Buy vs. Hire

It's our second season skiing, and we're driving this time. I'm expecting we do another trip this season, and as the kids are into it this is an ongoing thing. That's the good news! :)

At Megeve ski hire is €100 per week, at Decathlon I can buy a set of boots £100 and skis for £150.

Buy or hire?

Cheers.

Buy the boots and hire the skis unless you intend on going alot.
Dont forget that you get charged for taking you own skis if using airline.

Don't buy the skis!

Don't buy the boots at Decathlon unless their fitter has been trained and you've had personal recommendation. If it's a supermarket, how will you know if they fit? There are plenty of boot fitting tales on here and elsewhere.

Buy but not from Decathlon

I can't speak specifically for skiing as I snowboard but in my experience (As said above) your boots are the most important aspect of your set up. It makes your day more comfortable as you have boots which are fitted and heat moulded to your feet. The rentals tend to be seasons old and offer little padding. I noticed a difference immediately when I purchased my first pair, instead of the pain setting in after three hours It now takes 5-6

tin pot wrote:It's our second season skiing, and we're driving this time. I'm expecting we do another trip this season, and as the kids are into it this is an ongoing thing. That's the good news! :)

At Megeve ski hire is €100 per week, at Decathlon I can buy a set of boots £100 and skis for £150.

Buy or hire?

Cheers.

You need to be very careful about WHAT you're buying there, and not just buying on price.
Defo get your own boots, but get the right ones and not the cheapest ones.

It's a cost saving in my eyes, as long as the boots are as good as rentals. Unless the gear is truly godawful, I can upgrade in a year or two...no?

If hiring costs me £2-300 this season, and I wait until next year to buy something more pricey I'm just losing.

Decathlon Surrey Quays seem to be ok in forum posts, though I expect not as good as at Snow+Rock at three times the price.

I think that ski gear is like everything else, there is cheep "rubbish" and great value purchases - the skill comes from knowing the difference.
tin pot - going purely on money is a gamble that may, or may not, pay off. You can get lucky and pick a pair of off the shelf boots that give you lots of comfortable ski time, or you can get something that is no better than rental and with the disadvantage that you can't pop back to the shop and swap them out.
Mate of mine became passionate about skiing. Followed this exact scenario of hire vs buy on cost alone.
His boots were adequate, but his skis !! Old fashioned skinny skis when all rentals were carvers, way too short for him, floppy as anything (big guy) ....
I bribed him to try decent skis for the day by saying I would pay - if not a great improvement!
He left his old skis in the resort, didn't even bother taking them home.
My first boots were "inexpensive", and yes, comfier than rentals at first, but when I then tried some decent boots with the help of a decent fitter the difference was staggering.
The difficulty is knowing what a good boot feels like before you have the experience to "know" what a good boot feels like. It's a real catch 22.
My boots bought in resort, end of season, brilliant price in 1997! (See http://www.j2ski.com/ski-chat-forum/posts/list/11177.page for a look on the snow dance video).
I did need new boots - a split in the plastic of my old ones told me this :mrgreen:
And I tried on several in different shops - the Tecnica I bought "just worked" but this is something that I cannot explain.
You may get something that "just works" for you from Decathlon (no idea who/what this retailler is) but you will vastly increase your chances of buying you new "best friends" by going somewhere with a good choice and knowledgable assistance.

Good luck either way and enjoy the skiing.
:thumbup: