Hey everybody, welcome back to Gear 30 on the Blister podcast network, where we are very proudly based out of Elevation Hotel right here in Crested Butte, Colorado.

I'm Jonathan Ellsworth, the founder of Blister, and you can check out everything we're doing

and reviewing over at blisterreview.com.

Today, we've got some big news and announcements for you, and we're also talking about the

state of and relevance of buyers' guides today. Now, the biggest announcement here is that next week we are

releasing our first Blister Mountain Bike Guide, but we are doing it in a way that I'm not sure

has ever been done before in the bike world, and we're going to explain why we're doing it this way.

So joining me today are our Buyers Guide editors.

That would be Luke Kappa, who is in charge of our Winter Buyers Guide, and Luke is going to be

sharing some updates on that.

And then we've got our Blister bike editor, David Gowley, who is the point person for

our bike buyer's guide. Now, before we drop in on that conversation, just a reminder that

fishing, all types of fishing are covered under Blister Plus, and that includes spearfishing.

I'm not kidding, that is a true confirmed fact.

Anyway, I just got back from eight straight days of fly fishing on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.

You'll hear one of my stories from the trip at the very end of today's conversation, but there were several times on the trip

where an extremely powerful sock eye caused the handle of my reel to smash into my hand,

and it left me thinking, this would be a really great way to break a thumb.

Now, fortunately for me, that didn't happen, but if it had, I would have been covered under

Blister Plus. So whether you are fishing in Alaska or spear fishing, wherever people spearfish,

I don't know, or you're just riding bikes at home. Blister Plus has you covered 365 days a year. And you can check out all the details

by clicking the link in the show notes. And now, let's talk about several very cool new things

...