Yes, I Have Girly Skis

Well, after three years of renting ski gear, I finally "committed"--skiing is not just something I do because my husband likes it. Besides, the rental costs were piling up. Also, friends tipped us off to Ski Haus's annual buy-one-get-one sale. Also, I had a nice birthday check from my mom that I was able to put to the cost.

So I'm now part of that special SFNE community--skiing families with their own equipment. Thanks to the sale, I paid for skis and got boots for free. (Trust me--this is the way to buy skis, at least new ones. I had to remind myself that I've certainly spent way more on renting by now.)

And I didn't just get any skis, mind you--I got girly skis. Really girly skis. From K2's Title IX line of women's skis, all of which are mighty girly. Designed, carved, and decorated for women (mine are white with blue hawaiian style flowers). The bindings sit a bit farther forward to account for a woman's center of gravity (that took me a good day on the slopes to get used to). Even the name of my particular skis is girly: "Sweet Luvs." Ack. (All K2 Title IXs have "Luv" in their name. Ack, ack.) I love (luv?) them anyway.

Plus, I made up for the lack of machismo by ending up with men's Salomon boots, because my boat-like feet don't easily fit women's boots. Fortunately, my man Tim at Ski Haus fit me properly (the advantage of renting over and over again is that you get a clue as to what works and what doesn't before forking over the cash). He also didn't push me to get a higher-performance (and therefore more expensive) set up than I needed--we went for comfort and stability, not "I'll be on double-black diamonds by next week" function, because I won't. (Maybe by next millennium, but even that's pushing it--the green slopes at Pat's Peak still make me happy.)

So no more rental shops, rental lines, and races to return everything by 4 p.m. For me, that is. My son has now taken up snowboarding, but he only owns skis. So for the few weeks left in the season, we're renting. On Saturday, we got all his gear back by 3:55. But my girly skis came home with me!