Rental
Getting to know you Equipment
Fitting Your Ski Boots
The first equipment you are issued are your boots. The rental technician will need to know your street shoe size to assure that your boots fit properly. Your boots should feel snug around your foot, but not tight. Once buckled, you should be able to wiggle your toes, but your heel should not move when you pull up on it. If your boots feel too loose or too tight, please do not hesitate to ask for a different size!
Everything You Wanted to Know About Skis
Next, you will receive your skis. Our skis are expertly tuned and waxed. Your ski technician will explain the finer points of the equipment you have selected. On the top of your skis you will find complicated looking devices called bindings. These miracles of modern engineering not only hold your feet on the skis, but they also know when to let you go if you fall. A binding technician will set your bindings based on your weight, height, age, and ability level. Please be as accurate as possible to assure proper settings!
You will also be issued ski poles - which are used for balance and moving around. A good fit on ski poles is to grab the ski pole that puts your elbow at a 90 degree angle.
Once you are out on the snow, your instructor will show you how to use your bindings to attach your skis to your feet. It's actually quite simple - place the little ledge on the front of your boot under the front binding piece (called the toe piece), line up your heel and press down. To get out, you simply press down on the lever in the back with your ski pole. If you ski comes off during skiing, the ski brake will stop it from continuing down the hill without you!
Snowboards 101
Snowboards work pretty much like skis do. The big difference is that they are much wider, and you only get one. They have a sidecut just like skis, and turn the same way a ski turns.
Snowboard bindings have one big difference from ski bindings - they don't release! Once your feet are in, they should stay there. Getting in your snowboard bindings is easy, you put your foot as far back in the binding as possible, push the plastic ladder strap into the end of the main strap with the buckle on it, until the ratchet clicks and the straps will not come apart. To tighten the strap, pull the large lever on the buckle back and away from the boot. Then let the lever spring back to position and repeat until the strap is tight enough. The straps should generally be quite tight so that the boot cannot move much in the binding, although not so tight that your circulation is starting to be cut off. To release the binding simply push the release catch in the middle of the buckle forwards and pull the main strap away from the plastic ladder strap. The release catch lifts the ratchet off of the ridges on the ladder strap so that the straps can slide smoothly apart.
*New* Burton Learn To Ride (LTR) Center
The Pats Peak Rental Shop is now a Burton Learn To Ride Center (LTR) designed to accelerate learning by utilizing beginner-specific equipment. Burton Learn To Ride provides snowboard beginners with gear designed to improve their experience as well as proven teaching methods to make for an enjoyable and successful first day. The equipment is tailored by gender and age to maximize each individual's learning potential. LTR boards are designed to reduce the likelihood of catching an edge while learning and the LTR boots and bindings are softer flexing, allowing the rider to more easily guide the board into a turn. Burton Snowboards innovative Learn-To-Ride products are specifically designed to facilitate and accelerate learning.
Developed in conjunction with the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) and major resorts around North America, the LTR methodology stresses getting people to link turns in the first lesson. The Kids LTR Boards are designed for children 12 and under and groups kids with their peers, on equipment to fit their height & weight.
