I personally like K2. However you should give her another IOU and hit up the post season sales. When I bought my board it was june and it was like 1/4 the orignal price. I even go half off on the bindings. If you want to spend a lot of money buy now.... but if no buy in spring and the summer time. For the best deals I would recommend the big sporting goods stores like oshmans and sports authority. However go see your local ski shop first to get the details on sizing and everything.
Same here. A few of the chain stores like Sports Authority may even still have last year's models on clearance. They mark them down big time. I bought some new boots after the season was over last year - $30 marked down from $200. Based on the other stuff they had there on clearance I figured you could put together a board, bindings, and boots package for a total of about $160-180 if you went with last year's models. About $100 for the board plus 30-35 each for boots and bindings.