If you could dream up your ideal ski from scratch

Hey — humor me with a daydream for a minute.

"Forget the constraints, the cost, the manufacturing headaches — all of it. If you could build just one ideal ski, how would you design it?"

I think about this a lot. And I usually get stuck, because the "everything" ski doesn't exist. Add speed and ease slips away. In the end, ski design is a contest over what you're willing to give up.

Back in my Hart days, a fired-up colleague and I chased one thing only: the fastest ski in the world. What we landed on was a 168 cm slalom ski. If memory serves, it set the fastest time in five straight World Cup races. It gave me chills.

There was a catch. It was only fast on the second run. The first run was always clinging to 30th. A complete wild horse.

And I still ask myself: was that ski a failure?

To survive into the second run in alpine, you need a baseline of top-end speed. Think of baseball: you can rattle off hit after hit, but without one ball over the fence, you're not cracking the top 30.

That wild horse cleared the fence every time. Bucking and fighting the whole way, it still dragged a messy first run into 30th, race after race. A failure — or a brilliant, half-broken thoroughbred? Honestly, I still haven't reached a verdict. What do you think?

For what it's worth, I still take on these knuckleheaded challenges today. I love building racing skis — really love it. Hunting for the limit inside the rules is a game I can't get enough of.

…although "what if we tore the rulebook up entirely?" is a daydream that drifts through my head now and then. But that's a different dream, for another day.

So — what's your ideal ski, your one and only?

Come dream it up with me on Instagram — I'd love to hear it.