After all, if you ski in race boots and have racing bindings on your full bore conventional sidecut race ski, you must be a hot skier. Your teenager may very well be a really hot skier and have skills commensurate with super stiff boots and skis. Maybe your kid is not a racer but is otherwise quite good and needs a high performance ski. However, a 130 pound intermediate who is on stiff skis and in stiff boots is not neccessarily going to get a benefit from this kind of equipment - there is a real risk that neither skis nor boots will flex enough to allow him to stay in balance. For the younger or smaller teenager, think seriously about getting equipment appropriate for their size and skills.
Boots are another story.
Stay away from the race boots unless you are quite sure that your child is good enough, big enough and strong enough to be able to use the boot rather than have the boot use him. Even though it may feel ridiculous carrying skis or a wool hat in August, remember that you'll be skiing before you know it. Otto Matheke is a PSIA certified Level II instructor at Ski Liberty, where he has been teaching since 1993. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, Otto also works as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Transportation. A skier for almost his entire life, he can be recognized at Liberty as the big balding guy trying to catch up with either or both of his teenaged sons - who in turn can be recognized by sheer velocity and hair exhibiting coloration normally not found in nature.