Keep kids skiing pass it down thread...keep it going

[Ottime]

Sub 70cm skis tend to cost more than anything longer up to 120cm. I think it is a rarity thing.

My kids first set up with small ass boots and 67cm skis cost us $140. From a mag.

I believe we sold the set up (on TGR) for like $90 after three years use. All in all, pretty cheap expense of less than $20 a season.

[LightRanger]

Sub 70cm skis tend to cost more than anything longer up to 120cm. I think it is a rarity thing.

My kids first set up with small ass boots and 67cm skis cost us $140. From a mag.

I believe we sold the set up (on TGR) for like $90 after three years use. All in all, pretty cheap expense of less than $20 a season.

This. I bought a set of 67cm Blizzards with IQ-style bindings at Starthaus Labor Day sale for $100. And I thought that was a decent score. Donated them to Schralph in July for his spawn.

[NT]

Ok good to know. Thanks!
If anyone has any leads I'm all ears.

[GeorgiaSnow]

I picked up some 70cm skis at pow mow last year. Was going to have to rent for ~$80 (can’t remember how many days that was for)but I spoke to the guy in charge of the rental shop and he let me buy them for $50. You can always try asking.


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[Neil Fiedler (Not Neil Armstrong)]

Any one sitting on a pair of mondo size 24-24.5mm /Boys size 6 ski boots? Kids out grown his boots. He's 11 wears size 6 shoe.

Thanks.

[prsboogie]

SOLD

Got a brand new never worn pair of Dalbello Gaia 3.0 in 25.5 for my daughter but she is still comfortably in last year's 24.5. Paid $80 - want to recoup. $100 shipped Conus. I actually haven't even taken them out of the shipping box I got them in - I will open to make sure I didn't get beat! If your local EC New Hampshire or SoVt and can work out a pick up then just SOLD.

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[Core Shot]

Have 22.5 and 23.5 lange rxj and rsj65
22.5 Nordica Doberman
All in great shape
20.5 rossignol four buckle. Used but still good

Headed to flea bay soon

[mattig]

Looking for a 150-155 ski and 90ish underfoot. An all mountain ski for not-powder days for a 15 yo girl who is a strong skier.



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Got RTM JRs about that size that I can ship for 60 bucks all in. I got some pics of them in this thread:

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...sion-Jr-RTM-Jr

If your kid is a decent skier, and these are dedicated groomer skis, the GS skis would be even better. Also still available though I'm not sure why at that price.

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[asland]

My son's Volkl Revolt Jr's are delamintating in the in the tip area.

So, I'm looking to purchase a pair of youth park skis (Size 138'ish) in good condition, twin tip, lightweight...
Bindings if included (but not necessary) should be mounted to fit size 23.5 to 24.5 boot.

Who is holding?

[Danno]

So, I know I have posted cryptically about the experience we recently had trying to get some skis mounted. I promised the full story. Here it is. Apologies for the long sweet blog post (and for posting it in this thread, but I didn't want to start a new one).

Early October: my wife takes my daughter to Epic Mt Gear to get “new” junior trade equipment (similar to a seasonal rental, except you buy the equipment and sell it back to them the next year). The shop tech determined that based on size, she did not need new boots or skis. He took both to the back of the shop for a quick binding check and wax, and my wife and daughter left with daughter’s “original” equipment.

October 26: I wanted my daughter to have longer skis because of ski racing, so I went back to the store to trade in the skis from last season. The old boots were 4 buckle and fine for 8 year old ski racing (the race program requires 3 or 4 buckle boots). That same day, I also brought in a separate set of brand new skis/bindings to be mounted for her; the skis (Moment Carson 121cm) and bindings (Look Team 4) are going to be a Christmas present. The bindings were in a plain brown box (they were new but not in original packaging). I left one boot with the shop for adjustment of the new 120cm junior trade skis and the other boot with the shop for the mounting of the Moments.

November 16th: The tech left a voicemail about the Moments, saying he couldn’t mount the bindings because the binding documentation said that they couldn’t be mounted to a ski shorter than 140cm. This made no sense to me as the Look Team 4s are a kid’s binding with a DIN range of 0.5 to 4, and it’s hard to imagine that someone skiing a 140+ ski would want that binding.

November 17th: Picked up the junior trade skis (and single boot) and retrieved the Moments, Look Team 4s, and the other boot. As for the bindings, I was handed the same brown box that they were in when I brought them to the shop, and I did not look in the box to make sure everything was still there, because why wouldn’t it be? Other than the voicemail, I never got a good explanation from anyone about why they could not mount them; their system of having non-ski techs check in and return gear for shop work is terrible for providing customer service, because many of the people doing so are not knowledgeable about the gear they are seeing or the work that is being done. Over the course of this entire ordeal, I spent a lot of time waiting at the service counter and saw this over and over.

November 19: I took the Moments/Looks to Crystal Ski Shop to see if they could mount them. They took a look at the bindings and skis and couldn’t understand why the tech had said that those bindings couldn’t be mounted on those skis. However, they noted that the heel plates on the boots were out of spec, and they refused to mount the bindings for that reason. While in the shop, we also noted that there was only one toe piece in the box. They called over to Epic to see about the missing toe piece but Epic said they did not have it. Thus, I left Crystal knowing that Epic had repeatedly “approved” my daughter’s boots even though they were unsafe (her boots were in Epic staff’s hands three separate times that involved evaluation of the boots -- my wife’s first visit, adjusting the new trade skis, and for the mount job on the Moments -- and nobody said a word, even though the Crystal ski tech noticed it in the first minute I handed him the equipment), and knowing that they also had misplaced part of the bindings I had brought in but denied responsibility.

While at Crystal, I also discovered that the binding documentation that the Epic tech said prevented him from mounting the binding to skis shorter than 140cm indicated that the bindings should only be mounted on skis “< 140cm.” As in, “less than 140cm”. In the grand scheme of what happened, I guess I should be grateful that he could not read basic algebraic operators, as his refusal to mount the bindings is the only thing that led me to go to Crystal. And going to Crystal is the only thing that led me to discover that my daughter’s boots were unsafe.

I then returned to Epic because my daughter now needed boots. I spoke with a manager and he agreed that the boots in question should not have been approved by the ski techs. As it was now very late to be seeking boots through the trade program, and the race program requires 3 or 4 buckle boots, he offered to help me find a boot that could work for her, possibly in new boots, but of course she had to come in and try them on. I brought her in the next day and the store’s stock was quite low, but the manager was able to “order” a couple of boots from other stores, although we would have to wait for the boots to arrive to try them on.

That same day, we went to the shop counter to see about the missing toe piece. We were referred to a woman who may or may not have been a manager, and she repeatedly questioned us about the missing part and what had happened, while conveying disbelief that her staff would lose equipment. She and another person went looking, reappearing every 10-15 minutes to tell us that they had a couple of other places to look. She also apparently called the tech who had worked on (or not worked on, as the case was) the skis/bindings, and he supposedly told her that he hadn’t taken the bindings out of the box, he had just taken the documentation out of the box. Through this whole process, she treated us in a condescending fashion that made it clear that she did not believe us, at one point even telling us that since she couldn’t find it, we must have lost the toepiece prior to bringing the bindings to the store. It took us playing the November 16 voicemail from the tech, with no mention of a missing toepiece, to keep the search going. Yet, after we waited for approximately 45 minutes, she appeared with the missing toepiece. You would think that at this point she would be extremely apologetic, both for the fact that the tech had lost our toepiece and for the fact that we had gone through a lot trying to get it back, including having our honesty questioned. Even then, however, she treated us rudely and as a burden; she wasn’t in the least bit apologetic.

November 30th: the boots arrived and after some delay because of being out of town for Thanksgiving, we get in to try them on. You would think this part would be easy, but two techs could not locate the boots, so we were left waiting a long time just to start trying the boots on. Finally, one pair was found and the tech gave it to us and left to help others, leaving us to determine if they fit. The second boot was still missing and staff appeared to have exhausted their search. My wife, out of frustration, asked for a manager. The manager located the second pair of boots and helped fit my daughter in the new boots and sold them to us for a sharply discounted price. We were able to walk out – finally – with equipment that was safe and would work. And kudos to the manager for trying to make things right.

We still had to get the Looks mounted to the Moments, as we couldn’t do that until we had boots that were safe. Crystal Ski Shop mounted those without any problem, unsurprisingly.

Overall, two of the managers were very helpful in trying to make things right, but the other assistance that we received was abysmal. They had numerous opportunities to discover that the boots were out of spec, yet nobody did. They refused to mount a kid’s binding on a kid’s ski because they couldn’t correctly read the binding documentation or apply basic common sense given a binding with a max DIN of 4. They misplaced one of the binding toepieces in returning the equipment to me, then denied responsibility for losing the toepiece on more than one occasion, and when the toepiece was finally located, basically told us “here you go, here’s the toepiece” with no recognition of what had happened to lead us to that moment.

Mind boggling stuff.

[comish]

What aspect of the boots was out of spec? Just curious for those of us home tech's that mount our own f'n bindings as I believe the thread is labeled.

Makes me glad I almost never deal with shops these days. That would frustrate the shit out of me.

[Danno]

What aspect of the boots was out of spec? Just curious for those of us home tech's that mount our own f'n bindings as I believe the thread is labeled.

Makes me glad I almost never deal with shops these days. That would frustrate the shit out of me.

The heel plate was completely worn down, to the point that a new one could not even be put on.

[comish]

replaceable heel plate?

[Danno]

is that uncommon? or are you asking why they couldn't just replace it? Because we were told that it couldn't be replaced because it was too worn, or something like that (can't recall exactly now).

[~mikey b]

those toe and heel blocks get pretty worn down from kids scuffing around on the dry pavement, etc. Kids wear them down way more than adults. With Owen racing I kept a good eye on those and replaced them before they got too bad - usually every season if he went more than one season on boots. And I often replaced them on boots I bought here in the Gear Swap. New blocks is as good as new boots as far as binding interface goes. If they get too worn down new ones don't fit or you can't get the screws out unless you try an Easy Out and that's a pain in the ass and doesn't always work.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Lots of toe/heel blocks for kids boots on ebay. Making sure you order the right ones is trickier.

[~mikey b]

I never ran into any problems but the kid mainly has skied Technica for ten years and had a reasonably current model so I just ordered direct from them.

[Danno]

Well, I am not looking to replace any heel blocks as my kiddo now has brand new boots.

But worn heel block that couldn't be replaced was part of the problem in my crazy story.

[EWG]

Well, I am not looking to replace any heel blocks as my kiddo now has brand new boots.

But worn heel block that couldn't be replaced was part of the problem in my crazy story.

And did Epic sell you those boots as part of the trade in program used last year, already worn?

Also, for what it's worth, that experience is awful. Epic used to be pretty good back in the day when it was Boulder Ski Deals, but I guess it's not the same. They should have apologized like it was the only thing they cared about after putting you through that. There shouldn't be that kind of total disassociation between the sales people, the counter people and the techs. At least at Crystal you talked to the guys doing the actual work in the back, even if they weren't the actual person mounting your skis.

Also, the idea that they had someone so green mounting kids skis that they thought Din 4 bindings could only go on 140+ skis is flat out frightening. Shouldn't that be a flag for them for their own service business? You'd think they'd take action once they heard that happened.

Total crapfest. I know there are still some good people there, but I guess they are outnumbered.

[Danno]

And did Epic sell you those boots as part of the trade in program used last year, already worn?

Also, for what it's worth, that experience is awful. Epic used to be pretty good back in the day when it was Boulder Ski Deals, but I guess it's not the same. They should have apologized like it was the only thing they cared about after putting you through that. There shouldn't be that kind of total disassociation between the sales people, the counter people and the techs. At least at Crystal you talked to the guys doing the actual work in the back, even if they weren't the actual person mounting your skis.

Also, the idea that they had someone so green mounting kids skis that they thought Din 4 bindings could only go on 140+ skis is flat out frightening. Shouldn't that be a flag for them for their own service business? You'd think they'd take action once they heard that happened.

Total crapfest. I know there are still some good people there, but I guess they are outnumbered.

Yes, they sold us those boots last year, the trade program is generally used equipment unless you pay more. I have no idea how worn it was back then, after all my kiddo did use it all season.

Yeah, I have no illusions that Crystal is great, but I will be taking all my shop work there from now on. Or perhaps more accurately, I will never take my stuff to Epic.

[~mikey b]

lesson learned

inspect your kid’s stuff yourself

[detrusor]

Ok. Thread drift.

When I taught bike repair class I’d send the parents home and have them check the brakes on their kids bikes. Nearly always non functional.


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[Danno]

lesson learned

inspect your kid’s stuff yourself

I'm not an alpine skier so didn't even know to inspect it in the first place. My bindings don't lock down on the heel.

[rudy]

I had the same situation with the worn soles on while getting a mount done with jr trade boots. They had a 2 week wait (like you, there was no concern when I dropped them off for the mount) and i didn't hear peep from them until the day I was supposed to pick up my kids skis saying they couldn't do the mount due to worn soles blah, blah, blah. I went to the store and then found a new pair of Nordicas they had for sale and asked them if they could use the sole from the new boots in order to do the mount while they ordered me new soles so that everything could be done for Christmas. They agreed to do that and was able to pick up the skis a day later. I was hoping to just switch the soles back to the old ones and be done with them but instead of that they sold me the new soles and said they would replace theirs when my special order for the replacement soles came in, which was fine with me until I realized at the register that the soles were $50! Fack, the jr trade boots for the are only $60. Whatever, they didn't charge me at all for the mounts so I can live with that. Funny thing is i mount my own skis but didn't feel like dealing as the mount was supposedly on $25 due to buying the bindings there...

[~mikey b]

I'm not an alpine skier so didn't even know to inspect it in the first place. My bindings don't lock down on the heel.

ok

don’t learn anything new that helps your kid I get it

I just started alpine skiing last season bud - no excuse