Sports Basement Walnut Creek

Staff was incredibly helpful checking out skis/boots and poles and also upon return. A snowboarder took me out and literally broke my pole in half. Upon return the cute nice employee laughed and said it had happened to him as well and took my 1 1/2 poles back at no extra charge. Thank you!
5 7 years ago (07-03-2018)

Easy reservation process, pick-up and drop-off! Gear was in good condition and worked perfectly. Will use again!
5 7 years ago (27-02-2018)

Great gear at an excellent price... much less expensive than resort prices! I got brand new skis, poles and custom fit boots and they worked great! I highly recommend "The Basement"
5 7 years ago (23-12-2017)

You guys are very careful and sharp. I strongly recommend.
5 7 years ago (18-03-2018)

I've had great experiences with all the other aspects of Sports Basement - Walnut Creek, but this is my second negative (out of two) experience with the ski rental shop. The first one involved some demo ski's I rented (I later bought the same ski, but from a different shop due to my experience here) where they left a thick coat of wax on the skis when they gave them to me, and it wasn't till I couldn't get them to slide well that I took a look and needed to scrape them myself mountainside. I mentioned this when dropping the ski's back off and was told "That's how we do it". Insanity. This put me off enough I didn't visit their ski shop for a couple years. My most recent rental was some boots for my son. He has ski's but had outgrown his boots and I wanted him to try these out for size before buying some this season. I took him in a week early (as suggested when I called) to get the the right size and get them fitted to the skis ahead of time so I could "skip the fitting line". When I showed up, they had one person doing checkouts and two people standing around (presumably to do fittings and returns). The line to check out was 10 people long, but no one was waiting to get fitted and they only got two returns while I was there (Friday night, go figure). It turned out the "check out guy" was also the only one adjusting bindings to boots. I asked both of the two people who were standing around if I could just pick up the boots, since I needed no "fitting", they were on hold in the back, and pre-paid, but was told "No". After 50 minutes of standing in line, my turn came, and as predicted it took 3 minutes for me to sign the waiver for my son and acknowledge my pick up / drop off times, and I was out the door. If you're going to rent demo's, a fresh tune / wax is great, but finish the job and scrape the bases for a smooth surface (one of the key reasons to wax). If you're going to have people get pre-fit, set the equipment aside for them, and have them pre-pay, have a way to let them skip the line if you've got someone who can run a register. Having only ONE person who can do the final five steps, on what should be expected to be a busy day (the Friday following the first decent storm in a month), with two others standing around is poor planning at best. I'm not sure if the ski shop will get a third chance. I really like the people who work at this store (and all the other SB's I've been to), but the rental folks (while "nice") are really leaving me underwhelmed.
2 7 years ago (22-01-2018)