I’ve wanted my own pair of skis since I was like 10. My freshman year of college I went to a private school in Wisconsin so guess what my PE selection was? Skiing. Everyone had their own skis except me. So my Mother went to Goodwill and bought me a pair and shipped them to me. My 1st pair of skis! I never felt so proud but there was a problem, these skis sucked. They actually had no breaks.
So breaks are pretty important if you wreck and your skis pop off – which mine did and then my 1 ski basically skied down the mountain by itself, I had to slowly follow wearing 1 ski. Everyone in my class laughed and I never felt more embarrassed in my life.
Fast forward 16 years and I still don’t own my own pair. I spent 8 years living in Kansas where the terrain has the body style of Taylor Swift – skis not needed.
So now that I’m in Idaho I’m skiing every weekend and I’m back into wanting to get my own pair of skis but where do I start? I decided that this year I’d demo skis all winter then buy at the end of the season when hopefully prices are the lowest. Before this year I had no idea 1 pair of skis could make that much difference so here are the skis I used this year starting from my least favorite to the best pair I found. (For pictures you can follow me on Instagram here.)
#5:Dynastar Agyl
My least favorite ski. I fell down on the very first run, my tips kept crossing all day, and I had trouble turning – not a fan of these. They were so uncontrollable I thought I was just that bad of a skier. D rating.
#4: Armada TST
I wanted to like these skis more than I actually did, they looked cool…I felt cool. I skied like average. When I found a little bit of powder I felt they performed better so maybe these would be a good backup pair to have in case you get a foot of powder dumped the night before but switch to a different pair once the mountain’s been skied pretty hard and trails are groomed. C+ rating.
#3: Line Supernaturals.
I liked these. Rode smooth, looked cool. Better for groomed trails than the Armada’s and not bad in powder, enough to get by. I skied on these 3x in the past 2 seasons. B, maybe B+ rating.
#2: Nordica Energy 100
Great pair of skis, these were my favorite up until last weekend. I’ve skied on thse 3x this season and was plesantaly impressed with the control of these skis. I felt I could turn easier and I hit my year top speed of 46.9 MPH on these skis twice. They run around $560.00 a pair which really isn’t that expensive for a ski this good. (To track your speed I recommend the free app Ski Tracks on Apple & Android.) A rating
#1: DPS Pure 3 Wailer 99
Wow. I went in to the shop Monday morning planning to get the Nordica’s again as I was convinced those were the skis for me, the guy at the counter said he was planning on taking the DPS’s out the next time he skied but nobody in the shop had ridden them yet and they were expensive, around $1,300 a pair. (Although I found a pair on Craigslist for $799). I felt like I was 5x the skier than the weekend before and that was with crappy weather. Monday (Presidents Day morning) the mountain was just too warm so the snow was very inconsistent and very sticky at places. Some runs had dirt and rocks sticking out with the temperatures in the 50’s already causing a lot of melting.
It took me maybe 3 runs to get used to them but then it just starting clicking. Smooth turns, super light ski and I’ve never had an easier time landing big jumps (for me). Within 2 hours I already took these off jumps bigger than anything I had attempted in the past 3 seasons. Landing them was very smooth and not the jarring abrupt landing that always had me thinking about my knees, I couldn’t believe how easy it was with these. I even jumped my 1st fence but didn’t quite work up the nerve to rail slide.
My mindset has now changed, how can I find a way to afford or justify these? I don’t know but it’s going to be like driving a Porsche 911 then going back to a F150. These skis have opened my eyes up to just how much the right equipment can effect your performance. Is this what people us GoFundMe for? A+ rating.
– Forrest
