The whole "Swiss Tims Skis" story started in 2003.  My family and I are all avid skiers, and having taught my three children to ski from the time they could walk (they are now all in their teens) you can imagine we had built up quite a collection of skies over time.

In 2003 I decided it was time to get rid of them and thought I would give the old ebay a try - much to my surprise I managed to sell the skies for much more than I expected and being a businessman and salesman, it started me thinking.  There was a market out there for used skis!

As a member and trainer of our local ski club at Silksworth Ski Slope in Sunderland, I spoke to the other members and asked them if they had any old skis that we could sell?  Again, more money was made than expected and I decided to give my contacts a try in France.

We had invested in a chalet in Alp D'Huez and so were regular visitors there and again had made many friends and contacts.  I was able to buy pairs of used skies from rental shops, ski schools and the local community and opened up the Swiss Tims Emporium on Ebay.

Since then, it has only gotten better.  I started importing Orion Skis and Snowboards directly from their factory in Bulgaria in 2004 (they also make skis and boards for the likes of Atomic and Burton), initially just for members of the ski club, but the skis are so much cheaper when bought in bulk and the savings I decided I could pass on to other skiers, I then decided it was time to create a website and so began SwissTimsSkis.com!

Skiing is my passion, and I love to spend all day talking to people about it.  People call me just for advice and to share their experiences which is great, and since starting swisstimsskis.com I have gotten to know so many more people.  This isn't just my business this is my passion.