Ski purchase advice

Hi,

I’m looking at purchasing my first set of skis and need some advice please.

I get away realistically once a year, twice if I’m extremely lucky; but ski 2-3 times a month on dry slopes and a few times a year on indoor snow.

I’ve always hired skis up until now – and am wondering whether it is worth investing??

I’m thinking of buying a reasonable set of carvers, but am wondering how they will hold up with regular dry slope use.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers
T

I could be wrong but I was always advised not to use my own skis on a dry slope.

Hi,

If you are going to be spending good money on new skis, then I would recomend NOT using them on the dryslope. They will lose their edges and get shredded on the bits of metal and things sticking out of the surface.
I bought a very cheap pair of skis to trash on the dryslope (ex demo skis from Swiss Tims Skis for £70) and they have had a lot of abuse. Keep renting for the dryslope and only use your new pair on the snowdomes or abroad.

The best advice I can offer is to go to the snowslopes and demo as many skis as you can. You can demo skis for free at Ellis Brigham so I would go and talk to them about what you want and let them suggest differnt options.

smirnoff_skier wrote:Hi,

If you are going to be spending good money on new skis, then I would recomend NOT using them on the dryslope. They will lose their edges and get shredded on the bits of metal and things sticking out of the surface.

Very True. In my youff I worked on a dry slope for 3 years and the wear that skis get if used often is horible. Even if the slope is very well maintained [ no sticky up bits - technical term )] the friction wears the skis out in no time.

When it comes to buying new skis don't get too hung up on makes. For example, an intermediate carving ski from one manufacturer will be hard to tell apart from another manufacturer's intermediate carving ski simply by skiing on it. If you could hide the graphics few people could tell them apart.
Decide what type of ski you want (snowdome or in resort testing) and then choose the specific ski you want based on price, graphics etc.

Buy your own skis if you go away at least twice a year. If not, stick to hiring.
And if you buy your own skis, dont take them anywhere near a dryslope or an indoor slope either. The dryslope will wreck them and the indoor slope will dry the bases out.

Keeping your skis in good condition depends on the user not necessarily the medium you ski on. My daughter races and trains on the dry slope 2-3 times per week throughout the summer months, which is when they are dry and sticky.
She uses the same sets of skis that she has used through the winter months on snow. They are waxed evrytime before use on the dry slope with the hardest wax CH4 (-20c on snow) but not scraped. This really helps to protect the bases. Also the edges are tuned with a diamond stone for every session. This will give them razor sharp edges and not wear them out as quickly as using a normal file.
At the end of a full year of use (3 months on snow and 2-3 times a week on dry slope) they are still in very good condition with loads of edge left.
They have often been sold on and achieved another 2 years of the same use.
So I would say ski husbandry is the name of the game. It's like anything if you look after it and maintain it correctly they will last.

AB wrote:
She uses the same sets of skis that she has used through the winter months on snow.

Are they not race stock or race department skis though? If they are then they'll be a lot more robust than the average recreational ski which by and large was never designed to last more than a few weeks.

AB wrote:
So I would say ski husbandry is the name of the game. It's like anything if you look after it and maintain it correctly they will last.

I'm sure that makes a difference as you say, but I always found that it was the heat generated that damaged the bases. If you straight line a plastic slope and take your skis off quick at the bottom you can feel how hot they get. The edge holds this heat and 'weakens' the base close to the edge. To give an extreme example, if you ski Hillend top to bottom pretty quick on a dry day there will be enough heat in the base of the ski to almost burn you.
The edges get dulled but as there are no burrs etc you can sharpen them pretty quick without removing too much metal.
You dont mention your daughters age but if she is very light then there is a lot less friction than there would be with a 15 stone bloke :D