into that building.
You can drive by anybody's can't you, that's the world we live in now, for better or worse. It's not really a squeeze no. To be clear the apparent storefronts aren't, they are just window space we lease out as it's valuable advertising space that is wasted on us. We actually have use of the whole building other than the windows, maybe 2000 square foot so it's ok, like I said we are no Amazon nor Home Depot. We do rent off-site storage up by the airport (which you can see from my office window) year round, but only need it (other than for archive) at the real pinch points in the cycle. Skis do often ship from manufacturing straight to distributors, so that eases things, but the point I was trying to hammer home in the earlier post was that skis going direct to customers will always come from Cookridge. I just didn't want anyone contacting NBL expecting to get Whitedots when we wouldn't ship from there even if we did manufactured there.

Under UK legislation Whitedot Skis Ltd qualifies as a ‘Micro Entity’ for filing purposes
Indeed it does, by outsourcing production we can keep staff numbers down, and by re-investing any gross profit into product development we can keep the balance sheet down, t/o then becomes irrelevant and we can benefit from the simple reporting regime that's part of what makes the UK incorporation landscape relatively attractive.

Assuming your new manufacturing partner is in the EU, I’m a bit surprised that you don’t ship to your EU customers from within the EU as importing skis into the UK from the EU and then exporting them back to customers in the EU doesn’t sound like it will be a lot of fun after the end of the Brexit transition period.
Yes, they are in the EU, and yes you'ld think that would make sense even before the dreaded Brexit, but the courier costs out of UK just seem to be way lower than those paid in mainland Europe. It goes beyond that too, unbelievably it has even proved more economic in the past to land transport skis from mainland Europe to UK then move onward to say Japan or NZ (in modest bulk, so several boxes of skis, not a pallet plus) than it was to go direct. I don't get how that can be, but it is. It's only when we get to a pallet or more we look at direct options.
Now post Brexit.........................well your guess, is as good as mine, is as good as Boris Johnson's (if he's honest), but that is a whole other discussion.

it seems that the importer will require TSCA compliance certification for all the ingredients in the storage wax
Yes, we'll have to see how that pans out. Some of these types of requirement can seem massively onerous in principle and then turn into just another box to tick on the paperwork once everyone has got their head around 'on the ground' implementation. As of right now we do ship into the US, the price on our site includes priority shipping (generally FedEx) which says it's next day, but always seems to take two, and finally if anyone prefers they can email for a payment link in US$.

So @Swiss Toni if you'ld like to try some of the skis then send us a message. Not sure which part of CH you inhabit (or visit) but earlier today I arranged with a guy keen to try the Ragnarok that I would meet him on the Col de la Forclaz to hand over a demo pair, as he's in Verbier and I spend the season in Chamonix (well usually, I guess nothings certain right now) and keep a full demo fleet. I'ld be happy to do the same for you, though if your east side of CH then it's not much help.

I hope my formatting of this post (the constant Swiss Toni says) doesn't annoy you again, it's because I am trying to respond comprehensively to your posts, maybe there's a better way to do it, but I'm new to the forum so just clicking buttons.

My purpose in joining was just to correct the impression that skis ordered from Whitedot would ship from NBL, because it's not the case, I think at least I've cleared that up.

All the best, and let's hope we can get to our respective hills this coming season, wherever they are.
 
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