The B...B...Bad Ski Purchase Thread.

[Living Proof]

In the 10 years since I returned to skiing, I've averaged a new ski for me, most were almost new, bought from those who love new skis. The only ski that just bombed was the Dynastar Sultan 94. I'm not a fan of wide skis, but, that was the year of the Gathering in Tahoe, so it seemed to make sense as it's reputation was a good crud ski. Just never found the love, sold it to a friend who is a major Dynastar fan and he loves it. Go figure.
In my younger days, bought a Dynastar GS ski that was gold in color with a red thing on the tips. Never felt the love for that ski, so, moral of the story, no more Dynastar's.

 

[Don in Morrison]

Hot Head, 180 cm, circa 1973. I got them to try some freestyle stuff. Decent in the bumps but a Yahoo probably would've been better. Too long for ballet, so after one season I punted them and got the 160 harts, which I still have, and no, they're not for sale. So then my default bump ski was my previous bump ski, a 205 Red Star SL.

 

[oldschoolskier]

To date zero hopefully it stays that way

 

[cantunamunch]

Inquiring minds want to know more. (Yes I have skied a 306 shell with 18 mm toe lift).

That happened on two separate pairs of skis that I suppose were bad purchases since I never skied them without that experiment/setup - 178 cm Tua Excaliburs that had complete flex mismatch between underfoot and in front - lifting the ski in the lift line and I could feel the shovel dropping down and 184cm Atomic Kongurs that glided well but would have extremely erratic edge engagement (and not in a burr way) so that I would pressure the shovel and get no engagement but if I was just a little off on lateral balance I would find the edge riding in the slot.

Hahahaha.....

I'd say I may lead the pack here, but then I love gear & expirimenting:

My 3 Bbbbad camps:

1) These are cheap- example: 185 Scott Pow Air w tons of early rise & absent sidewalls- just some foam on the side. What could go wrong on the ice coast?!

2) Mounted em up wrong- example(s) 2003 uber tall race bindings on 99mm skis. Not only are they tippy, but kill my knees!!! 2014- yea just mtn on the line.... That's 5 inches behind rest of quiver- 2015 remount!

3) I'm a visionary!! What could go wrong gas pedaling a 285mm shell by 12mm?! Actually skied w Phil w these- shovels engage---> nothing else!

 

[Brian Finch]

The lift was on the boot, not the bindings.... It was a groovy "let's see" that was terrible in practice, fishtail galore!

 

[François Pugh]

I don't regret buying any skis, although a few of them did not fully fulfill the role I bought them for:

Circa 1970 Dynastar GS somewhere around 180 cm (junior way back then??? I weighed about 110 lbs at the time) - First ski purchase was a short GS ski not stable at high speed, had been told by shop owner it would be, but it wasn't. It was probably good novice/learner ski just the same and likely held up my learning curve less than a stable ski would have (yeah I know, I know, no business speeding as a newbie);

Volant Machete g 190 cm - 26ish m ski bought to fill GS slot restricted to 1 degree side angle due to steel cap, still a great ski when the slope is not icy and good in deep snow, but has speed limit on hardpack (gets too frenetic to attempt some turns that you would not think twice about on SGs. The more I ski it, the more I like it.

Völkl P50 F1 - 188 cm - A bargain GS ski bought a few years after its best before date (still trying to fill that $1200 GS hole with $50 plus shipping). It is a nice ski but too soft in longitudinal flex to feel safe when I'm misbehaving. On the plus side the easy-going flex, longish radius and slim profile makes it a good bump ski.

 

[DanoT]

In the mid 1960s I bought a pair of Toni Sailer skis from a department store. Unfortunately they skied like a department store ski, so i named them the Fake Sailers.

I once bought a pair of skis from Mike Wiegele Heli Skiing when they were selling off their specially made fleet of Atomic heli skis. This was before fat skis or shaped skis. They were probably 120 or 130mm wide with pretty much no side cut. They were called Atomic Fatboys but I called them The Cafeteria Trays because that is what they skied like.

 

[Willy]

Back in the mid-to-late seventies or so when it was all the craze to go to shorter skis, I bought a pair of Authier A-3 in a 180. Sheesh, those things sucked. Other than those and a pair of Century III (not the Atomic Century) that were complete noodles, I can't think of any other ski buys that were really bad so, that's about a 2 or 3% failure rate (guessing on the number of skis I've had).

 

[Carl Kuck]

Olin VTC

• Carl Kuck
• Feb 21, 2016

Worst ski I ever owned.

Olin VTC (Vertical Terrain Comp). Late 80s, early 90s? 200cm. I did better skiing through bumps on a 207 pair of Rossi 4Gs than on the Olins. Same era as the DTSL. Fortunately, I got these on a pro form when I was teaching and was able to sell them for what I paid for them. Replaced with a pair of Atomic ARC Carbon Bionics.

 

[Josh Matta]

174cm Blizzard Mag 8.5ti - this ski sucked. The Brahma does better on hardpack.

183cm Atomic Sugar Daddy - a fat skis that couldnt smear.

 

[Tominator]

I had a pair of 205 cm Fischer Superglass in 1969/1970. I liked them but thought they got a bit chattery at higher speeds. So I bought a pair of 210's at the end of the season on closeout, but never ever mounted bindings on them. Not sure where they are now - might be in my brother's basement.

 

[markojp]

Rossi T4 (same ski as the Rossi B4) in a 184... No metal... A noodle. The 193 with metal was lovely.

The early Head Monster, what was it? 102? 99? Wasn't man enough to bend it. Skied like a 2x8 to me.

Salomon SX92 ski boot. God awful.

 

[Ecimmortal]

I happened upon a pair of ON3P Vicik's. That happen to be one of my favorite ski's. I forget the circumstances of them being available. But this pair had an extra layer of carbon for a much more heavy and powerful skier than me. I just could not ski them to save my life.

 

[oldschoolskier]

So far no bad skis to date and don't want to start that habit now. Boots on the other hand.

 

[DanoT]

I work at a demo centre and 5 or 6 years ago we had some Line Prophet 100s and I really liked how they skied. We also had a single unmounted pair of Line Prophet 115s that the boss had wished he hadn't ordered and he wanted to see them disappear.

Since I was about to go Cat Skiing and also visit other mountains known for getting more snow than my home mountain, I figured the 115s might be a good fit, especially when the boss offered them to me for $550 including a used demo binding.

Well, it turned out that I hated them and when I got back from my ski trip I asked the boss if he wanted to make a trade: The Line Prophet 115 with 6 days on them for last years Elan 888 which was part of our demo fleet but not getting taken out much because they were last year's ski (I had mostly skied them most of the season and loved them but couldn't take them with me on out of town trips because they were not mine---yet). The boss doesn't want the Line 115s but offers to let me put them on the ski wall with whatever price tag I want.

The next morning I put them on the shop floor with a "$400 cash only, no tax" tag, and go skiing. I come back into the shop at the end of the day and the skis are gone. It turns out a guy had come thru on his way to Revelstoike looking for some fat skis and scooped them up.

I then ask the boss how much for the Elan 888s and he says "$250".

And the story gets even better. We actually had 2 pair of the previous year's Elan 888 and I had been skiing on the 184s but nobody had been using the 177s, so I decided to buy the 177s because I know that when it comes time to sell them the shorter, lower mileage 888 will be an easier sell. And they were as I got $200 for them a couple years later.

I guess not every B... B... Bad Ski purchase has to end badly.

 

[Uncle-A]

If I do the math 2.8%

K2 710 with the wood core not the FO. I just hated them because they would do much unless you sat way back on their tails.

 

[Brad J]

Volkl AC30 , I felt like I was on a totally dead 2x4's, No love , quick separation

 

[Jerez]

I'll play. I've owned perhaps 10 or 12 pairs of skis, including a few mentioned as bbbbad above. (Atomic ARCs and Betacarves, Head Jimis for example)

Some were better than others, but only one was horrible. 2012 Rossi S7Ws with the hideous graphics of an anorexic zombie chick.

They were all the rage that year. (the Enforcers of their day I suppose). Everyone loved them, so I would too, right?. NOT. They almost killed me and surely helped ruin a month of the season. I think SegBrown said that skiing them was like having little yappy dogs chase you, biting at your ankles. Lucky for me, we were in the minority opinion and I sold them on Ebay for what I paid for them.

One out of ten, that's still a high percentage. But I'll never make that mistake again!

 

[crgildart]

K2 EPX 7.9 Carbon was probably the worst ski I've been on this century. Got them really cheap, hardly used, maybe once. Skied them for an hour and never again. They were complete noodles, zero torsional strength. Did they have a foam core? It could be that the core was dust due to age, not actual wear.. Anyway, tossed them in the trash with only about 3-4 laps on them.

 

[DanoT]

In the 70s: K2 Bermuda shorts 180cm replaced with Rossignol Strato105 195cm