In a concurrent thread, there is some discussion about why we skiers buy new equipment. I can't think of any sport where the bond between participant and equipment is as strong as between skier and ski. Somehow, we self identify. Like many of you, I believe that the experience of new rarely, if ever, equals the expectation, and, we can get by very well with the old. My thinking is that new ski purchases are based in a spiritual renewal that tomorrow is another day, and, it will be better. Hope is a marvelous human characteristic. Of course, that conflicts with my other thinking that materialism needs to be extinguished and I need to work on becoming more happy/content with that already in my life. The ying and yang at work, that's life.
Mike, you are right-on in all that you said there. In the first few years when we took up skiing as a family, I was totally gonzo about buying every bit of new gear in sight. The gloss got dulled a bit when I began to realize that many of the changes in ski models from year to year were nothing more than cosmetic, and the few millimeters in added waist width did little to improve the performance, and sometimes actually degraded it. So, buying almost-new gear has really been a great way to fill some gaps in our quivers without taking money away from flights and lift tickets, which is where the real fun is. Any upgrades now are because the skier is improving, and needs higher-performance gear to suit,
and not because the gear is improving or changing in any great way.
And to be honest, skiing three- or four-year-old gear doesn't necessarily feel much different than skiing the new stuff. This is especially true in the hard snow sub-80 mm group of skis, but even sometimes with wider skis. Case in point: if the topsheets were blanked out, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference in performance over the '11 Sultan 94 and my '08 Mythic Riders, they're that similar in feel. Likewise, the '08 Nordica Mach 3 that I bought last season as my cheap Banff ski (to leave at my sister-in-laws basement there), actually ski far better than any recent Nordicas I've tried. Since I don't need or want a rockered ski, I have resisted jumping on that bandwagon.
I like your comments on materialism, and must say it's rare and refreshing to see such words posted here. Strikes a nice balance, and is sometimes a necessary tonic to snap one back into reality. Good on ya!
Cheers!
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