my level and purchasing skis

Hi all. Great forum!

I have a couple of questions regarding choosing skis for myself.

I started skiing when I was 14. Although I really liked it, I was only able to get about 3 one-week skiing trips in the following few years. After that, I totally got off skiing for about 8 years, until I moved to New Zealand. Now, a ski-able mountain (Mt Ruapehu) is about 5 hours away and I have been going there for the last 3 winters. Still I have not skied there that much (only about 6-8 days of skiing altogether) because I do not have a car and depend on other people's desires to go skiing.

Notwithstanding my obvious lack of skiing experience, I am quite (and possibly unjustifiably so) a confident skier. I ski all the named runs on Mt Ruapehu, including blacks, without problems (which make me wonder that maybe New Zealand blacks are easier than in other countries). I do not generally race down the mountain at amazing speeds, but I can go fairly quickly, dodge all the traffic, and slow myself down by using skid turns when the things get too hard. I still fell down twice last time I went skiing, but I blame it on difficult conditions :) (hard snow covered with the ice balls the size of a baseball).

Again, it is very possible that I am over-estimating my ability, but I suspect that I must be an intermediate skier.

Anyways, to make a long story short, I caught a skiing bug. I am planning to buy a car so that next season I can go skiing whenever I want. I am also considering buying skis. Currently I rent intermediate level skis and I thought that if I buy something more challenging, it may force me to improve my skiing. I can however demo skis before I buy them (the rental shop allows it).

I wonder if any of you could suggest good skis for my level (and a little above) I should demo? What are the differences between skis big companies produce?

Also, I wonder what type of ski should I buy -- just on-piste carvers or all mountains. Currently, I ski on-piste but I would love to go off-piste one day (damn those amazing videos on youtube!). Is it a bit too ambitious -- i.e. is it possible to become a good enough skier to go off-piste if you started skiing quite late (14) and are already quite old (30)?

Sorry for the long first post!

Welcome!! Great post. I can't talk to most of that cos I've never skied :) but I do snowboard! I started 3 months after my 30th birthday and it's definately not to ambitious to play in the powder. My on/off piste split is currently about 75% vs. 25% but I aim to get it near 50%/50% and with my 35th coming up and Christmas, I think an avalanche kit and some training may be the order of the day. I actually spent 2 hours last night researching, split boards, base plates with interchangable crampons, skins and telescopic poles.

@ 34 I feel as fit now as I have ever done, it's just the après après ski that kills me now ;)

plenty of folk on here will give great advice on the best options for you, whatever you choose, have fun and be sure to post some NZ reviews and pictures.

Tino

Thanks for the response Tino. Your experience is encouraging! I do wish, however, I did more skiing when younger.

I would appreciate some suggestions regarding skis and manufacturers. I a lot about K2 these days with their rocker technology. I don't know much, however, about what other manufacturers do. Do they utilise rocker technology for their all mountain skis? What skis would suit my level?

Thanks.

Hey Vladiator. Don't think its past you going off piste, grab a lesson or two to learn how to change your skiing to enable you to ski off piste better then go for it and enjoy.
Well to answer you question about which ski to buy, it will really depend on not only what you ski but also how you ski and even how tall and heavy you. These days if you mainly ski piste but would like to go off piste you can get skis that have a piste sidecut (quite turny)but is a little bit wider under foot giving you better floatation. generally an all mountain ski in lenght should come upto around your forehead. if you look on many ski manufacture sites a lot of them have ski selectors. you enter you info and it will tell you which ski is suitable.
If I had too choose a ski for you a ski which I like and is both great on and off piste is the salomon lord, great edge holding on piste, slight rocker and wide enough under feet to perform well in powder.
Hope that has helped.