I went to Concord on Saturday and had a fitting Jeff for my new boots. Jeff is a great guy and I learned a lot from him. He even spotted that I had sprained my ankle 20 years ago.
I found out that my left leg is 1/2 inch shorter than the right and I need a little lifter put in my boot and about 1/2 degree of canting. He initially thought I was looking at 3 degrees, but once he figured out the leg was short that solved most of the problem.
He also worked with a pair of footbeds I got last year for my old boots. Trimed them to fit and we also widened the forefoot (of the boot) a bit.
The part that suprised me the most, and something I hadn't really put much thought into, was my for/aft balance. I've always liked to put a lot of forward lean into my boots. Anytime I could adjust a spoiler or the cuff to push me forward I would. Turns out that was completely wrong. Jeff had me stand in my boots and he took a plum-bob to my shoulder and checked my balance and I'm too far forward. What happens is all that forward lean also forces your hips out in front of you and you start to exaggerate your motions. It also makes it easier for you to get in the back seat and ride your tails (a little counterintutive).
So we started by taking the spoilers off the back. Still forward. He puts some pads in front of the tongue, still forward. We've done all we can to the cuff, so the next thing is to put some shims under the toes of the boot and this does the trick. I'm standing there flexing my boots and it's gotten much easier, before I would twist a little to get the flex going. Who knew you need to get back to stay out of the back seat. I can't wait to go out and try this all on the slopes.
I learned a few things about bindings too. It turns out that a lot of bindings have some rise built into them as much as 4-5 degrees on some of them. For recreational skiing you only want 0-2 degrees and many racers run 0 - (-2) degrees. It remains to be seen how all of this will really effect my skiing, I'm under doctors (boot doctor :-D) orders to get a few days skiing in on the new boots before we finalize all of the changes.
Anyway I definitely recommend you guys get out and visit with Jeff or someone like him and get your balance checked out.
I found out that my left leg is 1/2 inch shorter than the right and I need a little lifter put in my boot and about 1/2 degree of canting. He initially thought I was looking at 3 degrees, but once he figured out the leg was short that solved most of the problem.
He also worked with a pair of footbeds I got last year for my old boots. Trimed them to fit and we also widened the forefoot (of the boot) a bit.
The part that suprised me the most, and something I hadn't really put much thought into, was my for/aft balance. I've always liked to put a lot of forward lean into my boots. Anytime I could adjust a spoiler or the cuff to push me forward I would. Turns out that was completely wrong. Jeff had me stand in my boots and he took a plum-bob to my shoulder and checked my balance and I'm too far forward. What happens is all that forward lean also forces your hips out in front of you and you start to exaggerate your motions. It also makes it easier for you to get in the back seat and ride your tails (a little counterintutive).
So we started by taking the spoilers off the back. Still forward. He puts some pads in front of the tongue, still forward. We've done all we can to the cuff, so the next thing is to put some shims under the toes of the boot and this does the trick. I'm standing there flexing my boots and it's gotten much easier, before I would twist a little to get the flex going. Who knew you need to get back to stay out of the back seat. I can't wait to go out and try this all on the slopes.
I learned a few things about bindings too. It turns out that a lot of bindings have some rise built into them as much as 4-5 degrees on some of them. For recreational skiing you only want 0-2 degrees and many racers run 0 - (-2) degrees. It remains to be seen how all of this will really effect my skiing, I'm under doctors (boot doctor :-D) orders to get a few days skiing in on the new boots before we finalize all of the changes.
Anyway I definitely recommend you guys get out and visit with Jeff or someone like him and get your balance checked out.
