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?

We all have our own skis. We are lucky I. That we have a place in the mountains, and usually ski at least 2 weeks a year. The cost of hiring is significantly higher for us. Our skis are ex hire (bought about 10 years ago for about €150) and it cost c€30/year to service. We did 3 days in chanonix last year and it cost over €100 each - just the skis!

We own our own snowboards and wax and edge them ourselves too. We drive usually but even when flying there’s no extra cost, it’s just a single checked board bag each which has everything else in it too.I don’t know about skis but with boards there’s simply no comparison between having your own board and even the supposedly premium rentals. DCs still use rentals as still growing.

I did own my own skis when I skied a lot - 2 or 3 times a winter + last minute Scottish trips if conditions were good, but havn't skied at all for 13 years since we had dc, because of reduced disposable income.

Carriage and servicing was getting pricey even then 2010, and I was selling on my skis and upgrading them every 2 or 3 years to keep up with the latest ski technology

@Caspianberg and others paying "intersport" prices.

Go to Snowheads and ask on that forum about the small, locally-owned rental shops in the resorts to see if you can get a better deal than the €200 a week rentals that are being quoted.

The local shop in my resort - major Austrian resort, not a small 3-lift resort - has VIP skis at €139 a week and Premium skis at €159. That's the price before the online, pre-booking discount which brings the price down to between €95 and €112 a week.

There's also a new company called Mietski who have opened rental shops in several Austrian resorts. Their rates are around €100 a week after discounts, and they offer packages for families that reduce the price even further.

@Havanananana - I own, so no need to rent. But many resorts near us don’t have a cheaper option. Many near us only have one ski hire option, so most holidaymakers are limited to that only if they want to just arrive and ski. If people are going to huge resorts then they might have more options, but for many buying their own either new or secondhand is likely cheaper, especially as hire prices will only go up.

Our local smaller resort, literally has one ski hire shop, and one small
cafe at the bottom. That’s it. It’s an independent non intersport. It’s still a fairly large resort with gondolas and large chair lifts, but smaller than others.

It’s €162 for a week hire of ski and boots. Plus €3 per day for poles and €4 per day helmet.

In November I went to the local secondhand ski sale held 2 mins from the hire shop. Bought toddler as new kids skis for €10, ski boots €15. We have several pairs of adults skis from there for our friends and family visiting and they have been €50-100 for set.

@Havanananana - I looked at mietski. It’s doesn’t look any cheaper?

ie if I select 1 week ski rental in Obertauern it’s €150 for the skis. And another €62 for the boots? That’s more than intersport

Yes we all do, even the kids. Rental boots are the work of satan and it saves a lot of money over time because it costs a lot to rent decent equipment, especially in North America where we used to live because there’s a monopoly on it, but even in Europe it still costs to get decent level stuff. Kids stuff is handed down so that works out cheaper too. If we fly it all goes in 1 double ski bag, but often we drive and they go on the roof.

Following this thread with interest though because I’m currently skiing a pair of 6 year old Blizzard Black Pearl 98s which were amazing when I skied predominantly in Colorado but they aren’t ideal for the alps so I’m thinking of picking up something narrower in this year’s end of season sales. Any recommendations would be much welcome!!

Oh and servicing- I just get the hotel or chalet we’re staying to send them out on the day we arrive and they’re back ready to go for the first ski morning.

We've got our own snowboards and boots. Have done for years but there's usually less choice of snowboard equipment and I've got step-in bindings which are a dream. No extra cost as it counts as one of our bags and we shove 2 snowboards, boots, trousers, gloves etc in there. Always hired skis for the kids until now although DS has bought now as he's doing a season. It does seem to be getting more expensive to hire although that could be because DS started to want top of the range twin tips for jumping!

The black pearls were the one pair of rental skis I really really didn't want to give back! I wouldn't have got much use out of them in Europe though. I really enjoy the Head Joy series too, either Super for speed or Pure for off-piste. For me that's the advantage of rental. If you find a good one you can try everything.

Step-ons are absolutely amazing - can't believe I held out for so long. I'm not missing the ab workout of having to strap in at all! And you can do the cool clip-in as you roll off the lift thing too.

Thanks, I had the Super Joy on my list but it’s so hard to demo them here! Maybe I will have to rent next time and consider that a demo week…

I have my own skis - we drive so no cost of transportation. I got my skis in a summer sale - best time to buy if you do decide to buy your own.

Absolute game changer @coureur ! I was starting to think I'd have to give up or switch to skis. Which ones have you got? I've got the Nidecker Supermatic and got so many comments from fellow ageing snowboarders on my last trip!

If you find a decent shop, you can normally change skis within the same packet, so you can try everything they've got in one week. They'll then sometimes sell you them at the end of the week, especially if it's late in the season. I switch types depending on snow conditions and often go up or down lengths depending on how strong I'm feeling. The staff are often geeks and are happy to chat and recommend things.

Ps, I like Stöckli slalom skis too. I've been recommended dupes before because they're not often in stock outside Switzerland but very little matches for me.

@massistar I went for Burton in the end as I've always loved their boots.

We have always bought skis and boots, but we have skied 2-3 weeks a year for the past 20 years. Kid's skis and boots were passed around the family. And we service them ourselves. I am still skiing on a pair of B2 touring skis that I bought in 2006. Still going strong. I nearly bought some new skis last year but the man in the Canadian ski shop told me not to as my skis were still good. We drive to Europe and fly Air Canada to Vancouver as they don't charge you to take skis. I think that I have got my money's worth.

Very helpful thanks, my only recent rental experience was when BA forgot to load my skis onto the plane to Denver. Thank goodness they were paying for the rental because it’s mad expensive there!

Yes. I have atomic cloud 9s.

We ski in Scotland a lot so it's worth it for me.

We also always take our own skis on holiday. This time we paid ski carriage but managed to fit 3 sets in one bag and was still under the 23kg weight limit. Was £110 for two ski bags and 5 sets of skis.

I also have a set of black pearls but I bought them longer than the pair I demoed on their advice which was a mistake.

Also we joined the dry slope ski club so get very cheap servicing.

It was a shop in the centre of Zermatt. Thinking about it, it included insurance so the actual cost of hire would have been a bit less than £180. I haven’t found the Swiss Franc exchange rate particularly cheap. Also, I didn’t book the skis in advance - just walked in so that probably pushed the price up.

That explains that! Zermatt is one of the most expensive resorts in one of the most expensive countries. Did his include boots too?

No, I own my own boots.

Perfect timing as I've been debating getting my own skis - I have my own boots, and paid about £80 through sunweb this year to hire skis and poles. I always seem to be given the Rossignol React ones when I say I'm an experienced beginner (haven't improved in a long time, I like greens and blues) so figured I could just buy my own for the cost of about 3 years ski hire, and stuff them in with DH's skis.

Any advice about good places to buy second hand?