Buying kids skis

[deannatoby]

The safety thing has made me take buying my kids skis more seriously. I don't want a ski that's too fast for them. Is there advice about buying kids skis? As long as it's not a race ski, are kids skis good learning skis that don't allow too much speed, or do I need to be careful even with non-race skis about what I buy?

 

[mollmeister]

What level are they?

If they still essentially beginners, I am a big fan of season-rental programs. They are inexpensive, but some of them have pretty good equipment. Kids grow so fast there's no point in getting new skis every year!

 

[pinto]

Most kids skis are pretty much the same thing in a different topsheet. Rental programs are great, but if you have four kids, it might make sense to invest (at least in the older kids' stuff) and pass down. I have always bought sale skis and used them for 2 seasons, for my kids, and it comes out at about the same price or even cheaper. Then we give them to my niece and nephew.

Boots are a different story, as they need to be new each season, pretty much. But I have a weird little creep-out about rental boots, so I just suck it up and buy every year. I will say that it's pretty easy to find stuff for half off retail ...

 

[MaryLou]

Don't know much about quality of kids skis, but once you get up to the teen age/size it may make more of a difference whether they are soft/stiff, etc.. My hubby buys all kids' skis, but I think they do branch out into race skis (and twin tips) at a certain point.

Our approach (2 DDs, 1DS) is to buy new for oldest DD and pass down through my own kids. DS is youngest, so we've only bought unisex colors for boots and skis (no Roxys here lol). I wouldn't want to buy used for DD1 and pass down, b/c my kids are a 9year span and they'd be too old for DS.

But DS is skiing much younger than my other kids did, so we don't own real small stuff (he's 3). So we rented for the season at a local ski shop for $99. Good thing about that is if his feet grow during the season, we can swap them out for nothing. He has 3 weeks of ski school left and I think we may make it in the same size.

 

[frenchgirl]

We leased our kids' skis and boots for the season. It costs $99 for the season(boots and skis) and you can exchange them when they grow out. I actually exchanged my boots 3 times in a few weeks before buying some. Our store has great selections(I think they told us that they have hundreds of skis then) in August when everyone who leased is bringing their skis back. Also you can buy used skis then too.

 

[Jilly]

Some shops will have a 1/2 back program. You pay full price, but get 1/2 back when you trade in within 2 years. If you can rent/lease I would try that. That way they have their own equipment for the year. You're not waiting for the rental shop to get the stuff together each time you go. If you buy at a ski swap and don't like the idea of "used" boots, remove the liner and wash and rinse well. Or lysol and febreze work well too.

And the kids skis, like under 120cm, might say "race", but that's just so they look like Daddy's or big brothers. They are not race skis at all.