GEAR:30

GEAR:30 is Blister’s gear conversation for skiers, riders, and equipment obsessives who want more than a spec sheet. Its best episodes feel anchored in real ski days. The crew might begin with closing-day spring snow in Crested Butte, a weather report from Snowbird, or a post-trip download from Palisades Tahoe. From there, the conversation rolls naturally into the details. Skis are compared by stability, forgiveness, mount feel, turn shape, weight, edge hold, and whether they come alive at speed. Boots are discussed through fit, volume, entry and exit, BOA systems, and the difference between selling someone a boot and fitting one properly. Snowboard episodes widen the lens into shop culture, 90s hip-hop, design history, and how riding has influenced ski gear. Technique episodes bring in data and coaching perspective, asking how ski width, radius, and specialized mogul skis affect carving, bumps, and progression. The tone is relaxed. The standards are not. Jonathan Ellsworth, Luke Kappa, and the wider Blister orbit tend to think out loud, correct themselves, tease each other, and still land on useful distinctions that a serious skier can take to a demo tent or bootfitter. The show also has a strong sense of place, with Elevation Hotel in Crested Butte, Snowbird, Palisades Tahoe, and the Blister Summit recurring as more than backdrops. They are testing grounds. That gives the gear talk texture, because skis and boots are judged against specific snow, terrain, fatigue, and actual runs. A listener may hear about the ARV 106 TI, a Kessley Sublime 93, a Faction mogul ski, Atomic Redster models, Peak Skis news, or a practical shop red flag. The show is not tidy in a corporate way. It has side stories, sponsor breaks, inside jokes, and occasional rough edges. But that looseness is part of the value: it sounds like knowledgeable people comparing notes before the memory of the day has cooled. GEAR:30 is for listeners who want informed opinions with enough specificity to be useful and enough banter to feel like a chairlift conversation that got seriously technical.