Finally got my boots fitted professionally (better late than never)

[ColdRain&Snow]

I went for the full monty from gmol, custom footbed, balancing, he recommended much high flex than I would have selected on my own, it worked out great for me and then got the better half to go to him too.

I’m trying to find a few places in boston for a friend and started a thread in the gear forum before the site crapped out. Looks like boston ski and tennis works like bill at gmol, and a place called skimd seems similar too. Probably gonna recommend she see one of them.

 

[Edd]

Cannot remember if I posted about this, the search function is not working. Last year, I tried these because one of my feet wasn’t carving as well as the other. I’d often skid out on left turns.

https://patriotfootbeds.com/products/liner-sleeve

And it worked for a few days. But they come in pairs, so I used them on both boots even though my turns to the right were good. The liner crushed my good foot to the point where my foot started hurting after the boots came off. Still do 8 months later. I got rid of both liner sleeves. I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis which I can only speculate was going to eventually happen anyway but the liner sleeve hastened the condition.

This still left me with a sloppy left turn problem so I went to Richelson’s Feet First in Bow, NH a couple of weeks ago. They replaced my Superfeet footbeds with different ones, but not custom. Very curious to see the results.

 

[abc]

I’m trying to find a few places in boston for a friend and started a thread in the gear forum before the site crapped out. Looks like boston ski and tennis works like bill at gmol, and a place called skimd seems similar too. Probably gonna recommend she see one of them.

There’re boot fitters. Then, there’re boot fitters.

Any boot fitter is better than no fitter. But some boot fitters are better than the average.

I had my first foot bed something like 20 years ago. Yes, the result were night and day. Or so I thought. Well, it was a huge improvement from before. But it wasn’t until I met another fitter while skiing in Colorado that I got yet another tweak in my boot that really changed my skiing for the better!

Between my first and second foot bed, it’s definitely a “you don’t know what you don’t know” situation. I thought I had a well fitted boot. And my foot bed were the best thing since sliced bread. But truth was, I had some bio mechanical issue that weren’t addressed. It took a boot fitter who’s a podiatrist to got to the bottom of the issue.

That said, I was skiing ”fine” for many years before the issue was identified and addressed. I rolled my eyes when people say “skis should feel like a natural extension of the body”. Yes, for year, one ski felt like an extension, but the other one felt like a prosthesis. It took an expert boot fitter to fix that.

How did I find that great fitter? I just got lucky.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

You're getting in 70 HARD ski days a year still? A couple hundred $$ on footbeds and intuitions would make a big difference (unless you are getting $1,000 mrsp ski boots).

I wish! 40-50 days. Usually long days and generally pushing it in terms of terrain as much as I can.

Would consider a more custom set up for the next boot, or to maybe extend the shelf life of my current shells. Nordica pro machine 120s with the sidas footbeds

 

[meff]

I went for the full monty from gmol, custom footbed, balancing, he recommended much high flex than I would have selected on my own, it worked out great for me and then got the better half to go to him too.

I’m trying to find a few places in boston for a friend and started a thread in the gear forum before the site crapped out. Looks like boston ski and tennis works like bill at gmol, and a place called skimd seems similar too. Probably gonna recommend she see one of them.

IMO taking the time to see Bill is worth it.

 

[drjeff]

I went for the full monty from gmol, custom footbed, balancing, he recommended much high flex than I would have selected on my own, it worked out great for me and then got the better half to go to him too.

I’m trying to find a few places in boston for a friend and started a thread in the gear forum before the site crapped out. Looks like boston ski and tennis works like bill at gmol, and a place called skimd seems similar too. Probably gonna recommend she see one of them.

Ski MD is very good for boot fitting, and arguably the best high end stone grinding/tuning services in the Northeast (but often times of the year you need to pre book your tuning needs weeks to months in advance with the volume of race tunes they do)

 

[deadheadskier]

Ski MD is very good for boot fitting, and arguably the best high end stone grinding/tuning services in the Northeast (but often times of the year you need to pre book your tuning needs weeks to months in advance with the volume of race tunes they do)

You made me look. I'm in Boston all the time for work and thought maybe I'll take my beer league skis there. I'm competitive and like my skis performing well, but not for $165 a tune. Damn!

skimd.com

Intelligent Ski & Ski Racing Service Specialty Retail Service Boot Fitting Service Binding Service

skimd.com

 

[drjeff]

You made me look. I'm in Boston all the time for work and thought maybe I'll take my beer league skis there. I'm competitive and like my skis performing well, but not for $165 a tune. Damn!

skimd.com

Intelligent Ski & Ski Racing Service Specialty Retail Service Boot Fitting Service Binding Service

skimd.com

I tried to get my college racer daughters sl + gs in there at the beginning of October, and they told me that due to their pre booked volume of skis from various college programs and ski academies that they couldn't guarantee that they'd have them done before early January!

They suggested that if I wanted them race ground, and waxed for next season that I drop them off by late May/early June after this coming season and they'd definitely be done with them before the season begins!

 

[BenedictGomez]

This is why I'm considering Zipfits. Apparently they're good for about 500 days. I guess at $500 a pop they better be.

From what I see, many of the serious skiers who seem in the know do use them. The thing I'm unsure of is if it'll be a PITA because you put them on first and then put your foot in the shell. I was told you get used to it, but I boot up in the parking lot, step out of a winter duck boot and right into the boot, repeat process. With Zipfits I'd have to sit in the SUV or on the back gate and just be more careful. I guess it's not a big deal, but definitely different. The shop I went to recommended I come in next year for them when the stock liners are kicked.

 

[BenedictGomez]

$165 a tune.

What the freak? I'm never heard of such a thing. I'll spend $165 on a tune when I enter my first FIS gates, but I feel like a I do decent enough job of all that myself.

The one lavish expense I would recommend in that category is an actual ski wax iron as opposed to just a cheap WMT iron.

 

[deadheadskier]

What the freak? I'm never heard of such a thing. I'll spend $165 on a tune when I enter my first FIS gates, but I feel like a I do decent enough job of all that myself.

The one lavish expense I would recommend in that category is an actual ski wax iron as opposed to just a cheap WMT iron.

I actually bought most all of my own stuff this year and will start doing my family's as well. I attended a free clinic last Sunday by a Toko rep and ordered a bunch of stuff that should be arriving in the mail soon.

That said, I did just drop my racing skis off to have the base bevels reset from 1 to .5 degrees so they'll hook up a little quicker. The local shop price for their World Cup tune is still pretty spendy at $75, but that also doesn't include the base grind to get the base structure most racers want. They don't have the machine for it. That's more of a nice to have service vs need to have at my level. So a lot of that $165 at skimd is probably to pay for some fancy machines most places don't have and also their reputation.

 

[snoseek]

Even with the very best ski boots with the best stock liners I was told 80 days tops and those suckers are kicked assuming you're an expert skier (which is like 95% of posters here), and probably more like 60 days. This was the most surprising thing to me. And like the boiled frog, or someone whose vision deteriorates very slowly, there's a good chance you're not even perceiving the decrease in performance.

80 days? Is that from someone motivated to sell boots? This.seems so low I rebuilt my last boots and got hundreds of days out of them but Maybe I've been doing this whole gear thing wrong for years. I just can't see buying new boots every year and a half.

 

[abc]

80 days? Is that from someone motivated to sell boots? This.seems so low I rebuilt my last boots and got hundreds of days out of them but Maybe I've been doing this whole gear thing wrong for years. I just can't see buying new boots every year and a half.

It’s not the “boot”. It’s just the liner.

Some of the people I know who ski tons of days buy an extra liner because they know they “used up” the liner while the shell is still perfectly fine.

 

[drjeff]

I actually bought most all of my own stuff this year and will start doing my family's as well. I attended a free clinic last Sunday by a Toko rep and ordered a bunch of stuff that should be arriving in the mail soon.

That said, I did just drop my racing skis off to have the base bevels reset from 1 to .5 degrees so they'll hook up a little quicker. The local shop price for their World Cup tune is still pretty spendy at $75, but that also doesn't include the base grind to get the base structure most racers want. They don't have the machine for it. That's more of a nice to have service vs need to have at my level. So a lot of that $165 at skimd is probably to pay for some fancy machines most places don't have and also their reputation.

The machine and the various world cup winning base grind patterns that Ski MD can produce is something very few shops can do. And if one is looking for a couple of hundredths potentially at the highest level, it's worth it.

Most mere mortals wouldn't notice the difference between their grinds and grinds from a shop that has a decent operator and working knowledge of their machine. The one Ski MD has is BIG! Like close to 20ft long big! Not the typical stone grinding machines you see in shops that have them, and an investment that cost them over 100k to buy.

I was ready to use them for grinds on both of my daughters race skis, which are 4 or 5 seasons old and perfect for college club level racing, as with the mileage she had on them (and a few decent edge burs from post race adventures into the trees with her teammates ) while I am quite skilled at a tuning bench with my equipment, I knew these needed a "factory reset" or else I'd be looking at 2 new pairs of race skis for her.. Even though Ski MD couldn't fit me in, I found a shop in CT, Suburban Ski and Sports, that has a quality reputation from some of my ski racing families I know, and for slightly less $$ ($150 a pair) the race grind and base finish they did look very good when I just picked them up yesterday

 

[Yo VT Raps]

That's great! I have been lucky enough to have some boots fitted by great bootfitters, but also do fine without them now.

 

[ss20]

80 days? Is that from someone motivated to sell boots? This.seems so low I rebuilt my last boots and got hundreds of days out of them but Maybe I've been doing this whole gear thing wrong for years. I just can't see buying new boots every year and a half.

80 days on a stock liner. That is definitely a lot and there would be degradation of the padding=more free space in your boot.

I skied with lifting heels way too long lol

 

[BenedictGomez]

80 days? Is that from someone motivated to sell boots?

Not the boots, the liners. And 80 days was the outside figure and likely less. This place definitely isnt BS'ing to sell gear, they're supposedly one of the best places in North America, and perhaps the globe. They have Olympians from Europe as clients for boots, which seems insane (IMHO), but likely speaks for itself. But to your point, regarding the boots I was told for boots there is massive variability in how long they could/should last, including how well you take care of them and store them, how aggressive a skier you are, etc.....,but that 500 days is generally reasonable.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

500 days for a shell sounds right-ish to me. my prior pair of boots lasted like 6-7 seasons at 40-50 days per before it was obviously time for new.

 

[kingslug]

80 days? Is that from someone motivated to sell boots? This.seems so low I rebuilt my last boots and got hundreds of days out of them but Maybe I've been doing this whole gear thing wrong for years. I just can't see buying new boots every year and a half.

Yeah..that would have me buying new boots every 4 months...no way.
200 hundred days minimum. I do replace the soles every year though...they get trashed.

 

[JimG.]

My old boots were shot. Old footbed still good. Booted up and buckled down snug but not tight.

What a difference new boots make. And I won't wait more than 2-3 years before getting new liners. I never touched my buckles in 4 hours of skiing and the performance improvement was very noticeable.