First time buying skis - the usual question...

A snowHead

My wife and I are going to Whistler for four weeks in January/February. She's an expert, I'm an advanced intermediate, and neither of us has ever owned skis before - always preferring to rent over the faff of transporting/storing them. We both have our own boots.

But the rental cost for four weeks is prohibitive, so we're looking at buying and have hit upon the usual dilemmas - buy here, or buy in resort? New or used?

I was all set to buy used in Canada until I finally managed to get hold of a price listing, and discovered that at current exchange rates, nearly everything is more expensive than the UK, and some brands (like K2) are massively more expensive.

On the other hand, buying here means a leap of faith unless you demo in a snowdome - of limited value in my opinion, and I don't particularly want to pay Snow and Rock prices.

So, can anyone tell me:

1. Do ski shops in Whistler (Can-Ski especially) charge over the odds, ie more than standard list prices?

2. Is there any room for haggling?

3. I've heard about the store that sells used skis - would I be able to buy a pair from them and sell it back to them at the end of the trip?

Any and all advice appreciated.

A snowHead

ajrduff, welcome to snowHead

Lucky you guys!

My first thoughts were you need to be extremely careful buying some skis before you come. 4 weeks in Whistler means that your skiing level (should) dramatically improve.

There are second hand skis available in Whistler, I forget the name of the shop, it's by the Liquor store. They have fairly cheap piste skis that would suit you, initially. It's going to snow a lot this year so you're going to end up wanting something much wider.

Answers to your Qs.

1. Can-ski is expensive, Comor can give super deals.
2. If you don't ask, you'll never know. This might also be true of 'long term rentals' which are readily available in Europe.
3. Quite probably.

For cheap skis being sold privately try Craigs List, I've had lots of success with it.

Good luck! Drop me a PM if you want to go for a beer. There are some more snowheads visiting for a while in Jan / Feb too, have a search.

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

ajrduff, hmm, yes, lucky you.

I'd concur with Parlor, you probably don't want to buy till you get there. Online prices probably don't reflect the availability of ex-demo models, last year's, the year's before, etc. Nor the variable desperation of the vendor.

I'm a little curious though, I would call myself "reasonably competent" and I have owned, err, around 20+ pairs of skis, not counting the 8 years in the wilderness when I rented exclusively. How do you get to be "expert" without owning your own, at least once?

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Thanks. We're counting the days, as you can imagine. We normally go to France for a week or two, though we've been to Whistler once before - but four weeks is a one-off. It came about because my brother-in-law is taking a sabbatical from work and going for the season, leaves in a couple of weeks' time.

Having thought about it I came to the same conclusion about buying in the UK. So we're probably going to do as you suggest - buy a pair of ex-rentals once we get there, then demo some new gear on the mountain.

As to how you become an expert without buying - you'd have to ask my wife! The term 'expert' is open to discussion, of course - but she learned at the age of four, has 50+ weeks of experience, skis beautifully on pretty much any terrain and will venture to parts of the mountain that I'd be happy to view from a distance. She's never considered buying her own skis, not interested in the hassle of transporting/storing/maintaining them etc, and prefers the option of trying different models during the trip.

I only learned in 2006, so am only now reaching the point where it might be worth buying - but I feel the same way. I don't particularly want to be lumbered with a pair of skis which, after this trip, will only be used a week or two a year. And up until now, I haven't cared what skis I had as long as they were the right length and I could turn them with ease. And if I didn't happen to like them, or the conditions changed, I could swap. As I said, we're only buying now because renting for four weeks is silly money.

However, because neither of us has ever tried a shiny new pair of up-to-the-minute skis, we're prepared to consider the possibility that they'll transform the experience - and if that's the case, then we'll buy some, keep them, put up with the hassle etc. Either way, testing some new gear will be a lot more fun than buying in the UK - and as season pass holders we get 20% off in Can-ski.

I'd heard of Craiglist, have just had a look - lots of stuff on there as you say. And I think the second-hand shop I had in mind was the Whistler Clearance Centre (http://www.whistlerclearance.com/).

Help!!

First time buying skis - the usual question...

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