CADS: Where Are They Today?
Dr. Jaime Green (circa 2016) wearing CADS.
Riding a chair lift last month, I saw them on a skier below. Ten days later, I saw them again, this time at an area 2,000 miles away.
CADS… Constant – force Articulated Dynamic Struts … the odd looking, butt-to-boots device designed to keep skiers with knee and other lower body strength and stamina issues on the slopes and skiing without pain. Twenty years ago, it was not unusual to see people wearing CADS. Two of my friends wouldn’t slide downhill without them. That was then. In recent years I hadn’t seen anyone on the slopes wearing them.
What happened?
No marketing. No advertising. No distributors, according to Walter Dandy who first imagined CADS in the 1980s while nursing a case of sore thighs riding up a chairlift at Heavenly Valley after a long run in heavy Sierra snow, he had the concept and the vision. In Tony Nespor, he found the engineer he needed to refine the parts for manufacture.
The idea was a simple one: ‘artificial strength’, a way to use upper body weight to stabilize the ski on the snow, like a suspension system in an automobile. And that strength needs to be constant. The answer turned out to be a rubber spring that kept up the pressure steady on the skis. It meant less muscle fatigue, less knee strain, and less lower back strain. .
The pully-like devise looked strange: a rubber spring at the skier’s boot is attached to a string that runs up the back of the skiers legs where it is attached to a harness and waist belt. At the end of a run, it is detached for the lift ride back up the hill. At the top it is then re-attached, which that can take as little at 11 seconds once the skier gets used to the process.
Sure CADS felt strange when first used. But as prominent ski writer Nicholas Howe wrote in Skiing Magazine, “The only strange part comes when the afternoon ends, and my legs feel as if it were still morning.”
Dandy had a prototype of “my contraption” ready to go in the spring of 1987. He approached K-2 but the ski manufacturer indicated it had no money to develop the devise. He then secured interest from George Gillette at Vail and then funding assistance from the ambassador Paul Nitze, an investment banker and former chairman of the Aspen Ski Company. The first sale was to the Dave Gorsuch ski shop at Vail where CADS were introduced to the public.
The early feedback was very solid. “95% of the early people who tried CADS, bought them.” said Dandy.
Ed Blumstein was one of those. The Philadelphia attorney who vacationed at Vail was one of the early users. ” They made me a more comfortable skier. CADS extended my skiing life 15 years.”
The early deal was that buyers would receive a box. Boots and pants would be sent back to Dandy so the device could fitted then returned. There was a money back guarantee if the purchaser didn’t like the product.
Said Dandy: “Only a couple ever came back.”
By the mid-1990s, CADS were catching on not only at Vail and Beaver Creek but also with Izzy Slutsky and Karl Plattner at Hunter Mountain and nearby Windham in New York. Said Plattner at the time: “The two best things ever to happen to skiing were snowmaking and CADS.”
There was other positive feedback too. CADS were accepted early on by orthopedists at the noted Steadman-Hawkins Sports Medicine Foundation in Vail who endorsed the devise. Prominent ski journalists across the country wrote glowing articles. The 1964 Olympic slalom medalist Jimmy Heuga who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis skied on CADS when he could no longer walk unassisted.
So why with all the positive vibes when they were introduced are CADS not commonly seen on the slopes today?
They are still available to purchase. Today they cost $695 by mail with some assembly required.
‘We sell a handful a year.” says Handy, who still does demonstrations at his home in Vail.
And right now, that seems to be the future too. There is no distributor working the market and CADS hasn’t advertised in 25 years. Seeing the device at work on a slope these days, like I did recently, qualifies as a rare sighting. Handy estimates that there are a maximum of 1,000 people using them today.
What’s next for CADS?
Says Handy: “Maybe I should get in touch with Taylor Swift
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I need these CADs,as I have myasthenia gravis, a neuro disease that leads to muscle weakness and stamina issues. Please provide the ordering info.
Dave Walsh,77 YO who does not want to quit!
There was another assist device around for a few years that used air inflated soft springs. A computer chip controlled the amount of force that was applied and could be adjusted to suit the slopes you were skiing. They stopped making them for individuals because they have a contract with the Department of Defense. I think it was called Robotic Assist.
Greetings from Rochester,NY
Still skiing at 72
Interesting article
A photo of the device would be helpful.
Check out this link for more details: including videos from cads skiing customers
https://www.cads.com/
I used CADs for over 15 years prior to getting Knee replacements. I am very grateful to Walter Dandy as I couldn’t have continued skiing on a high level without them. These days however, I ski with Ski-Mojos which are under the pants spring support system that promotes more natural skiing and decreases quad fatigue in a major way. They are very easy to use and activate. Nevertheless, I feel CADs would give more support if you were experiencing bone on bone pain from severe knee or hip arthritis.
Great article about a segment of the ski industry history Phil. I skied on patrol at Hunter for many years and saw CADS used by Izzy Slutzky and my good friend Ken. As cumbersome as these devices seemed to be, my feeling was always, if they kept people on the slopes who would have had to quit skiing, why not.
We miss seeing you Phil, since we moved from upstate NY to Colorado, but please come and visit us if you ever get out this way.
Howie
The “CADS” in the title caught my eye and I was surprised to see the article wasn’t about the Canadian Association for Disabled Skiers which has been around for many years providing adaptive equipment and instructors/volunteers to help those people get out on the slopes. I know many skiers using traditional and sometimes awkward knee braces. I’m surprised this cads device isn’t better known.
Hey Phil,
Interesting piece about CADS…it reminded me of all the ski-related gizmos I’ve seen during the past 60 years I’ve spent as a skier, and sometimes snowboarder…which reminds me of one of the first gizmos: the “SNURFER”!! Remember this one? The idea was, in late 60s or 70s, you’d stand on a single ski, maybe 90-100cm in length, about 8-9″ in width, while gripping a rope connected at the tip of the ski. Then, you’d ski, or “snurf” down the hill. I guess it was supposed to be like surfing on a ski, down a hill. I saw a few ads, but don’t ever remember seeing someone “snurfing”. Not until snowboards with bindings came along. But then, snowboards were not an instant hit either, despite Jake Burton’s brilliance in the creation/execution & adaptation of his boards to the marketplace needs. In about 1989, the classic ski film “The Blizzard of Ahhhhs” was released, and in it was a periodic poke at the nascent snowboard movement which was headed: “Wheel of Destruction”, and it involved snowboards being ridden and crashed by hapless riders.
I guess my point is simply that it’s really difficult to break through with a completely new consumer product, unless the manufacturer/distributor has tremendous perseverance, industry partnerships, and/or luck & sometimes deep pockets. In a seasonal industry like skiing, the shop owners who support the active users within the industry have such a short season, then it’s markdown time, that hardly anyone has the financial wherewithal to take big risks on entirely new products. Very tough to breakthrough to success.
I am almost 80, I bought Cads 25 -30 years ago , still using them and skiing !
Thank you Walter a Jenny !