How to approach buying skis for the first time

A snowHead

Hey,

I've been skiing now for 8 weeks. I have my own boots but have always rented skis being resistant to the nuisance of buying and (presumably) maintaining skis. However, I have recently reminded myself that I love owning stuff. On the spur of the moment this week I booked a place on the PSB where there are skis to try and buy and I'm thinking maybe I should take advantage of this opportunity and pick up some planks.

That's the back ground - my question for the collective wisdom is how should I approach buying skis? Any time I've rented previously I've not paid a tremendous amount of attention to what I've got and any variation in the ski quality has been swamped by improvements in my technique. So how do I systematically go about working out what kind of ski I would like - both pre trip with research and on the PSB with trialing skis.

Is the answer to wait until my technique is more settled?

P.S. I've only ever skied on piste, but hope to start changing that this year. Wouldn't envisage off-piste ever making up a huge fraction of my time on snow though.

Any help appreciated!

:S

A snowHead

List skis that meet your basic requirements, ie width, length, type (slalom, all mtn, etc)
Spend hours searching internet reviews
Realise anyone whose spent serious money on skis is never going to slag them off
Goto PSB
Ski
Realise it's how they feel for you that's important
Get a short list
Re-ski short list
Spend another week trying to find best deal for shortlist

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

Work out what you do. Ski any demos that are available and that reps etc think might suit you. Buy ski you feel best on. Ignore internet BS. Only really trust people who've seen you ski for recommendations.

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

kitenski,

Yeah, online user reviews are always biased towards the extremes of experience. Never that reliable an indicator.

So pick a ski type I reckon will match what I'll be doing for the next few years and trial them as much as possible at the PSB. Sounds reasonable.

I know that if I go for an all mountain ski then the on-piste performance will suffer to some extent. Is this the kind of thing that is noticeable for an intermediate level skier? I.e., are we talking a few percentage points of difference or a completely different experience? I know that all mountain won't be that great in powder, for instance, but don't mind that that much (how often am I ever skiing when there is powder around?).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

slipper, try 'em and I think you will notice a difference. Try some 65mm wide, 75mm and 85mm wide as a starting point, and see if you can notice any difference. Try and ski a few different manufacturers if you can.

an early intermediate friend of mine tried some "all mountain" skis and found the extra width meant he couldn't tip them onto their edges as easily.

So yes, it does make a difference. I think your correct in being really honest with yourself, if your only going to go off piste in perfect conditions, ie once every 3 years, hire an all mountain ski then and get a piste ski for 99% of your usage.

You'll need to Register first of course.

It sounds like you need a piste ski and that when and if you go offpiste on the odd day you can rent either something a bit more allround or offpiste focused - no point buying an allrounder when you are going to do 99% piste skiing.

I would go on the PSB and test out as many skis as you can, talk to the reps or anyone else on the trip about what kind of skiing you do, and what you should try, and then give them a go.

At some point, you will click with one or two of the test skis. When that happens, pay a lot of attention to what they are. Then when you try other test skis tell the people who are providing the test skis which ones you liked (even from other manufacturers) and they'll try and find something that you will like more.

If nothing clicks, and you don't find the ski you like, then make a note of what you've tried and what you thought, when you get back we can all chuck our penny in the pot and suggest what else you can either try or buy and you will like. Perhaps. I would suggest you try any reccomendation before you buy it.

The compromise for an intermediate is more marked than for an advanced skiier, maybe less than for a beginner - because a properly advanced skiier can pretty much ski anything down pretty much every piste, they can get away with a ski that isn't completely suited to the terrain they are skiing on. A beginner for example couldn't put in a decent turn on a normal piste on a 100mm wide ski. The difference, in my opinion, becomes really noticeable when conditions are extreme - for example on a really icy day a more offpiste ski can be a real challenge, and on a very light deep powdery day a narrower ski will sink a lot more.

All this said, I've known some people really enjoy skiing on some rather odd skis over the years, and some people's technique mean that they can use totally inappropriate skis for the conditions and find it easier than someone else on a ski designed for the conditions etc.

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

Good advice all, thanks a lot for the help. Will focus on some piste skis when I'm in Tignes and see how I get on.

:S

After all it is free

If you're still improving quickly, it might be worth thinking about getting some skis which are a bit ahead of you on the learning curve. That way you won't be forking out a decent amount of cash for something which you might outgrow fairly quickly.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

nobody's mentioned the need to be sure they match your jacket. wink

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

slipper, You've had some great advice above:

All the skis will have standard factory settings where they place the bindings, where manufacturers set/judge to be the optimal average for their ski. This will differ more or less every time depending upon manufacturer.

Salomons will differ from Dynastar, Head etc. This basic fact means that you will inevitably try some skis which you really don't find comfortable on which will perhaps seem weird if you trust the opinions of others you normally respect. This is because people as well as skis are different: This won't always mean that the skis you tried are bad or that they are not suitable for you -it may be simply that the standard binding position for that manufacturer doesn't match YOU! If changed appropriately, maybe they could be a match made in heaven.

I'd strongly suggest you read this article : http://www.jonsskituning.co.uk/content/view/33/48/ written by a long serving SH member and IMO it's balanced and well researched.

I've also been there and bought the tee shirt. This resulted in a change in my own ski settings and indeed the way I was able to ski, but critically this also gave me the awareness of where my own balance point was - I can now more or less demo any ski that may be on my wish list as suitable, do a couple of runs, then make an adjustment based upon the runs/turns and that knowledge. Thus my opinion on the subsequent runs post adjustment often changes if positional changes were made. For me this opens up a wider, informed choice.

I wouldn't advise you trying this alone without a consultation, but it would be a small amount of money well spent as you'd then potentially be able to purchase new or nearly new skis based upon a much better decision platform rather than the lottery of you perhaps matching a specific manufacturers standard settings. It in other words it will expand the range of suitable skis which you would potentially be able to master and enjoy. wink

I wish you luck with your choice/s.

snow reports

Could I suggest sticking to renting? a few bits of food for thought for you:

Unless you are skiing a season, renting's cheaper. You can rent skis that are as good as you buy, so quality is not an issue hear (might take a bit of homework to make sure you rent from a decent place to get good rentals, there's still the odd cowboy out there, but most top level skis from hire shops are excellent these days).

Mostly though renting means flexibility. You never have to make that decision to what type of ski you would like, each holiday you go on you can get a ski for the conditions or just what you fancy at the time. Lets say you turn up and it's powdery heaven, then you can rent some giant powder skis (lots of fun if you've not tried them). Maybe next holiday it's icy, then you get some nice stiff piste skis to cut it up. Or maybe there's some lovely soft piste conditions and you fancy a go of some slalom skis to perfect your nice small turns.....

There's lots of variation so it's great just to be able to try different things, the advantage of renting. If I had all the money in the world... I'd still rent.

Just food for thought in case it helps!

Phil.

Ski rental on our trip last year was £100 for the week. Right at the start of the season, that wasn't even for new skis.

At £30 ski carriage plus assume £30 for maintenance, I am still quids in after 3 or 4 trips on my skis.

I went on a long weekend trip recently where we opted to rent instead of taking our own (for 3 days skiing it didn't add up) and I spent 3 days wishing I was on my own skis - the rental options were pretty narrow and it cost more than expected - but until you get to resort how do you know what stock they'll have in the hire shop? Even good shops have a limit to how many skis they will stock for the season.

You know it makes sense.

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

Jivebaby, fewer variables please, not more! I had a quick read of the page you linked to - I could image that getting some tuning tuition would be valuable. Can't see myself doing it imminently but just learning more of how a ski works would be useful.

TheChaletExperience.com, you make good points, even if you are wrong about the total cost of ownership versus renting (not saying you are, just if). Essentially, renting means paying a premium in order to have the option to change what ski you are using depending on the conditions. Plus you don't have to lug rentals to the airport. I could see that option would be valuable. I may well end up not buying anything this season - if I can't find a ski that I really enjoy being on, for instance. But I really would like to own my own stuff. Given I don't own a house or a car or, as a friend recently remarked, a pot to p!ss in why not buy stuff related to my number 1 hobby?

A snowHead

I do think it's a bit of a myth that renting allows you to get the skis you want for the conditions....having spent about 3 hours on holiday in La Plagne trying to find powder skis for 3 of our party for the next day!

A snowHead

slipper, I didn't suggest you start tuning or even learning to tune your skis -I'd merely suggested you ascertain where you own balance or perhaps view it as centre of balance is versus Joe Average. The problem is that Joe Average doesn't exist, so your chances of demoing a ski on standard settings that maybe, perhaps by a huge long shot match your physiology is what 1/100 or 1/1000 ?

BALANCING It's a 5 minute/£10.00 process which could dramatically affect your skiing forever. Set that against £400 for boots, £20 per pair of socks, sallopettes, jacket, helmet, goggles, ski/s, poles, gloves - If you buy all that plus just a 6 day pass you won’t have much left out of £2,000 - Turkeys don't vote for Christmas but it helps if they are pointed in the right direction if they want a fair chance of avoiding the plate.

My suggestion was simply that you consider balancing yourself to provide (you with) a better platform and help you validate the really important decisions you make when purchasing new skis. You've asked loads of really intelligent questions, hence I felt that you could perhaps benefit from Jonskituning experience and expertise in the same way that many other have in the past.

Lastly, if you've been balanced you have a better chance of selecting the right ski by ruling out the varialbles the binding position. It's really a lot easier to buy the wrong skis, or ones that do the job instead of bagging the ones that make you smile every time you uese them.

The opportunity is there for you and it would be a shame to aim low and miss. Embarassed

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

Have a read of this - http://www.snoworks.co.uk/blog/?p=4110

Phil Smith gives excellent advice.

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How to approach buying skis for the first time

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