Rental Skis Question

Hoping some of you veterans can help me out here.

I'm not the most experienced skiier. I'm about to head off to Soll for my 5th week skiing.

I'm a blue/red cruiser. I don't go very fast and never off piste.

I've always hired bog standard economy skis and boots which have always been absolutely fine. So my question is would someone of my limited ability get any benefit from upgrading to fancier, more expensive hire skis or would they be wasted on me?

Any advice greatfully received.

Cheers

Steve

After 4 weeks, I would suggest that you head for the middle range package, to get better quality equipment. Newer skis and more supportive boots should help you develop from now on.

Great advice again, thanks Bandit. I suspected as much but Mrs Smoothie needs convincing the extra cost is worth it!

Steve

Steve, you have clearly got the skiing bug! Personally I would be looking at buying a pair of boots & hiring some decent skis. Good pair of boots suited to your level of skiing wont break the bank & will seriously improve your skiing. Plenty of J2skiers will advise on the type of boots out there.

Finn

Defo go for at least middle range or even VIP for better quality and more technical skis. You will benefit from having newer and more advanced equipment, but dont end up with racing skis that might be too fast for you!

stevesmoothie wrote:Great advice again, thanks Bandit. I suspected as much but Mrs Smoothie needs convincing the extra cost is worth it!

Steve

I think it only costs about an extra £20 each to upgrade one level on skis and boots. I don't know anything about skis or boots, but I have noticed that the more expensive skis seem to go faster and turn better, and the boots are more comfortable.

I have found that booking skis and boots very early on the web saves about £50 per person. They seem to get more and more expensive the closer it is to one's holiday, and presumably if one books them in resort they're full price (rather than at up to 40% discount).

Ally

With that kind of saving Ally, you should book early and go for VIP skis and find out first hand what a difference better skis and boots make.

Tony_H wrote:With that kind of saving Ally, you should book early and go for VIP skis and find out first hand what a difference better skis and boots make.

Tony,
Don't worry, I have already booked our skis and boots months ahead with the full discount, and reserved the expensive 'black' ones for my daughter and myself :D.

I have said somewhere else before, that last holiday my rented skis were so fast that I overtook everyone, including the instructor, on the schuss etc. And they were brilliant at going over jumps, skidding turns, and carving turns. The only thing they were useless at were moguls, and I rather think it was probably me, and not the skis! I have no idea what sort of skis they were, but they looked pretty new, if not actually new, to me, and I was very sad when I had to hand them back at the end of the week :cry:.

I hope my next pair of hired skis and boots will be just as good. I developed a very strange sense of confidence in my skis during the week - sort of like riding a very talented horse - I just pointed them in the right direction and let them do the rest - and over the jumps I went, and round the turns etc. All I had to do was think which way I wanted to go and hey presto the skis took me there, even places I'd never dare to go normally like flat out through a boarder cross park and up and down the sides of a natural snow u-tube (following the instructor).

So, in my experience hired skis and boots can be very, very good. I remember my instructor thought they were my own skis, and was rather surprised when I said I'd only hired them.

Ally