Cheap slalom ski

Me and a buddy have been attempting the whole slalom thing, but it's on a wooden ski I've had since I was 8 and I got it second hand from a family friend way back then (I'm turning 21 in 3 months) It's part of pair, the little boot is rubber and dry rotting, the back foot "boot" is nothing more than a piece of non-skid tape with a loop of dry-rotted rubber over it...it's terrible.

Any chance anyone has a ski laying around that's less than 16 years old, and perhaps meant for the slalom course that they don't want an arm or a leg for?

I'll even come test it out if you live on a lake where it's warm

Redneck, try to find yourself an HO Mach 1. That'll be a pretty good ski for you, coming from a wood ski and all. Another alternative would be an HO Burner. These are two skis that you can really find for cheap if you look for them and will be lightyears ahead of what you have.

Thanks for the advice on where to go and what to look for.

Hollywood: I'm telling ya, I'll go to the ski if I get to use it in good conditions ...we live on a river where days that are flat enough to comfortably ski are few and far between early in the season unless we run so far up the river that it's too narrow to turn around w/out reverse. Then later in the summer there are plenty of flat calm (and burning hot) days but by then the jelly fish are in and you can't ski w/out either getting stung or sweating to death in a wetsuit

Oh yeah, and the wooden ski is all I've ever used, but my friend went to a lake with some college buddies and used an F1 I think he said it was...in any case, he said he absolutely hated it and couldn't turn to save his life. He said the bindings were awesome, but that it took someone practically ripping the ski off of him to get them off. Was that a bad example of a newer ski or was it just too much a jump up in technology?

Thanks for the info...As for my friend, you hit the nail on the hit, I just didn't elaborate...he said he would come across the wake and the next thing he knew he was eating water before he could start his turn, so "squirrelly" is probably a good description.