Posted on 03/17/2011 8:35:05 AM PDT by Jewbacca
Mrs. Jewbacca likes to ski. Strangely enough, I like to ski, and my daughters love to ski.
I've been renting the skis/boots/poles everytime, and would love to catch the end-of-season sales on equipment.
This is downhill skiing, we're moderate skiers, nothing crazy, nothing fancy --- typical 'blue diamond' skiers that might occasionaly go black diamond if the powder is there to slow us down, but sometimes just take it easy and take nice long greens --- parallel skiers, not wedge skiers.
I want good, low-maintenance, skis and boots that are still cool enough that my daughters won't get embarrassed by Chatzi Chinam (basically an Israeli Wal-Mart) skis.
So, expert Freeper skiers, what brands to buy? What to look for?
I would suggest checking out ski shops and asking if they have rentals for sale with the season almost being over. You can pick up some good bargains that way. Also, you may want to check some “play it again” sports/consignment shops. You can pick up some nice, used equipment that way, too. Especially for kids. As an adult, I would suggest spending the money on a decent set of skis, boots & bindings that are new. I prefer Volkl, but those are high-end and expensive. Rossignol makes a good ski and is more reasonably-priced. Boots will depend on your feet and the type of skier you are. Good Luck!!
When you get your own boots make sure you go to a place that will fit them well including thermal molded footbeds. That way you don't spend a lot of money to get boots that kill your feet. On the skis, try to get something relatively stiff. If you start skiing a fair amount you will get better and you will eventually hate soft skis like rentals. Soft skis are forgiving, but if you get any speed going to tips bounce all over the place. A stiffer ski will really allow you to carve some good turns.
I loved my first pair of my own skis, hated the boots. Still have the skis.
A good inexpensive ski is made by Rossignol.
I am a blue, some times black skier. Skiied Rossignol’s last week in Tahoe as I have several times before. I think they are good skis . . . but I don’t ski enough to be a “ski snob”.
I bought Rossi’s for my kids. They were good inexpensive skis.
“last week in Tahoe”
On Thursday, did you see a tall Jewish guy leaving a kippah,1 pole, 2 skis, and a pair of glasses down the Siberian Express (?).
A snow boarder fell off; I dodged and completley bit it. Had to walk up 20 yads collecting stuff.
My wife, who is a ski instructor, just traded her Rossignols for a pair of Volkl Attivas and she loves them. But they might be a bit touchy for a rec skier. I skiied a pair of Head custom-made downhillers a few weeks ago and as long as I stayed right on the fall line, they blazed. Not for fancy traverses though.
Salomon.
But I’m a boarder.
Best way to buy is to go to rental area of your favorite resort and purchase one of their boards they no longer want to rent. They are generally nice boards but the resort has a scheduled end of life program. I bought a magnificent Board that would have cost me $800-$900 bucks for $135.
I couldn’t tell there was anything wrong with it. Eight years later it’s still a great board but I only use it at the end of the season as my rock board.
That way I don’t feel bad when I run into a wide melt that’s nothing but rocks. I just board right over them and keep on going.
I have 8 boards and I bought four of them at the end of the season from a resort. The others I acquired at end of season sales from local retailers.
This month and next are great times to shop at these places.
Or go to “Playitagain” and buy one.
I saw you. But you were at Heavenly on the Nevada side.
When you got up I thought you turned into a snowman. LOL
BTW, Snowboarders don’t fall.
We take a breather. /S
“Snowboarders don’t fall.”
Whatever he did, it involved flying upwards, landing on his shoulders and a board flying backwards towards my head.
I went right, kind of gorilla-ing it with my whole body, and the uphill ski caught something, popped lose, and it was all over but the cussing in Yiddish.
Lots of little balls of ice all over the slope, which is what I think nailed the boarder. Never seen it before.
Made a day trip to San Francisco with my sons that day. Weather was supposed to be bad. None of us had ever been to the city or the Pacific Ocean. I understand they shut down the mountain (Heavenly)part of the day. Is that right?? Wait a minute, we were at Heavenly 3 days. Isn’t the Siberian at Squaw? We skiied there Wednesday.
I like buying American when I can. The only American ski manufacturer is K2, although it’s doubtful their skis are still manufactured here.
I may have the days off, but I don’t think anything was closed. Even the Silverado lift was working, which was supposed to be closed during the week.
Wednesday night was the big storm.
Silverado . . . Yep. . . you were at Squaw. It was Heavenly where they shut down on Thursday for part of the day. Wednesday was beautiful at Squaw, but I saw no huge spills the day we were there.
Please do NOT try to save money or cut corners on ski bindings. They’re a hundred times more important than the skis or the boots—they’re going to save your knees and prevent you from having to buy an orthopedic surgeon a new Jaguar. Buy new Salomon bindings (though other brands are good) and have a good ski shop technician adjust them for your boots and your skill level. Have them adjusted before the start of each season and again if you fall and find the bindings should have released but didn’t, or find that they’re releasing when they shouldn’t.
Next in importance is the boots, because they are really the medium through which you control your skis. You can’t ski decently if you’re in pain from badly-fitting boots, and you can’t ski safely if you can’t control skis through boots that are too stiff or too soft. You can get away with used boots if they fit you decently and are neither too soft for you nor as hard as an expert/downhiller needs. Take them to a boot mechanic and be prepared to spend some hours and some money having him adjust them to your unique configuration of leg, foot, ankle, and technique.
Perhaps least important is the ski itself. Most of us dont’ have perfect skis because we only have one pair of skis, and we ski in all sorts of conditions, so at some times we’ll have skis perfectly suited for the conditions and the next week we’ll be skiing in a place where the skis aren’t ideal. The skis you buy depend on where you’re going to be skiing and what the conditions are going to be—obviously you won’t be needing broad powder skis as much in the East as you do in the deep, dry, airy powder of the West, and you won’t wants some stiff racing ski if you want to ski bumps. Truth is, you can get along well enough on lots of different skis if the size is appropriate to you, they’re not too specialized. I’ve seen people ski on all kinds of awful old skis and still do a great job in tough conditions.
To be honest, you’d be smarter to rent a ski package and determine what you like, then go ahead and invest in some decent equipment. You’ll enjoy skiing a lot more if you’re comfortable—in fact, you may really come to love it. Skiing is a fantastic family sport because it’s one sport that kids and parents can enjoy together on the same level.
Great advice, thank you.
We’ve been skiing going on 20 times, typically 2-3 times a year because my in-laws bought a house in Tahoe.
Certainly not an expert, but a competent skiier — just never invested the time to figure out the equipment.
LOL
I actually came off the piste at Alpine Meadows 7 years ago and halfway down I ran into a wide lake of ice and tumbled just like that.
I landed flat on my face and the pain! Oh man. Felt like my head was coming off my shoulders. Imagine a circle around your neck, at your shoulders and your not sure you didn’t break some things and this massive headache.
Of course, I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t ever caught my breathe again. Must have knocked every molecule of 02 out of my body.
To top that off my chest felt like it had been crushed.
I kinda crawled down the hill until I could stand up and walked back to the lodge.
My friends wondered what happened, one happened to be a nurse and when she learned what happened took me to the First Aid Station.
Turns out I had cracked two ribs and given myself a concussion... they said. No xray.
So the next day I go to my doctor and he confirms my injuries and says my snowboarding season is over.
So I laughed and said “the concussion has resolved?”
He said “Yes”
So then I said “So the ribs are cracked, not broken? Well, I’m going to wrap them and be real careful”.
He laughed “You’re a nut. Get a helmet at least”.
After I walked out of his office I went to REI and bought one.
Finished the season and went snowboarding in Chile six weeks later and heliboarded at 14,000 feet.
Having a helmet is just a smart thing to wear as a friend who is an expert skier found.
We were coming down from 14,000 feet and for some reason she fell over the side the mountain and tumbled about 50 yards. When she stopped she got up and yelled she was fine and made her way to a point she could meet us as we rode down the trail we were making.
So we caught up with each other and when we got back to lodge I notice a gigantic dent in her helmet.
Her ski had bent the helmet with a four inch crease and it was slightly cracked. Lucky girl.
So the moral of the story is wear a helmet. It could save your life.
Good call on the helmet, even though you may never get on runs that are all that dangerous, there’s other people on them and they OWN the mountain (just ask them).
I don’t downhill ski, but Mrs. Slim does alot. Of course it helps that the nearest slopes are a half hour drive. Cross country skiing? We can do that out our front door and into the National Forest.
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