The First Skis You Owned

A snowHead

Volkl P9 SL
Dynaster Omeglass II
Dynastar Vertical
Salomon Scream 10 Pilot
Salomon Pocket Rocket
Volkl Mantra
Volkl Gotama
K2 Coomback

Bit of a progression from Piste to Off ......

Think the best at their time were the Pocket Rockets ...... wish I hadn't sold them !

A snowHead

K2 5500 in circa 1986.
Still on K2 Escape 5500 of 9 years vintage.
Time for a change?!!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I've now owned 3 pairs I am allowed to play?

2007 - Elan wavemagic 160cm - I quite liked these - still got them upstairs
2009 - Elan Magfire 78Ti 168cm - these were brutes in comparison to the wavemagics, took no prisoners, dumped me several times before I got cross with them. They improved my skiing no end as I couldn't be lazy with them and had to ski them 'properly'
2013 - Elan Amphios 168cm - Not skied these yet!!

I'm going to hang onto the magfires and take both those and the amphibios when I can as the magfires are wider and I still think will be better in slush and deep snow.

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Can't be sure of years... but tried my best

1992 - Rossignol 4S? (L?) 185cm
1993 - Rossignol 4SV 185cm
1994 - Salomon Force 9 185cm
1998 - K2Mod skis 172cm (I think)
???? - Rossignol 9s 161cm (my early favourite skis)
http://www.skitest.net/en-ski-tp_9s_ahc_100-104.shtml
2001 - Rossignol B2 158cm (good for getting back into skiing)
2001 - K2 Fugitive 158cm (good fun)
2001 - K2 Misdemeanor 158cm (bought to replace the ground down fugitives - knee injury so never skied the holiday was due to take them on)
2005 - Rossignol B78 158cm (bad decision)
2008 - Rossignol B83 160cm (too short sold)
2011 - Rossignol Echo 8 163cm (favourite skis since the 9s)

2013... Hopefully Rossignol S3 and maybe 8SL Oversize. Will add photos shortly.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I ski on 152s now. My first skis were bright green Dynastar something-or-others, 180 in length and very skinny! Must have bought them some time in the mid-80s, can't remember exactly when.

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Crossmax 10, 175cm
K2 Recon, 170cm
Line Blend,179cm

Next, possible a set of Witedot Preachers

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

1999, Rental ski, Make who knows, who cares, 1st year skiing, so i could have strapped planks of wood to my feet, for all the good it did me!!
2000, Rental skis, again, Make who knew, who cared, slightly better planks though, i think with some creosote on
2001, Rental skis, again, Make, think they were Head, now was starting to feel a bit Bode Miller, so started to look to buy the same skis when i got home, think i even tried to get this pair off hire shop.
2002, Rental skis again, Make not known, failed in my mission to purchase skis i had been on previous year.
2003-2012, Ditto above, getting thoroughly miffed now and skiing twice a year, it is time to purchase some ski's FFS

2012 end of season, Read good reviews on Dynastar Outland 80's on Snowheads and various other sources, and had skiid on a pair whilst in resort for one day last year.

2012 March go to Decathlon and Outland 80's reduced to £249. Hey presto my 1st pair of ski's ever

Are they any good ( only tried for one day, so who knows ). But going in two weeks time and again 5 weeks later, so will be giving them a good tryout.

AND WHO CARES COZ THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS'ssssssssssss ( Golum like ) THEY ARE MINE and THEY ARE MY FIRST AND ONLY PAIR OF SKIS SINCE 19 blooming 1999 Very Happy

After all it is free

1979 Fisher Futura 170
1979 Rossignol Rocal 175
1980 Rossignol Wing 185
1982 Pre 1200 200's with look 77
1983 undated the Pre's to Look 99 RS
1984 to 1987 about 12 pairs of old hire skis for freestyle all about 150 or 160
2004 K2 Crossfire 180
2009 Movement Source
2009 Movement Sluff
2010 Movement loads of them Shocked

2011 Whitedot all of them!! Shocked

2012 More Movement and Whitedots Shocked

2013

what next

I first owned snowboards. Very Happy

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

2010/11 - Volkl Unlimited AC30 177

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Mid 80s - Atomic ALS5 - purchased from LD Mountain Centre, Newcasle with rear entry Nordicas, 720s I think
- Atomic ARS - couldn't afford the ARC's when still at school!
Early 90s - Volkl P9 SL - Day glo pink and just netted me £75 trade in at S&R
Mid 90s - Kastle Fibretubes - the supposedly all mountian/off piste red ones but couldn't really see the differnce with the SL and GS versions
Late 90's - Head Cyber Cross - first set of 'carvers'
into the nougties - Volkl 724 EXP - the yellow ones
Scott Missions - the favourites to date, so easy to use everywhere.
Scott Ventures - this year's christmas present from Mrs Frozennose, not yet used but I an expecting great things after the missions and looking at various reviews.

snow reports

I demo'd a pair of Rossi B2s for my 5th and 6th days skiing for free, liked them so much I bought a pair which lasted for 5 years. My second pair were a vast improvement, Nordica Enforcers, they are still going strong. Thinking of going for a pair of SL skis for my third pair, guess I'm about ready for a quiver Toofy Grin

Dynamic VR27 SL with Salomon 957's (now that was a pair of tough bindings...new thread?), bought for 200FF from a pastry chef of dubious politics in Chamonix. He wanted to concentrate on mono-boarding... Laughing

You know it makes sense.

That I remember, my first pair were a pair of Head. They were white with red graphics, but that's all I can remember. I'd have been about 15.

Then was a pair of purple Fischer SC Ceramic (if I remember right) That would have been about 1989 I think.

Picked up a pair of Elan MBX C9 when I worked for the importer in the early '90s

then a pair of Dynastar Assault V8 when I was the tech at Nevisport a few years later, this was just when the Salomon Monocoque skis were taking hold and I think were probably the last 'traditional' sidewall ski for some time.

I had a serious motorcycle accident in 2002 and didn't ski again for some years. Getting back into it in recent years, I've rented when I've been away, but now have a quiver of 3 pairs all purchased in the last 18 months

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

1978 Blizzard "Compact" 170. Taller than I am. Weighed a ton, but skied well. Bindings had straps not brakes. First boots I had were 2 layer leather!
1985 Rossignol Open - the ones with the bendy tips. 170 still taller than me! Very soft, great in powder, crap on ice! For Ice days I borrowed my Mum's Fischer SC4(?) with the trapezoidal (and very sharp) edges - very good for ruining your gloves. Hard to turn - too long for me at 175! SX81 boots.
Used the Opens for 6+ years then had kids and restored a house - did not ski much for a few years.
1999 Rossignol Cobra R. 163. Now those were fun, very fast, turnable, stable at speed. Loved them, but wore them out eventually(after 25 weeks or more) did not want to lose them, kept putting off buying a new pair. Salomon Evolution boots
2009 Atomic Cloud 9 - 158. These fitted the bill for a shorter lighter ski following a knee injury, but it's a bit like taking the Ford Fiesta instead of the Alfa. They do not handle speed well, better at short turns than long sweeping ones. 2012 New Rossignol boots with zipfits (a revelation!) from Colin.

I'd love some suggestions for something I'd like better than these Atomics which I was assured would suit me well....I'm a woman in my early 50's, reasonably fit, been skiing over 40 years, can go everywhere but don't like deep sticky stuff (bad for my knee) and cop out of very big moguls. (Why would you if you don't have to?) I have a husband and 2 adult kids who ski fast, so I do too, but left to myself I like to turn. I'm 5'2" in old money which is 158cm. I'm petite (9st).

A snowHead

A snowHead

1992 - K2 CVC, 203cm.
1995 - Hagan prototypes - no idea what the ski was called but it was bright orange and yellow. Skied them for a few weeks (courtesy of the shop), then one day I went to my locker in the shop and they were gone - the manufacturers wanted them back so that could cut them up and analyse them Sad

After that I had Kneissl WhiteStar, which were nice but no where near as good.

A few since then, but none very interesting.

I always wish I'd had the original Rossi 4S or the Volkl P9 SL instead of the K2s back in the day. The K2s were fine, but the Rossis or the Volkls were the standout skis of the time.

These days I vary between not caring to much and being happy to rent (esp. if it's expensive / inconvenient to fly with them) to demoing the latest and greatest...

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Not trawled through the whole thread but havent yet seen the name my first pair of skis mentioned

Olin 830

then in no particular order

K2 Merlin V
Lange GS Race

for the life of me I cant remember any others Embarassed

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First skis - Kastle SX166 in a 185

Many many skis later - Current models are:
Head isl rd x2
Head isl gs x 2
Head Motorhead Rock n Rolls
Head Motorhead Sacrifice

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Hi all,
just sold my first pair of skis which were 2004 model Rossy B1's, going to miss them, think I should have got rid of my ex-rental B80's instead as they are sooo heavy.

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My first pair were black and wooden and i broke a tip in the Corrie na Cste in the early 1970s

The first pair I can remember because they are now up on my garage wall were a pair of Red Master de luxe with cable bindings and screw in edges -
Fischer compacts (hand me downs)
Sohler somethings (hand me downs)
Dynastar Polysofts - My first brand new skis from Fishers of Keswick. I loved those skis Little Angel

Rossignol Glass somethings. - nice graphics I recall......
Olin Mark IIIS (second hand) superb skis used partly when I was a student. Apparently soft powder skis.
Atomic Arcs bought from LD Mountain Centre, Newcastle. A bit too stiff ......and pink
Fisher FC4s (£50 second hand but great skis). Skied some extreme lines in Snowdonia on them.
Elan MBX 205s - jobbing skis.
Kastle Vac Tecs - Really cheap but very light and effective retrofitted with Telemark bindings
Head Cyber - A bit too stiff for my first proper move to Telemark
Blizzard titans - bought from telemark pyrenees. An effective satifying tele ski.
Salmon 3s - retrofitted with telemark bindings for cross country
K2 Mantras 178 with Hammerhead bindings. Comically wide. So wide that i have had to adapt my odd school feet together stance. But so easy to ski...its cheating !

Quite a lot really when you add them up and many of these skis have lasted me 10 years !

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

First pair: Salomon MLX9 - 186

and I currently ski

Atomic Race GS11 - 166 (they have the most amazing edgehold - the harder the piste, the more fun to ski they are!)

After all it is free

A quick post from across the pond----

My first skis were Fishers. They were wood, and the edges were sectioned together, with countersunk screws holding them into the wood! They had Cubco bindings. I had leather tie-up boots (Raichle, I think). And I has some of the spiffier gear in my ski class!

That would have been about 1966.

The next set of gear were Head Standard skis (metal!) with Look-Nevada bindings and boots that buckled.

In my mind, the big gear evolutions happened in two big stages:

1. late 60s/early 70s: buckle and cable boots emerged, wood skis faded...metal (Head was first) and fiberglass (Dynamic was an early adopter) became the norm. Binding technology exploded; they got a LOT safer and had tons more elasticity. I was an instructor in the mid 70s, and I remember having two sets of skis, one for teaching, the other for skiing. Teaching: Lange Phantom boots, Hart ballet skis, Look-Nevada bindings. Skiing: Hanson Exhibition boots, Head Yahoo skis, Look-Nevada bindings. I also had a pair of Kastle skis I used for teaching when I needed something longer than the Hart Ballet.

2. 1998 or so through about 2002: shaped skis hit the market and went through a couple of notable modifications very, very quickly. I remember having Dynastar 4x4s (versatile but slow and the flared tails would catch the bumps), Volant (camberless; more suited to long, sweeping turns, but not agile), Dynastar G9s (great ski, and the tail flare was deemphasized, fixing the issue in the bumps), and Rossignol Speed SX (a pintail design, Ski Magazine's ski of the year around 1999 or 2000).

One of the biggest evolutions for me personally from the late 90s to the 2000s was the refinement of Marker bindings. I have serious knee issues, and the Markers, while being nicely elastic, do not have the 'tug' just before reaching the release point. Smooth as glass. Meant a lot to someone who did NOT want that lateral knee yank!

@SEFSTRAT, welcome, and thanks for refreshing this subject. My first skis were "Grand Prix", no idea who made 'em. But they were white metal flake, and I know this because I gave them several coats of wax.....on the topskins, not the bases! (for you car wax historians, it was Kit).

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@SEFSTRAT, Great first post.

My first skis were some K2 things about 210cm long. 4 of us were in Val d'Isere around '99 or 2000, and thought we'd hit the jackpot when we found a large sale of ex-rental skis in a bar one night. They were all 100ff, which was about £10. So we each bought 2 pairs. It'd be rude not to, at that money.

It didn't take long to discover that there had been a wee ski tech revolution recently, and we were now on the wrong side of it. But they did a couple of trips and saved £££ hiring.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

2015 - K2 press 169cm

2019 - Wedze Xld 500 174cm

Not the most impressive list I know! Very Happy

snow reports

The first skis I owned were some Lange SLS in the very early 80s. They were much too stiff for me, so shifted them on to a friend after one holiday - and then went with Volkl Renntigers, which were much better...and owned several pairs over the years.

Veilhaber Carbon

Fischer (cant remember name!)

Salmon |S9000

Salomon Xscream Pilot

Salomon X24 Max

You know it makes sense.

I remember those Lange skis. If I remember right, they were joint venture between Dynamic and Lange.

Black and yellow. Stiff slalom skis.

Am I remembering this correctly?

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@Old Fartbag, one of the reps in Morzine (Crystal, maybe?), 1989, had both slalom and GS Langes (she was sponsored, at least to the extent of free skis). IIRC the SLs were mostly silver in colour.

A snowHead

@Old Fartbag, one of the reps in Morzine (Crystal, maybe?), 1989, had both slalom and GS Langes (she was sponsored, at least to the extent of free skis). IIRC the SLs were mostly silver in colour.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

First skis were inherited Atomic Race 95, if we discount the plastic things with buckles!

Waiting patiently to go on my Scott "the ski" 180 with rotefella freerides (Telemark)

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

My first owned skis were a pair of Erbacher mid-length skis at 180cm with Tyrolia latch-in bindings in the late 1970s. Bought them from Horace Barton in Cheltenham. Great for an improving intermediate.

Not sure the Erbacher brand still exists, but I have seen a few pairs over the years, particularly in Austria.

I then graduated to Dynastar Course GS - white skis with red blob in 203cms - fast and furious and used them happily for years.

Then a pair of Rossignol straight skis, and onto 'carvers' Head CrossMax , Salomon Xscream Series, Rossignol ZX90s, Rossignol Exp80s and now Rossignol Exp84s.

Lots of pairs and not a 'set' in sight! Very Happy

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Lady F's first skis were some Dynastar Starflow - bought from Hobson Sports, just before Dungannon went into a major riot during The Troubles. Probably around mid to late 80s.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Late ski starter (2000) and alway rented up until 2014/15.

First skis owned: Kneissl Black Stars MC 172. Still ski on them Very Happy

Also now have, since Dec 2019, Atomic Redster G9s 177

Some entry-level INOC touring skis and Atomic Langlauf skis make up the collection.

We have various other skis stored for friends, so some White Dot Preachers also find their way out on occasions Toofy Grin

After all it is free

Rossignol 4S with Salomon bindings. Bought for £195 from Harrods of all places Shocked

First pair: K2 Merlin IV - bought from the free ads paper (pre Ebay)

Current: Whitedot Director 191CL3 and Ragnarok 190 CL5 prototype (that second one never made it to market due to the prohibitive material cost of and high MoQ of five axis carbon) plus anything else laying about (which is generally a lot).

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Second hand pair of K2 5500 in about `89; ripped the base out of them in Verbier.
Replaced with K2 something or other with dayglow base, that were too soft and flappy, and got turned into rockers by crashing into frozen snow in Meribel circa 93ish.
Spent the rest of that fortnight on a pair of rental Salomon 9000 Equipe 3s, which I tried to buy!
They were gorgeous skis, brilliant when hooning, and forgiving when you were skiing at 20% bumble: Not like K2 KVC Comps, that were brilliant on the odd occasion I got it right and could manage 99% technique; and tried to kill you if you were skiing at less than 98%(the rest of the time).
Worked through a variety of hire skis, before deciding that I was better off hiring after trashing two sets (and damaging a third) of Salomon 9 X-screams (I really liked X-Screams, realistically, I was too heavy for them, but they were fun!) in three trips.
The last set I felt like actually buying were some Volkl Race Tigers; mate was hammering me for getting piste skis rather than "all mountain", then tried showing me the way home at 90KPH+;
I believe it hurt, strangely I still managed off piste as well.
These days, I am old, fat and creak a lot; I can still tell the difference between hire planks and demo skis though.

Help!!

The First Skis You Owned

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