The “skimeister” award goes to those who excel across the whole range of skiing.

I suppose most often it’s the skier himself who is versatile—and he uses specialized equipment for each aspect of skiing that he works on.

Super-G, moguls, tele, off-piste, jumping, xc classic, xc skating, biathlon…snowboard.

For instance.

If someone had good skills in all those kinds of skiing, they’d pretty much qualify for skimeister status.

But I have a more practical, everyday—versatile—kind of skiing in mind for the skimeister.

I’m thinking of skiing that you can do out your back door whenever there is snow on the ground. That’s your base level for “best” skiing. Then the more kinds of skiing you can happily do after you leave your house, the more “meister” you are. Most snow country is in mellow terrain, and mellow terrain is the most reasonable for humans to move around in. So when I leave the house I’m doing cross country skiing. And I’ll be going uphill and downhill. I’ll be doing sweeping turns down a twisty trail. I might also do some linked turns down a sloping open field. I might do some fun jumps. I might do some skating on a wide trampled trail or lake. It won’t be groomed conditions.

The ski set-up that I can do the most with is a full-length waxable Fischer light touring ski, about 58-60 mm wide, with sidecut. They no longer make the Touring Light of the early 1990’s—their best all-round ski of all time. Their new BC Country is flat, dull and heavy by comparison (with a soft tail that skids-out) but there’s nothing better out there.

I’m enjoying the new breed of light classic boot along with a NNN binding. It has a pivoting cuff over a regular light touring boot, to give super support in soft and mixed conditions without hardly any extra weight. A Combi boot, basically.

Then I cap it all off with a carbon pole.

I doubt if there’s a ski rig that you can do more with.

Listen up

Sad news from Listen today:

First of all thanks to everyone who has supported us for the past 4 years. Due to the unforeseen economic downfall and obstacles beyond our control, we have collectively decided to take these next two months to restructure our company financially and operationally in order to bring you a new and improved Listen skateboards and Listenskateboards.com, in January 2009.

Man. First of all, let’s hope that’s two months in calendar time and not “Fulfill the Dream: Coming Soon” time. Either way, hopefully these dudes can hold it together, because right now skateboarding could do with more Listens and less multinational conglomerate hard/softgood concerns.

Speaking of, those guys aren’t doing so hot either…

Foot Locker Inc.

Citigroup Global Markets analyst Kate McShane describes shares in the new owner of CCS as “beaten down” and ripe for buying after FL lost 30% of its value over the past month. It hurts, like a shinner or seeing the words “Core Shop Exclusive!!” in a $102 million mail-order company’s catalog. McShane telegraphs what may be positive news for Es, however: “Over the longer term, we think Foot Locker is well positioned to capitalize on a healthier consumer & a technical athletic footwear trend.”

Globe International Ltd.

Globe caught a tough one last month when they closed out fiscal 2007/2008 with a $24.6 million net loss, but they’re keeping an Australian stiff upper lip judging from their annual report, which looks more like a booking catalog and is probably the only shareholder document to feature beardmaster Chris Haslam gooning it up in a Slayer shirt. Do you think he gets photo incentive for that?

Also, important facts to bear in mind when considering GLB.AX: Major competitors would be other apparel-related businesses providing the same services to the general public through its shops or on-line. Customers are the general public who are fashion conscious.

Billabong International Ltd.

Australia-based surf clothier and owner of Element finds itself pitched on the fickle waves of teen consumerism, and while Billabong hasn’t been hit as hard as some of the other guys, one of their top executives last month unloaded a quarter-million shares just prior to the credit crisis kicking into high gear. It’s never really a good look when one of your top dogs trims his personal stake in the company, but by selling when he did our boy avoided losing $500,000 or so, which speaks to brains of a sort at the helm.

Quiksilver Inc.

ZQK has had a tough run of things, trading this week to a one-year low as debt balloons and investors flee the DC parent like so many Lakai riders. The plunging chart pretty much tells the tale, but why not give the last word to messageboard advice-dispenser “giveitup4muffinz”… “ZQK DEBT NOW = 150% OF MARKET CAP this turd is sinking fast!!! this company is f*cked!!! do not invest in this company. you’ll be broke. it’s going under!! no future for ZQK.