Skis for 11 year old

[Dixie Flatline]

I'm trying to figure out if my son out-grew the skis he had last year. The skis he had were 120cm, and were picked out by a friend. They were fine as far as we can tell, but he's grown.

He's 142cm tall and about 31 kg (56 inches and 68 pounds). We are beginner or maybe intermediate. We live in Idaho and the snow isn't usually either icy or powder.

These are the options at my local shop. His current ski is the green 120, and the others are 130 or 140. Should I just have him use the same skis, or are they too short? If so, how do I choose another ski, other than length?

 

[GB_Ski]

120 is too short until he’s a new beginner. If he’s fairly strong like any kids that play sports during the other seasons. Then skis should be at least his lips.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

I assumed if he used these same skis last year, then it just wouldn't make sense to use them again this year. He's going to be more advanced and also bigger, but effectively on shorter skis if we use the same ones.

I'm just not sure whether to get 130 or 140. There seem to be more choices for 140. And on the shelfs there are just a lot of different skis and I don't know how to chose between them. I'll check another shop and I might be able to find these exact same skis in 130 or 140. They seem to be pretty common.

 

[Philpug]

I'm just not sure whether to get 130 or 140.

130, those Mantra JR are a good choice. As we say, kids need to grow out of skis, not into them. Maybe a 140 next season (when it will seem like all they have are 150's )

 

[dovski]

Yes I can vouch for the Mantra Jr, they are great skis. Another option to consider are some of the kids multi event race skis. To be clear these are not proper race skis, but they are great for kids who are developing their skills. What we liked about these skis is that they had a solid sandwich construction and were great when the kids were learning the fundamentals. They also were great for progression. Clearly a front side ski, but also a great value. The Head WC iRace Team JR Skis is awesome and if you can buy for a reasonable price of Corbetts (note their price is in CDN $$ so 30% less in US, plus they offer free shipping in NA and no sales tax) and we bought from them a lot. Rossignol Hero Athlete Multi-Event JR Skis are also great skis and again great price from Corbetts. Just tossing these out as we found that we could outfit our kids in a new pair of these with bindings for well below $150 each year when they were young and we typically got our money back by selling them next season when the kids outgrew them.

For kicks here is also a great deal on a 2022 Rossignol Black OPS Dreamer JR Skis w/ XP 10 GW Bindings. Again also priced in $CDN from Corbetts.

Note all links I included are in the size range you are looking at for your son. Hope this helps

 

[Jilly]

Yes to the 130's. Can you rent for the season?

 

[Dixie Flatline]

We don't want to rent because we ski almost every week and like to ski-in. The local shops offer buy-now-decide-later leases, so we usually do that and if the skis are good we will keep them for one of the next 3 kids in line.

 

[Jilly]

A seasonal rental is for the full season. You take them home and use them. If the kid grows during the season, you can usually upgrade.

But if you can hand down...go new!

 

[dovski]

A seasonal rental is for the full season. You take them home and use them. If the kid grows during the season, you can usually upgrade.

But if you can hand down...go new!

I struggle with rental gear as there is limited selection and the shops here with the seasonal rentals keep the gear for several years, so condition is variable. We also found that it was often just as expensive to rent as it was to buy for our kids, and what we bought was always better quality. Buying allowed us to hand stuff down and what we could not hand down we managed to sell quite easily. Really comes down to personal preference, but personally I enjoyed finding deals on kids skis and gear and my kids enjoyed skiing new skis every year.

 

[skiki]

If he’s the oldest child, if not new at least make sure it is a recent model. You want to make sure the bindings will not drop off the indemnified list before your kids are done with them. For example I’m not sure the Solomon bindings on the pair on the right (Armada?) are still on it, and if they are they might not be for much longer. Also try to stick to system bindings for hand me downs— if one kid has a much larger or smaller foot you don’t want to deal with remounts.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Yes I can vouch for the Mantra Jr, they are great skis. Another option to consider are some of the kids multi event race skis. To be clear these are not proper race skis, but they are great for kids who are developing their skills. What we liked about these skis is that they had a solid sandwich construction and were great when the kids were learning the fundamentals. They also were great for progression. Clearly a front side ski, but also a great value. The Head WC iRace Team JR Skis is awesome and if you can buy for a reasonable price of Corbetts (note their price is in CDN $$ so 30% less in US, plus they offer free shipping in NA and no sales tax) and we bought from them a lot. Rossignol Hero Athlete Multi-Event JR Skis are also great skis and again great price from Corbetts. Just tossing these out as we found that we could outfit our kids in a new pair of these with bindings for well below $150 each year when they were young and we typically got our money back by selling them next season when the kids outgrew them.

For kicks here is also a great deal on a 2022 Rossignol Black OPS Dreamer JR Skis w/ XP 10 GW Bindings. Again also priced in $CDN from Corbetts.

Note all links I included are in the size range you are looking at for your son. Hope this helps

Those don't have bindings, it means they are not system bindings then right? I'm just trying to learn the difference.

 

[dovski]

Those don't have bindings, it means they are not system bindings then right? I'm just trying to learn the difference.

So the kids multi event skis do not come with bindings, so you would have to buy and mount them, but Corbetts has decent kids bindings starting at around $70 cdn, so still pretty cheap. The Rossignol Black Opps Dreamer Jr Skis come with a system binding. The big difference is that the system binding is on a track and can be adjusted to fit different boot sizes whereas the fixed bindings are mounted to a ski for a specific boot size. We actually used to buy system bindings on some of our skis that we planned to pass down as that way different kids with different size feet could use the same ski. We also used to put race plates on some of the skis as you can also easily adjust them for different boot sizes. That said unless you know how to adjust bindings, properly set forward pressure, properly set din settings ... etc. I would recommend you get your local ski shop to do that for you. Likewise installing system bindings onto the track that is mounted to the skis is pretty simple if you know what you are doing, if not have your shop do that for you.

My logic is this, you could buy the Rossignol Black Opps with system binding for the equivalent of $187 US (after the exchange rate is factored in). You would have a brand new ski and brand new bindings that you son could use for a year. When you are done you could easily sell that setup for $150 US. That gets you a fantastic ski for next to nothing.

Head WC iRace Team Jr with bindings would run you about $167 US, again a setup you could easily sell a year later for around $100-150.

You would have a mounting cost on the head and a binding setup cost on the Rossignol but that should not be terrible. Both are great skis so you really can't go wrong with either. We did this for quite a few years with my kids and it worked out well ... now they all out ski me and have specific requirements for their quivers lol

Bottom line skiing is an expensive sport so this proved to be a good way for us to equip the kids for cheap every year. Worked out way way cheaper then rentals and most used ski options we found.

 

[Dixie Flatline]

Thank you for that recommendation and it sounds like that's really what I should be doing especially considering the skis can be handed down for 5 years or more, but unfortunately if I buy new there's a risk the skis won't get here in time, since my local mountain may open later in November and those are showing delivery November 27 or early December. Looks like I should have been doing this a month or two ago...live and learn.

 

[dovski]

Thank you for that recommendation and it sounds like that's really what I should be doing especially considering the skis can be handed down for 5 years or more, but unfortunately if I buy new there's a risk the skis won't get here in time, since my local mountain may open later in November and those are showing delivery November 27 or early December. Looks like I should have been doing this a month or two ago...live and learn.

You can always give Corbetts a call, they ship fedex and are pretty quick. I usually get my stuff from them in 3-5 days and I am in Seattle. Last purchase was Strive 14 bindings for $120 US, not a bad deal

 

[Dixie Flatline]

I went ahead and bought the blacks ops skis. If it really snows before they get here, we can rent 1 time or set up his old skis.

 

[dovski]

I went ahead and bought the blacks ops skis. If it really snows before they get here, we can rent 1 time or set up his old skis.

That is awesome your son is going to love those skis. Fingers crossed they get to you in time!