This year has been "gear-o-rama". With my expedition to Worlds I figure I needed to make sure I had what I needed and even some back ups. I've gotten Dynafit boots on a pro deal. A sponsor helped me get skis and bindings. I've purchased a few pairs of skins, looking for the elusive perfect mix of speed and kick. Through it all I've come to learn where to score the stuff.
I"ve tried getting ski companies to help out, but alas even my old Atomic connections couldn't come through. So I resorted to buying retail. But I learned some good lessons worthy of being passed on.
It's almost impossible to get the skimo stuff in North America, so I resorted to buying Euro. A strong Euro dollar didn't help, but there are 3 great online shops I"ll pass contact info on here. For my skis I called "Telemark-Pyrenees" (www.telemark-pyrenees.com). They said they had 1 pair of SkiTrab World cups left. I ordered them and they were at my door in just under a week. They were packed better than any online purchase I'd ever seen. In contrast, earlier in the year, utilizing a pro deal on some back-country skis ordered out of the usa, they came falling out of the box, with messed up paper work nessesitating me paying double duty on them and took over 3 weeks to arrive in the mail.
Next I ordered some Haero bindings from Vertical world (www.verticalworld.it). They also arrived in 1 week, with proper paper work. The vender even threw in a hat I hadn't ordered. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but the gesture makes me want to order more stuff (which I did!).
Euro pricing is either comparable or way better. The skins I got cost me about 50 Euro (65$CAD/US). In one case comparable skins from a shop in Whistler cost 200$+....plus the crazy BC 14% tax and shipping (way more duty than imported goods).
Another good shop out of Germany is: www.riapsport.de maybe a little more expensive than the others, but they've also got the skimo goods.
Good luck and happy shopping!
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