Ski Hire - first time in a long time.

First year that I'm going to hire skis, well since the school trip 30 years ago. Just can't be bothered carrying them and paying the £50+ for the privilege. I have narrowed it down to 3 possibles, Atomic Blackeye Ti, Salomon Enduro XT800 or Head i Supershape Titan. Anyone skied on these or I believe the term these days is rode? Looking for a top end piste ski that's ok off the side a bit should I be fortune enough to have the odd bit of powder (fresh) this holiday. Cheers. 12 days to go.

Perhaps find a ski hire shop that stocks all three types - you should be able to change throughout the holiday and try all three.....

Go through the on-line shops and see which shop stocks what and like another poster said switch around and see what suits you best 8)

Adam, although I keep half a dozen pairs of skis in the Alps, I still hire most years for some of the time. Have always used skiset, look around the J2ski page). Remember to untick the boot hire.
Choose your level of ski.
I ski reasonably well, but still generally go for the base level of ski. As long as I can check the longitudianal and torsional stiffness, medium soft on the long'l and stiff on the tor'l, I am OK with that. I prefer to ski smooth rather than dynamic.

If I don't like them , I take them back and ask for a change.

The medium levels of ski are generally pretty good. I have found that many top of the range tend to be stiff on long'l.

My OH always wants the highest cost ski! :evil:

Providing it's not too icy any of the skis you have listed should be fine. Unless the Head Titan you short listed is the new model (black & blue graphics) I would go for the Salomon, the Atomic is a bit too stiff in the fore body and the old Head Titan was a bit numb.

But, how the skis are tuned makes an enormous difference to how they perform, a well tuned mid range ski will ski better than a poorly tuned top of the range model.

I agree with Dave Mac that most skiers would be better served by a softer flexing mid range model. This is because lots of skiers have difficulty flexing their ankles, so they tend to be too far back on the skis which makes it difficult to apply enough pressure to the front of a stiffish ski.

Adam67 wrote:Atomic Blackeye Ti, Salomon Enduro XT800 or Head i Supershape Titan.

I've ridden -) the first two and they're both good all-round skis. Both should be available from most of the SkiSet shops we work with (shameless plug), and probably the majority of hire outlets in other chains too.

As the other posters have said though, tuning makes all the difference and any decent hire shop will let you swap between models if you want to compare.

I have the Atomic Blackeye Ti's and love them. A very forgiving all round ski.