The Off Season

Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning on Summer for many of us. All but a few ski resorts have shuttered for the season and we focus on other outdoor activities.

The majority of us at KJUS are avid golfers. Our CEO Didi Serena handicap is in the single digits. Others of us aspire to lower our handicaps by as much. Both Casey Puckett and Bode Miller enjoy getting out on the course. Bode recently competed in the World Ski & Golf Championships where we put on the Team America race suit before lacing up the spikes (soft of course).

His team, Team Kitzbuhel, took the title. Bode won the ski and he finished 10th overall in his class.

Another sport enjoyed by a number of us at KJUS is sailing. As a Swiss company, we can no longer the excuse of a land locked country to not sail- thanks to the America's Cup success of Alinghi. In the US, our brand manager races weekly on Casco Bay. But the big sailor in our midst, is Lasse. As we reported this winter he sails a Melges 24. This week he is competing in the Melges 24 World Championships in Porto Cervo, Italy. Wind has been an issue since racing started last week, and Lasse seems to have had some issues himself as he currently sits in 99th spot of 105 boats. There's still lots of racing left, so lets hope he gets good wind and strong starts in the following races and moves up some places.

View other images from the racing action at http://www.outsideimages.co.nz/

He is in Key West

This is the answer to what is surely to be one of next week's most commonly asked questions.

Next week the SIA show takes place in Las Vegas and ISPO invades Munich and visitors to the KJUS booth at each show are likely to ask- Is Lasse here? What is he up to these days?

This week Lasse is in Key West, FL, competing in the Acura Race Week. This is not a new King of the Mountain event made for TV in the warmer climate, it is one of the worlds largest sailing regattas. When Lasse doesn't have a ski pole in his hand he is likely to have a tiller in it. Lasse has long been keen on sailing and since retiring has been racing his Melges 24 NOR 724. In 2006 he and Aamodt both purchased Melges 24s, so the friendly rivalry now continues on the water.

In Key West, Lasse is currently 31st in his one-design class. Weather has been pretty iffy through out the week, and on Monday he had a pretty tough go of it in a practice session with one of his crew members taking a swim.

Today in Gary Jobson's day four video report he interviews Lasse about how ski racing and sailing are not too different from each other. Gary is an exceptional announcer, so we'll let his pronunciation of Kjus slide this time.

Melges 24 Worlds Update

In yesterday's race Lasse finished 32nd, moving him up to 96th overall. Race four is underway with winds freshening to 20 mph. Follow live text updates at http://www.melges24worlds2008.com/