How Often Do You Buy New Skis? Here's What 1,500 Skiers Say

Poll Highlights

• Total Votes: 1,509
• Number of Votes on Instagram: 429
• Number of Votes on Website: 1,080
• Most Popular Option: Every Three to Six Seasons (733 votes, 49% of voters)
• Least Popular Option: More Than Once a season (56 votes, 4% of voters)
• Other results:
  Every One or Two Seasons: 377 votes, 25% of voters Every Seven Seasons or More: 343 votes, 23% of voters

Poll Observations

• When we added the “more than once a season” option, we weren’t sure if anyone would click it. Some did! The buying multiple setups a year crowd exists. There aren’t many of them, but they’re out there. We’d love to take a look at their gear closets.
• Bingo. On Monday, we predicted the “three to six seasons” group would be the largest, and it was. There’s one problem, though. We’re running the poll, so we can’t give ourselves a prize. Maybe we could start some kind ofgambling ring among the ranks of the POWDERDepartment of Polls and Skier Opinion. Whoever wins gets a high five.
• There was a strong contingent of holdouts who waited seven seasons or longer to buy new skis. We see you, and we respect you. With proper care, skis can last longer than you might expect—there’s a reason thrift shops are crammed with sticks from when Clinton was still president. To put the seven-season category in perspective, those who chose it last bought skis in 2018, well before the phrases “COVID” and “six seven” were part of our vocabulary. Simpler times.

What We Could’ve Done Better

• This may have been our smoothest poll so far. There was no funny business with rounding on the website or Instagram—thank god. That feels good.
• Still, as some commenters pointed out, the poll was a bit wanting. The frequency with which you ski certainly plays a role in how often you buy skis. Our poll didn’t account for that. For now, though, we’re limited by the number of variables we can have in our polls. Maybe, in the future, they’ll get more complex. 
• Finally, as far as interest goes, this poll wasn’t a hit. We thought we’d ride the success of last week’s poll, which asked: How many pairs of skis do you need? That one had 4,591 votes. People care less about ski buying frequency, though, apparently. This week, only 1,509 skiers chimed in.

About the POWDER Weekly Poll 

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. Eastern Time every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page.

While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences, and we want to know which ones might land on top of the heap.