Any recommendations for my first skis?

Hey all,

So I've got a few pennies saved, and my birthday is coming up, so I was thinking about investing in my first pair of skis. Given I seem to be skiing twice a year nowadays, I think it's probably a good investment. Copying somewhat one of the other threads on a similar topic, here are my 'stats':

Age: 19
Weight: 70kg, though likely to go up a little when I'm back in shape...
Height: 175cm
Skiing Ability: ~10 weeks, can ski most pistes without too many problems, though the hard blacks are still knackering. Starting to learn to properly absorb moguls and 'bounce' through them, though can't do it for long. Enjoy off-piste, though wind-blown crust on steeps still gives me trouble. My progression is slowing down now, though.
Terrain skiied: Starting to spend more and more time off-piste, particularly when conditions are good. Piste still has the majority, though not by a huge amount.

So, any recommendations? I tried and very much liked the Völkl AC-30, but they're seriously expensive. This year tried the Salomon Aero GT, which were nice for the piste but didn't like them much off-piste.

Thanks for any help!

It is cool when younger people get 'in shape' we put on weight but older people 'getting in shape' tends to be losing a couple stone :lol:

Go fatter than you think, all the cool kids are doing it these days. Personally I would go fatter than that.. as you get better you will learn to love skiing off piste more than anything and will turn to wanting a ski that fits there.. skiing on piste will become more and more boring and you will be searching for untracked all the time.

On that note, IMO, Volkl Mantra, Dynastar Mythic Rider, Line Prophet 90... get yourself down to your nearest snowdome and try a few different skis out. Demoing will give you a good feel for the different skis out there without relying on peoples opinions-form some for yourself.

Besides I don't even ski.. I just enjoy pretending to.

RossF wrote:
Besides I don't even ski.. I just enjoy pretending to.

me too :!: just going to spend today photoshopping photo's to make it look like I've been skiing

RossF wrote:It is cool when younger people get 'in shape' we put on weight but older people 'getting in shape' tends to be losing a couple stone :lol:

AAAAAAhhhhh your talking about that middle age spread , whats wrong with man boobs :oops:

Don't spend too much.

If you can find anywhere that has decent old stock (new but from the models of a couple of seasons ago) check them out first.

I have just bought some new fat(ish) skis that are great but I realised on holiday that I could have bought new two season old models that would have been very similar for about a fifth of the price.

For example: In Canada recently, I saw a new pair of the legendary 2004/05/06 Rosignol B2's (before they started messing with the bandit range) for about 99 dollars Canadian. That's 70 quid for one of the most popular skis of all time! Buying an equivalent latest model could be about 3-400 quid.

This way you can change your skis again in a couple of years when you improve. So you can start on relatively thin skis and change them for fat all mountain skis later.

I have a pair of Scott Punisher twin tips that I like for most everything. They handle quite well on the groomed, but are wide enough to be very nice for powder. They are so much lighter weight than my carving skis - I can be very quick in my turns if the snow gets rough. Maybe check out the Scott Mission, also. I paid around $200 US for them, and then put Salomon Z12 TI bindings on for another $200. Tons of fun for $400!!

Thank you for all the recommendations!

I'm quite liking the look of those Prophet 90s, but I don't think I can afford them at the moment. I'm quite tempted to wait it out 'til the end of the season and see if I can steal a bargain. The stupidly weak pound isn't doing me any favours now, either.

I might try and head over to Glasgow to try Ellis Brigham's demo service - that being said, the slopes there are so tiny... I'm going to Tignes in April, and IIRC there are several test centres there, so I think I'll try and check that out.

Ian Wickham wrote:

RossF wrote:It is cool when younger people get 'in shape' we put on weight but older people 'getting in shape' tends to be losing a couple stone :lol:

AAAAAAhhhhh your talking about that middle age spread , whats wrong with man boobs :oops:

A couple of stone of them? :lol: