After five years with Fischer, Britain’s most successful alpine ski racer, Dave Ryding, has returned to Dynastar Lange for the new season. Ryding, speaking exclusively to Racer Ready, explained that the time was right for a change of equipment and “a fresh start.” Ryding with eleven top ten World Cup results to his plus a ninth place in the Olympics, is one of the most exciting talents on the World Cup and hugely respected by his peers on the World Cup.
Ryding grew up racing on the Dynastar brand from the age of fourteen to twenty-four and he admits that the brand “has a special place in my heart. I was ready to come back.” All eleven top ten results came on Fischer and the support that they gave him is something that Ryding is grateful for.
With his testing obligations complete at the end of the season, Ryding tested skis at the end of the season and “everything fell into place,” he explained. “From the off it all felt easy and good,” Ryding continued. With the new equipment Ryding felt renewed motivation.
While Ryding was full of compliments for Fischer and grateful for the help in taking second at Kitzbuehel in 2017, the changes between the Fischer skis and boots against the Dynastar skis and Lange boots are noticeable he feels. Regarding the boots, Ryding did not do much testing on the Fischer boots, as soon as he stepped back into the Lange boots, he did feel quite a lot of difference, he admitted.
One of the big positives Ryding admitted about moving back to the Dynastar Lange family was the support from the UK Distributor for the two brands, Scott Dobson. “Scott has always been there for me, even after I moved to Fischer so it is nice to come back.” Ryding is a popular figure and the tidal wave of social media coverage announcing his switch to Dynastar Lange is testament to his popularity.
The close relationship with Dobson was highlighted by Ryding calling Dobson to tell him personally that he had moved back to Dynastar.
With the video of him coming out of a shed to announce his move, the idea to this was Ryding’s, achieving almost 8,000 views to date. Ryding is now back into training with two weeks of intensive fitness before heading back to the indoor slopes. At the end of May he will head back to the fridge in Wittemburg. This is a necessary evil Ryding rues as this is where his technique is finely tuned ready for the winter.
This year Laurie Taylor will join Ryding for most of the season but Taylor will head off to do Giant Slalom races at points in the season. For seven years Ryding has been on his own with Tristan Glasse Davies and then Ali Morton (his serviceman) then Jai Geyer joined the team last year along with Reini Fernsebner (Head Coach for the British team). There are more positives than negatives to Taylor joining the programme he feels.
After four years in the top thirty in the world and two in the top ten, Ryding is one of the leading stars on the World Cup Slalom tour. He recognises how competitive the discipline is and while he is proud of this achievement, “but I am not settling for this.”
With Ryding feeling that his body is still in good shape but he is, in his own words “always willing to put things on the line. I am refreshed and ready to go.”
Picture courtesy of Dave Ryding