Welcome to Powder Play with Steve Kopitz.

Hello everyone, my name is Steve and I am the Owner of Skis.com. I have been skiing for nearly five decades (I'm in my 50's now). and it is my passion. When I was a teenager all I wanted was to own a ski shop. It took a little while but I got my wish. I have been in the sports equipment business for decades selling skis and snowboards and lots of other sports gear, but skiing and snowboarding are my love.

My company currently owns and operates several regional retail stores and multiple Internet web sites including Skis.com. My company employs about 150 people between the stores and the website operations. I am the Ski Hard goods Buyer (That means I buy the ski equipment but not the ski clothing). At one point I also was the Buyer for snowboards but I gave up that responsibility to several qualified individuals, one of which is my company VP, Andy. To provide you with the highest quality products and the most informative website experience possible, I have surrounded myself with a number of quality individuals, a list that is MUCH too long to recite here.

Some Fun Facts about Me:

In my family you Ski or Die: When I went to propose to my wife she was not a skier. I nicely told her that I could not marry her unless she learned to ski. She agreed to try it under a few conditions. I will write more about this in another article. She now loves to ski. My son was on his 1st pair of skis at 22 months old. My daughter was a late starter at 3 1/2, but both  love to ski. My son was the captain of his high school race team and is now at the University of Denver working on his S-K-I degree. While my daughter also looked into attending college in Colorado, she went to the northeast part of the country to New York.

Where I have skied: I have lived in Michigan all my life but have managed to take at least 2-4 ski trips out west each year. I have skied at over 25 resorts out west as well as Heli Skiing in the Bugaboos in Canada for a week. We also own a cottage in Northern Michigan near Michigan’s best ski hills where we go on weekend as often as we can.

What makes me an expert and why I am writing this column: I'm not an expert. I'm just a guy who has made skiing a major part of my work, home, and personal life. I think it's the greatest sport on earth. If you get me in a bar and buy me a beer I could talk about skiing for days (I could talk about skiing for days without a beer too). I know a lot about the equipment. I have tried hundreds of different skis, helped thousands of customers, skied at a lot of places, and skied practically my whole life. I've raised a family to love skiing and taught dozens of other people to ski too. I would love the opportunity to share some of my knowledge, experiences, and advice to anyone who is interested. Email me with any kind of question on skiing and I will do my best to answer it.

Steve