Every time my wife brings up the skis collecting dust in our garage, I’m reminded of the S.K.I. model — Storage Kills Investment.
The Ski Rental Problem
21–30 of 98 posts
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#22Do like many people in Switzerland and just rent skis for the full season. That way you get a new pair every year. You should own your own custom-fitted boots though.
it's cheaper to just buy your own pair at that point, not to mention that those skis are usually beat up, and mostly beginner/intermediate level...
Renting for a whole season seems pretty different from renting for a weekend or whatever. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the more expensive option than buying—but you get brand new skis every year.
Maybe for us in the US, this is more equivalent to buying every year and then reselling? Haha.
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#23Every time my wife brings up the skis collecting dust in our garage, I’m reminded of the S.K.I. model — Storage Kills Investment.
At least yours are in the garage. I have a friend who spent years storing a couple of hundred dollars of outdoor gear in a rental storage locker costing $50 per month.
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#24Every time my wife brings up the skis collecting dust in our garage, I’m reminded of the S.K.I. model — Storage Kills Investment.
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Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
FYI, the rental skis, even if they look the same as the same skis you could buy retail are not the same. They have bigger edges and a dicker base. The bindings are not the same. This is because they are built to go through the machine after each rental. Good retails skis have less "robust" but faster, thinner base, they would be dead after 3 months of rental. Source: I spend way too many hours each season in a ski sh…
I always suspected my rental skis had dicker bases! (Sorry for typo-sniping for cheap laughs.)
French living in Germany, sometimes I am mixing up things. What is interesting is that the Swiss person (probably German speaking) did not notice. Thank you for allowing to laugh after the fact :-D
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#26Do like many people in Switzerland and just rent skis for the full season. That way you get a new pair every year. You should own your own custom-fitted boots though.
> You should own your own custom-fitted boots though
I would preach this with snowboard boots (+ helmet), made travel easier as well when you live nowhere near snow. Trying to take up skiing now and have no idea why I didn't think to do this with ski boots. Would probably help, a lot.
As for rentals it's easy to avoid beat-up janky gear. Have to go places just outside the ski town areas. Usually have to find a shop outside the resort for snowboards if you bring your own boots anyway, but easier to find better gear options. I remember getting a new (or basically new) K2 board from a general sports store in Reno, same for getting rentals in Queenstown or Denver or Vancouver before hopping on a bus.
Shops outside the resorts tend to have reasonably priced demo rentals, newer high end gear they are hoping you buy afterwards. Far better equipment that is nicely tuned than anything the resorts offer.
Not paying the oversize/ski baggage fee and lugging that gear around the whole trip while having quality rentals available levels the rent vs buy equation -- if buying a season lift pass makes sense so does buying your own gear, otherwise it's more hassle than it needs to be, imo.
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#27Every time my wife brings up the skis collecting dust in our garage, I’m reminded of the S.K.I. model — Storage Kills Investment.
At least yours are in the garage. I have a friend who spent years storing a couple of hundred dollars of outdoor gear in a rental storage locker costing $50 per month.
I have relatives that have spent $60/mo for a storage unit for 12 years for some furniture they "might want to use some day if they buy a new house". Even pointing out that the furniture will likely look extremely dated by now and they've spent almost $10k so far doesn't seem to click at all.
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always suspected my rental skis had dicker bases! (Sorry for typo-sniping for cheap laughs.)
French living in Germany, sometimes I am mixing up things. What is interesting is that the Swiss person (probably German speaking) did not notice. Thank you for allowing to laugh after the fact :-D
This is a double bonus thread for me. I did not know (or remember from high school German 30 years ago...) that dicker meant thicker. :D
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#29Here's a different version of the problem.
It takes 10 minutes to walk home from the bus central. The bus is late but should be here any minute now. The bus takes one minute. Do you wait or walk?
Re: The Ski Rental Problem
#30Here's a different version of the problem. It takes 10 minutes to walk home from the bus central. The bus is late but should be here any minute now. The bus takes one minute. Do you wait or walk?
Always decide to walk, especially for just 10 minutes. Good for health, mental wellbeing and it's just easy.
If the question was 1h+ then maybe the answer would be different.