Blowing out ski boots

I have had my Salomon X-Waves for about 5 seasons with no problems. They have custom foot beds and when purchased them the liners were customized too.

This year I faced horrendous pain in them. So much so that I had to finish at 2.30pm one day and head off to the local intersport to get them looked at. The chap there spent a very long time looking at my boots asking how I buckle them up and all that good stuff.

I am suffering from pain in my left foot. The pain starts where the toes join the foot (underneath) and then continues to the front of my toes. IT is like someone is standing on them. When I take the pressure off my foot and what feels like the blood flows back I get in horrendous pain.

The chap inserted a small heel lift and said that if that did not work the shell at the toe end may need blowing.

I went away the next day (xmas day) and skied half a day. Pain had not gone. The only way to reduce the pain was to wear normal everyday socks. My usual ski socks are thin, but no where near as thin as my 'work socks'.

I dont want to have to continue wearing my work socks skiing as they are a bit short!

Is blowing the toe area the solution here or is there anything else?

Does anyone know of people in the North of England that may be able to help out?

Hi Icy

I have the same problem, as I have Shrek like feet.

When I bought my boots ( Salomon CS )the guy in the shop realised that I had wide feet so we spent hours blowing out the shell to accomodate my "shrekies"

The problem that I have is that when I do my boots up first thing in the morning withinn the first two hours I get the same pain as you so I then have to start loosening the boots off. When we stop for the first coffee/ beer around 11 ish I have to undo the boots, loosen them off and rest them for a bit, once on again I am OK for an hour or so and then have to loosen again.

In the afternoon I never have an issue???

I put it down to two things.... the swelling of the feet and not really knowing how to do the boots up correctly.

Currently I just live with it, any advice will be greatly received.

If it helps the shop was Two Seasons in peterborough and I think the guy's name was Pete but not entirely sure.

TP

Iceman wrote:I have had my Salomon X-Waves for about 5 seasons with no problems. They have custom foot beds and when purchased them the liners were customized too.

This year I faced horrendous pain in them. So much so that I had to finish at 2.30pm one day and head off to the local intersport to get them looked at. The chap there spent a very long time looking at my boots asking how I buckle them up and all that good stuff.

I am suffering from pain in my left foot. The pain starts where the toes join the foot (underneath) and then continues to the front of my toes. IT is like someone is standing on them. When I take the pressure off my foot and what feels like the blood flows back I get in horrendous pain.

The chap inserted a small heel lift and said that if that did not work the shell at the toe end may need blowing.

I went away the next day (xmas day) and skied half a day. Pain had not gone. The only way to reduce the pain was to wear normal everyday socks. My usual ski socks are thin, but no where near as thin as my 'work socks'.

I dont want to have to continue wearing my work socks skiing as they are a bit short!

Is blowing the toe area the solution here or is there anything else?

Does anyone know of people in the North of England that may be able to help out?

I'm lost as to why you've had them for 5 years and not had problems before.
Have you changed your tekkers this season? Or are your boots finally showing up for being the wrong size? Was it anything to do with you skiing in powder when you normally ski hard pistes?

A few guesses...

Your custom footbeds have got warm somehow, and distorted.

Your custom footbeds have moved within the liner.

Your feet are swelling for some reason.

Tony - 5 years equates to about 12 weeks on different conditions, so I don't think 2 days skiing will show something that the previous 12 weeks has not.

Trencher - I use boot dryers to dry them out at night. Could this cause the problem~?

Iceman wrote:

Trencher - I use boot dryers to dry them out at night. Could this cause the problem~?

There good boot dryers, and there are bad ones. I use a boot dryer, but it has almost no heat; just a gently flow of air.

I have known people who have ruined their footbeds with boot dryers.

Take the foot beds out and just stand on them- do they feel right?

Icy, Profeet told me not to put my boots on heated boot racks, because they said it damages the special insoles.

I don't know if this is the reason for the pain in your feet, but it's something you shouldn't do.

could be the footbed has distorted with heat or that your calf muscle has tightened up over the past year, very common for this to happen and if the calf is tight you will load the ball of the foot especially the outer edge and get a really annoying pain just like you describe, you may need a bigger heel lift, or the boot stretching.... north of england, have a chat with Graham at Rivington alpine in chorley