I am looking to buy a pair of skis for this season as I liked the sport from my first season ( last year) and its too expensive to rent them every time at the station.
I for now want to stick to groomed slopes, and want something that turns relatively easy and is still stable at relatively high speeds. I looked in some stores and there are several brands out there in the 'allround carver' category, which I guess should suit me'(!?). The prices with discounts range from 300-600 Chf for a pair of ski excluding boots which should be 200-300 more I reckon.
Now as this is still a fair amount of money, I would be grateful if I could get your inputs on any specific brands or models I should look for. Testing the equipment doesnt seem to be that convinient and I would be happy to have something easily with which I am sure to have fun on the slopes.
A good tip I was given is to buy the boots and hire the skis.
The boots are vital as you have to make sure they really fit and are comfortable. This is the only part of the equipment that needs to be a perfect fit (especially if you are a beginner).
Then make sure you get a decent bootbag, maybe with shoulder straps to make transport hassle-free.
Then hire the skis at the resort. Unless you are skiing every weekend it will be much cheaper to hire.
Once you get obsessed and are going every weekend and have tried different brands and types and got a feel for the type of ski you like its time to invest, but I would leave it at least 2 seasons.
Finally, buy your skis at the end of the skiing season, ready for the next year... you'll save a packet.
I personally like Salomon Carver Skis cos they rule pretty hard.
If you have already skied for one season and liked it enough to think about buying, I would say go for it, because the time you spend lining up for rentals is valuable time to get on the slopes before they get crowded.
As for a specific brand, many skis are good and it might depend on the exact make and model how good it really is. When you're in a shop, look for something that is about as tall as your chin to nose. Also check how easy it is to bend and twist. The easier it is to bend, the more forgiving it will be for an "aspiring" skier, but you don't want it to bend too much because maybe it will break easier when you get better. I have been browsing through Intersport and Ski + Velo centre here in Bern, and it seems many "All Mountain" skis are around 500CHF.
And don't skimp on boots! They are worth their weight in gold, and you can easily spend more than 500CHF. You want boots that hug your ankle tightly without cutting off circulation (if you have arched feet try some inserts). The boots need to be really snug so that they efficiently transfer force from you to the ski, making turns easier and preventing sore feet at the end of the day! I will never forget the first time I had brand new boots, it was like a whole new sport. Besides, as you get to be a more aggressive skier, you can keep the same boots and buy new skis to fit your style.
For some specific advice, check out Ski Canada Magazine Buyer's Guide . Hope this helps,
Some good advice in this thread. I agree that make sure you get some good fitting boots.
Regarding brands of skis, it really doesn't matter for the type of ski you are describing. Most of the major brands make a good all-round ski for a decent price.
I'm not sure what size ski you are looking for but I am still selling some skis in this thread:
The Atomics that I am selling are a pretty good all around ski that should meet your criteria and the price is pretty good as well. I recently spent CHF 79 to get the base repaired and everything tuned so I am going to raise the price a little bit. The old price was 220 but I am now asking for 260 after the work I just had done. I'll even let you try them out for a day to see if you like them. I live in Engelberg so make a trip to the Titlis and give them a shot.
While I agree with everything Hugh has said (mainly about boots being more important than skis), I also think that the time you save by not having to queue up for a rental pair every weekend is worth more than the money you save by only renting.
Yes, now is not the best time to buy as most shops are trying to flog their new full-price gear, but you should be able to pick up a cheaper pair they didn't sell last season.
As people have said, any of the big makes (Volkl, Head, Rossignol etc) will have a general purpose carving ski and, with respect, you probably won't be able to tell the difference between them until you get a bit better.
Once you're tearing down black runs and you're looking for a ski to take you to the next level, it'll be well worth trying a few pairs out before you buy some. At that point you'll be able to notice the minute performance differences between them. But for now, any beginner/ intermediate ski by one of the well-known brands should do you fine.
Indeed, Atomic should certainly have been in my list of respected brands.
I'd hesitate to recommend any one over another as I don't have enough experience with lots of different skis, but I will say that Head are not necessarily seen as a 'cool' brand and hence may be a bit cheaper than it's rivals. And everyone I know who has used them raves about them.
agree with everyone that says spend your money on boots. Make sure you get footbeds fitted to your feet. An extra 100 CHF, but that is the best way to get them right. In any case, new boots will take a few days to break in.
WRT skis, you can get last year's model (or used) which will probably suit you fine. But renting a few times will give you an idea of what you like. Often, you can change multiple times during the day to try different brands. If you are really serious, you could also take a lesson and see if the instructor can make a recommendation or help.
Seems, though, at your level you just need something that performs at an adequate level. If it were me, I would rent unless I were going to ski more than around 8 days or had a place to store them so I didn't need to lug them on the train.
last season I went atleast 10 times, so that costed a lot...that's why I am looking to have my own pair...I will get the best pair of boots, I have noticed the big differences in different pairs...I was more confused about the skis, because seemingly similar ski have sometimes twice the price difference..
@ patrxi, you atomics look fine, but I don't want to have a carving ski higher than 170 cm..
I had this well explained to me once at a ski shop, of course, material is one difference, but I think one of the major differences is the technology around how the ski absorbs shocks.....thus if you ski more aggressively you need something more expensive which absorbs your high speed antics......at least that was how I understood it.
From your initial description, it sounded like you wanted something that turns easy but also was stable at higher speeds. Sounds to me like a Giant slalom ski would interest you and the extra length will give you the stability at speed. Not sure how heavy you are but 170 seems kind of short. If I were you, I would go to a demo day at one of the resorts so that you can try out multiple skis in one day to really notice the difference in the various ski designs.
As said by others, your best bet would be to rent different ski's first. What works well for one person, might not be suitable for another.
At some places, you can test for free (for example NTC rent, Laax). This is what I did 3 yrs ago, I spent one day trying about 8 pairs of ski's. One pair (K2) really stood out, but I found them a little expensive so I had to think about it. Then, a few weeks later they were on sale at Ochsner (40% off). I bought them without hesitation, and I'm still very happy with them.
This sale was right after new year's, so you might not even have to wait until the end of the season.
Seems like this is too late to influence the OP's decision but in case someone else wants to buy some skis and is hesitating on what model to buy , A Bon Entendeur the french speaking region's consumer TV programme did a ski-test not so long ago, here are the results:
IMO There is no rule that dictates if beginners should rent or buy skis. If I was a beginner (and planning to ski several seasons in succession) I would get some cheap good quality skis like the Unlimited AC from Völkl.
That is because I don't believe in wasting money uselessly.
It is a personal decision but I don't see what the problem is starting skiing with good quality skis? (Although as Paulita pointed out there is a problem doing it the other way round: Skiing with beginner skis when you get better at it).
BTW A lot of stuff relating to skiing has got to do with marketing and making more money, so if a guy working at Migros or Athleticum tells you that it is preferable for a beginner to rent skis, my tip would be to not always believe him.
Edit: This message was written as a response to paulita whose message seems to have disappeared.
I work in Davos, part of my job being to get punters to rent skis + boots etc...
no1 piece of advice is buy your own boots, buy them in resort and not from Oschner Sport. Make sure they are properly fitted and when asking advice from the sales staff be completely honest about your ski level and about how much time you intend to ski this year. Get them heat moulded and if you have funny feet get custom insoles made. A good shop will measure your feet first then start selecting boots for you. All boots fit different kinds of feet better and this is the defining factor in what boot you should buy.
Buying skis is a good thing as it will save you time, esp in peek weeks, but as you improve you will want to change them. I think it's hard to beat the Rossignol B2 as a first ski. It carves easily but is not twitchy, will cope with a more 'slidy old skool' style can be used off piste, is light but not too light and will always be a good back-up ski once you progress and want either out and out carvers, wide boys or park skis etc...
The other thing I like about the B2 is that it will cope well with nearly all snow conditions, hard pack, soft, fresh, old. It strikes me that if you are just going up for weekends then you want a ski that is adaptable and the B2 is good for this.
Lastly, always try before you buy.. most reosrt shops will let you do this, just make sure you have insurance (just in case).
If you are in the Davos Klosters are the best shop by a country mile is Gotschna Sport in Klosters, they are particularly good at boots and will sell you what you need rather than what they want to sell.
Also I was not writing "against you". I was just speaking generally, warning people against what salespeople would say.
As a student I worked with people in a sports department in a big supermarket. Not only did I know absolutely nothing about the products but I was pretty much given as instructions: "Tell the people any load of cr@p to sell the product".