buy skis online vs in resort

So firstly the debate - to buy skis or not for probably between 1-2 weeks of skiing per year for the next few years is it worth the money?
Secondly buy them in Morzine over Christmas or online beforehand.
Cheers

john101 wrote:So firstly the debate - to buy skis or not for probably between 1-2 weeks of skiing per year for the next few years is it worth the money?
Secondly buy them in Morzine over Christmas or online beforehand.
Cheers

Don't expect to find too many deals in resort, always brought my skis on line.

Often had this argument with myself, and have come to the conclusion that for 2 weeks a year it isn't worth it, ski hire prob around £ 100 per week so £ 200 quid per year versus 3-400 for my own plus skis, 2x lots of carriage edge and wax plus the faf of carrying them. Plus I get to try different ones if the weather changes. Personally for me I would have to ski a fair bit more :-)

peakmonster wrote:Often had this argument with myself, and have come to the conclusion that for 2 weeks a year it isn't worth it, ski hire prob around £ 100 per week so £ 200 quid per year versus 3-400 for my own plus skis, 2x lots of carriage edge and wax plus the faf of carrying them. Plus I get to try different ones if the weather changes. Personally for me I would have to ski a fair bit more :-)

My view as well.
Haven't used my own skis since old fashioned long and skinny skis were replaced by carvers 12/14 years ago.
Love hiring good quality skis and swapping them to try something different as the conditions dictate.
I am interogating ski hire shops for next march in Serre Chevalier as I fancy trying the Salomon BBR (coz they look daft) and the Dynastar outlander as well.
Used the Sultan legend last April and they were gorgeous.

Personally I hate the scrum in the hire shops.

When you find a pair of hire skis you like you could check out the on-line prices whilst in resort and use this to do a deal in resort. This tends to be easier later in the season. If there's no deal buy them on-line when you get home.

I'm very much in the buy your own camp. I hate the way you get treated generally in hire shops, and I've experienced first hand the issuing of rubbish in terms of ski equipment.
If you can research the ski which would suit your ability, you can find some online bargains. Sport Conrad in Germany is a favourite online store of mine.
Mrs H got some lovely K2 Miss Demeanour's for £140 with bindings delivered, and I got my own Scott Neo's for half price through a UK company online.
I have no issue with carrying them, its only from the car to the check in, and baggage carousel to transfer bus, and it raises the additional issue of extra baggage you can put in your ski bag.
Its probably a personal choice, neither being wrong or right, but with your own skis you know how they handle and what they can do. It is important to research and take advice however, and get the right skis for your ability, physique, and what you want out of them as well.
Each to their own, but I'm happy with my own skis, and wouldn't want to go back to queuing in the rental shop with some teeneger trying to fob me off with the wrong skis )

Go for the best of both. Go the the shop in resort and say you want to try before you buy. They'll hire you a demo model (not hire skis) for the week and if at the end of the week you buy they'll deduct the hire cost from the price of a new pair.

I saw my last pair of skis in resort just outside moraine in a small place called champoussin. They retailed at euro 880. When I got home I started looking around online at skis and found the same pair at snow and rock for £450.

Point im getting at is skis are far more expensive in resort than in the uk, and generally with the euro etc there way more expensive, only advantage I can see is you can properly test them first...