• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

Skis - What is the worst pair you have ever had.

teachski

New member
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
1,041
Points
0
Location
Barre, MA
Website
teachski.com
Excluding hand me downs and the like, what is the worst pair of skis you have ever owned? Why were they the worst pair?

I would have to say that the worst pair I ever owned were a pair of Blizzard TC23's, or was that TC27's, I don't recall exactly. These skis were total DOGS. They were 195cm of *#^@! They did not turn, were slow as heck, even after a good wax, and became noodles after being skied on 5 or 6 times.

I've had several pair of great skis, including both of the skis I currently use, and the old straight Volants sitting in the corner.
 

NHpowderhound

New member
Joined
May 26, 2005
Messages
533
Points
0
Location
The Woods at Jay Peak
Atomic CE Soft SL. Circa 1988ish. Bright yellow topsheet w/ dayglo pink bases :lol: . After just three or four days on them the shovels developed horizontal cracks in them. They also end up skiing like I was standing on overcooked spaghetti.
((*
*))NHPH
 

tirolerpeter

New member
Joined
Sep 1, 2004
Messages
836
Points
0
Location
Draper, UT
Worst Skis

A pair of RD's back in the early to mid 80's. They were very stiff and just didn't want to turn. They finally dropped their edges on some "frozen granular" at Hunter Mt. I too have a pair of Volant FX2 straight skis. I think they are 200cm. I still have them, and on occasion use them on really frozen surfaces when I need really sharp edges to hold me when I am going very fast doing GS turns. Absolutely nothing ever makes them chatter no matter how frozen the surface and how fast I go. It's actually scary at times when I think about what would happen if I actually fell!
 

skijay

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
911
Points
16
Location
MA
PRE 1200

I think these were a great west coast ski (powder) but were horrible here in New England conditions.
 

dmc

New member
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
14,275
Points
0
K2 Extremes(207cm)..

Loved the way the skied...
BUT...
First pair I flattend..(replaced by K2)
Second pair I delaminated...(replaced by K2)
Then they sent me a pair of SLC(203cm) which I bent in a bump comp...
 

Greg

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 1, 2001
Messages
31,154
Points
0
My first skis were a pair of $99 Elans. Those skis were pretty bad. The tip on one of them split right down the middle while at Killington after only a season of use. A bit of duct tape solved that one...

Next set were Blizard TCSs. They were big (205 cm) and heavy and as a low intermediate at the time, were probably a terrible ski for me. I skied them for a couple of seasons and then got my first set of shaped skis - Dynastar Max Ones in 190 cm. What a difference from the Blizzards! I swear that the time I put in on the Blizzard probably helped me improve and really showed once I got on a set of skis better suited for me in the Dynas.

I'm now on '02 182 cm K2 Axis X Pros. They are nice stable skis, but heavy and stiff. I'll be looking into something lighter and a bit softer very soon.
 

JimG.

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Messages
12,000
Points
113
Location
Hopewell Jct., NY
dmc said:
K2 Extremes(207cm)..

Loved the way the skied...
BUT...
First pair I flattend..(replaced by K2)
Second pair I delaminated...(replaced by K2)
Then they sent me a pair of SLC(203cm) which I bent in a bump comp...

You beat me to the punch...I went through 3 pairs the same way.
 

Rushski

New member
Joined
Mar 14, 2005
Messages
890
Points
0
Location
Nashua, NH
My first pair of skis - 160cm Hummer's. No lie, that was the brand - not sure what the model name was. Bright yellow with orange lettering. This was '79 or '80.

Probably better than renting at the time but not much...
 

Lostone

New member
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
588
Points
0
Location
Sugarbush, Vermont
For me it would be a toss up, which may not be a good thing on skis. :oops:

My first pair were Yamahas. No they weren't a bike or an organ. They were skis.. sorta.

They had a paragragh on them about how they were great in any condition. I remember lying on the ground, reading that paragraph. You pressured them for a turn and they waved bye bye to you.

The second pair, well, I had som Pre M5s. They were a great ski. After a number of years, I wanted to replace them with something similar.

A guy at Buchikas assured me these grey Pre skis would be as good.

I kept them for 3 years and tried them in a number of conditions. I never had a good run on them. Just too soft.

Best thing I did was to pull their bindings and put them on a pair of Solomon Axendo 8s. At least they got some use. :roll:
 

deadheadskier

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
27,970
Points
113
Location
Southeast NH
I've enjoyed pretty much every ski I've ever owned - even my Kazama 150's with the five 'bullet holes' in the tips that I had back in 4th grade in 1984.

I certainly got frustrated with the Salomon's I skied on in High School in the early 90's as I seemed to blow them out after 20 days skiing bumps. Then again, they had a rather generous 2 year warranty, so I paid for 2 new pairs at the time, but ended up parlaying that into 6 new pairs.

boots - now that's a different story.....
 

smootharc

New member
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
543
Points
0
Location
CNY & MRV
Let's travel back in time.....

.....to circa 1974 when my parents bestowed my big sister and I with brand spanking new pairs of K3 (yes K3) skis. Don't know which marketing firm thought those up, or which foreign sweatshop assembled them, but them boards simply sucked....aesthetically, functionally, and beyond. Ick, yuk, phhewwwy.....

The next year brought parental redemption as I found a pair if Fischer C4 Comps under the tree at X-mas. Thus began a 4 year love affair. Those boards just simply rocked....
 

Geoff

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2004
Messages
5,100
Points
48
Location
South Dartmouth, Ma
Lostone said:
My first pair were Yamahas. No they weren't a bike or an organ. They were skis.. sorta.

They had a paragragh on them about how they were great in any condition. I remember lying on the ground, reading that paragraph. You pressured them for a turn and they waved bye bye to you.

I skied a season on the Yamaha Paramount Custom SR back in the mid-1980's. I thought it was a pretty good ski and I paid next to nothing for them.

My worst ski was the Spaulding Sideral. I broke 3 pairs in the course of 5 weekends. They were fragile. They were completely dead with no quickness edge-to-edge. Minimal edge hold. The shop ended up handing me a pair of Dynastar S-730's so I'd go away. It was like going from a Buick to a Porsche.

The worst pair of skis I ever demo'd was the Olin Mark 4 Comp at the Stratton Trade Fair back around 1980. Unstable at any speed. Absolutely no edge hold. Worthless in any terrain or condition.
 

loafer89

New member
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
3,978
Points
0
Location
Enfield, C.T
I guess that for me it would be the pair of ski's that my instructor broke at Keystone. I was learning how to ski on Checkerboard flats about 1983 or so, and the instructor noticed a hairline crack in one ski.

I took off the ski and he flexed it back and forth before it suddenly snapped in half :eek: :angry: They WHERE a pair of Rossignol ski's.
 

Greg

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 1, 2001
Messages
31,154
Points
0
The first pair that I bought were crappy Elans. They were the cheapest skis I could find.
 

hardline

New member
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Messages
3,085
Points
0
Location
Somewhere Between the Toeside and the Hellside
i was to young to remember skis but snowboards.
burton woody: useless but it is like model number 150
burton elite: was not a board for the eastcoast.
burton performer: was a little better than the elite
sims Kidwell: we called it the skidwell
crazy banana: rode a bunch of their boards. local sponsership
Kemper Freestlye: neon green things started to get better sidecut was comming into play.
Apocolypse: i liked there boards alot but they had major problems with cutting there ptex sheets where they would leave a gap between the sheet and the edge and when i would carve hard the edge would start to pull out. finally traded it in at the b side and forgot what they gave me.
by the end of that season i was a burton boy

this is just freestyle boards, race boards are a whole other list.
 

Warp Daddy

Active member
Joined
Jan 12, 2006
Messages
7,990
Points
38
Location
NNY St Lawrence River
After skiing traditional skis for years went to Rossi Cuts 10.4 's 184 cms MY first "parabolics "

They were OK But SLOOOW on easy cruisers and squirelly when pushed BUT the damn things were crap on steeps couldn't hold an edge at all
 

wa-loaf

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
15,109
Points
48
Location
Mordor
A few of the hand me downs/used stuff my dad picked up when I was a kid. My first really good skis were a pair of Fischer RC4 comps I got in the mid 80's.

I had a pair of the extremes as well. They lasted longer than they did for the rest of you, but the did get bent after a couple seasons. Didn't notice at first and I wondered why they got so sucky all of a sudden. :smash:
 
Top