Do you own your own skis?

[CruCru]

I go skiing every year (twice this year) and have always resisted buying my own skis. Partly because it's yet another thing to get to the airport and partly because skis seem to improve quite a lot each year. However my husband pointed out that the cost of renting them this year was about half what ordinary skis would cost to buy.

If you own your own skis, what sort do you have? Most recently I enjoyed renting Atomic Cloud 9s (at New Year) and Atomic Redsters (last week). I am heavy for a woman skier (about 100kg) so would need something reasonably stiff. I can ski most things but am not particularly fast. I don't go off piste (too middle aged).

If you own your own skis, how much of a faff is it is get them serviced each year?

No

Yes, and DH and I service them ourselves. It's not that hard to do tbh.

I would highly recommend demoing a few before choosing what to buy, if you do go down that route. Ellis Brighams that are on site at an indoor slope will often have a demo fleet.

The cost of ski carriage and servicing will add up very quickly. Unless you drive, in which case it's worth it. We paid £75 to hire good skis this year - I think carriage would have been almost that. And we get to ski on new skis every year.

Ah, it cost me £180 to rent skis last week (but the resort was fairly pricy in general).

Yes, and we got our money's worth out of them compared to renting, as well as knowing that we had skis that suited our technique and ability.

I drive to the Alps normally, so ski carriage costs me precisely £0 extra. If you fly it will obviously be different.

Yes we do but we drive so it’s worth it for us. I bought my skis after I fell in love with ones that i’d hired so I’d recommend testing some out.

I used to own my own for approx 20 years but gave up on then 2 years ago. Got sick of paying to fly them and service them. Renting is much easier

Was that skis, poles and boots or just skis and bindings? 180 euros is a lot for one week just for skis though DH rented randonée skis and boots for half a day for 70chf which was outrageous!! Our local hire place in the Jura is €140 for expert skis for a week .. season is €350 and you can buy them at the end.

Look at the total cost of skis including bindings and shipping. Where would you get them serviced? In resort.. run across the waxing machine, edges sharpened or holes filled.. depends on what needs doing. New skis every year is nice.. but 2x yearly could get you many years out of one pair of skis.

You would be buying to have them sit idle for most of the season.. .. not the best investment. Even unused the materials will deteriorate with time.

Atomic Redsters including bindings are about €1,000... and yes, the ski shop make their money back in a few rentals and sell them off to the local bourse aux skis next November.

If you fly, you will need a robust ski bag (probably to share with your family) and it will mean the cost of an extra piece of luggage on the plane. (As well as the extra faff of getting them to and from home.)

There is a lot to think about.

I own mine, second hand black crows bought from a bourse aux skis.. my.last skis were new, used for 8 years, pronounced as knackered by my son who borrowed them. But we live close to the mountains.

We purchased skis in 2013 and DH is still using the skis he bought then. I bought some new ones a few years ago so am on my second pair. My current ones are Head "Absolut Joy" I think. We either drive or take the train so never pay for ski carriage. The only cost is getting them waxed.

Yes.
I have the Atomic cloud also. Mine were only about €220 I think, and we live in a resort so they have been well used for several years now and held up well.

If you buy a snowboard bag rather than ski bag, you can easily fit x2 pairs of skis and x2 pairs boots. So you only need to then pay ski carriage once if flying

We have our own skis and boots but rent for the kids. Ski carriage is about £75 with easyJet but we put both sets of skis in one bag and you also get a separate boot bag for that. We take them to be serviced at a local ski shop near home before each trip. It probably doesn’t work out much cheaper, just that you have boots and skis that you are happy with. It’s also a palaver carting them about in the airport. My husband carries the bag, if it was just me I probably wouldn’t bother! However we stash loads of extra stuff in the ski bag which is a bonus.

The cost was only the cost of hiring skis and poles. I have my own boots and helmet.

My husband has a ski bag so could fit my skis in with his. We also put the helmets and a couple of other things in there.

@CruCru Where did you end up paying £180 (over €200) for just skis and poles - and what did you rent? 🤑 Where I am in Austria, even Premium skis would only cost around €130-€150 for a week - less any discount for online booking, pre-booking or for paying cash. Book in advance and with 30% discount, the most expensive rental would come down to €105 or less for a week.

As for buying your own - if you're paying €200 a week to rent, then yes, it makes sense to buy as long as you know what you're buying and don't quickly out-grow your skis or find that you no longer like them. Also consider the cost of servicing them plus the cost of ski carriage. Personally I'd still look at renting unless you ski multiple weeks every year. You can try new skis every year, change skis mid-week if the conditions change from snow to ice or slush or bare patches, and a €15 premium usually covers insurance in case of theft/loss/damage. You'll be pretty miffed if your own €1,000 skis disappear from outside the restaurant or you wreck them on a bare rocky piste.

No I don’t. It’s just not worth it IMO unless you’re competing or skiing multiple weeks a year. As a PP says there is great value in not worrying about the skis getting nicked or wrecked on a stone (if you take the shop insurance).

Own boots is another story.

Yes, but we drive, so it doesn’t cost us to take them.

I work in the ski industry (buying) and have on and off for the better part of 15 years. Skis do NOT actually change that much over time. There are occasional big periods of innovation and trend shifts but a ski you enjoy now won’t be radically different from one in 10 years, especially if you’re looking for a moderately advanced piste ski. Innovation happens in race, wider skis, back country. Essentially areas of the sport that are evolving. The Cloud 9s are basically the same ski they were (and a solid choice!) when they came out 15 years ago. The main reasons skis need replacing are:
delamination, which usually happens when water gets in between the layers, either via a core shot or because you’ve based your tips 1 too many times. Core shots are easily repaired, tips not so much.
equipment incompatibility: new binding norms came out a while ago (grip walk) and older boots are necessarily compatible and new boots are necessarily compatible with old bindings. This is a bigger issue with a system ski like the cloud 9, but you can often swap out boot soles very easily.

I near the mountains and ski 20-30 days a year, I am on 13 year old Volkl Auras. Finally replacing them because of the boot compatibility issue. I don’t trash my gear so they are still in great shape. It’s also taken me 13 years to find something I like better!

If you ski a couple weeks a year, you’ll probably get 10 years out of your skis easily.

No- it's more important for me to have my own ski boots which fit like a glove. Stick them in a suitcase with dh's as cheaper than checking them in separately!

Should also say, if you’re only skiing a couple weeks you don’t need a whole lot of servicing and in 35 years, I have never needed a base repair and I am an aggressive off piste skier. Those costs should not be significant. Also never had skis stolen, nor anyone I know.

I ski so sporadically, I borrow or hire. I do have my own boots though.

@Havanananana - €180 is the price in many in Austria.

For example this is just a standard inter sport hire place. The premium option is €25,80 per day, so €180 for 6 day hire. It’s €162 for 6 days if you drop down a level.
Boot hire and helmet hire cost extra ontop
https://www.intersportrent.at/en/rent-shop/products/

https://www.intersport.at/sportarten/alpinski/accessoires-und-ausrustung/alpinski_alpinski---allmountain_alpinski---freeride_alpinski---kinderski_alpinski---race/
The atomic cloud 9 currently €450, the atomic cloud €350. From the same shop as hiring. You would pay that off in 2 years of 1 week hire approx. I bought my cloud 9 for €220 a few years ago as at the end of season also. So if you wait until summer to
biy you could make good savings.

@Havanananana - if you change areas on that inter sport hire yoi
can also see other areas are even more. Nassfeld for example comes out at €28,50 a day (€199 for 6 day hire) of same skis as above

We own ours, bought circa 2002. They are fine, we get them serviced when needed, which is definitely not every year.
DH tried a few new ones last week but decided they are not enough of an improvement to warrant change.
I would really query why you need yearly service etc if you are sensible about where you ski.

I don't because of limited storage, transport and maintenence. Renting let's me try whatever is new this year. I get skis suited to the condition and resort. I never worry about scratching them because it's not my problem! I have rented a few pairs that I've been very sad to give back but I live too far from the mountains for powder skis to be a good buy. I've also seen too many pairs get stolen from friends. Rental skis don't seem to get stolen the same so less stress on both counts. I do have my own high end boots which make the most difference though.