J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Trencher

An alternative to goggles and sunglass are work safety glasses. These can now be found with stylish frames with various tints. As outdoor safety equipment, they have to be 100% uv rated, shatter proof, and designed for impact safety. A lot of racers wear them. The greatest advantage is the price. Check your local tool shop or builders merchant.

http://www.haxton.co.uk/cgi-bin/haxtonsafety.storefront

trencher

Ebay is the best place to look. There are a lot of boots that have hardly been used for the reasons I mentioned above. Thermo fitting liners can be molded several times. As I said, this is not the route to take if you don't like messing around with gear. It is a great way to learn about boots, esp. if you have a dry/indoor slope to try them out. once you know what you want, ebay has a lot of new boots from previous seasons.

I had a meniscus tear cut out a few years ago. I was snowboarding six days after the op, but don't think I could have skied the rest of that season. Snowboarding is very easy on the knees because your legs support each other in a very solid triangle with the board. The most helpful thing for me in recovering, was inline skating. While a lot of sports are good for your quads and therefor good for your knees, inline skating's lateral movements and balance requirements are perfect physio and also low impact.

Good luck with the knees

trencher

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I wanted to ask. Do people see many Skwals around europe now ?. I just wondered how rare they are.
I managed to pick up an older model last season. It's a lot of fun.

Trencher

Great that you are so commited. So I will let you into a secret. Chances are the first boots you buy will not satisfy you through next season, because you won't know what you really want in a boot - performance or fit wise. So definitely do not go out and spend 400 pounds or even 200 pounds on a boot you may not like after a couple of weeks of skiing.

If you M.bike, you understand sports gear and how hard it is to get right. Imagine if your M.bike had to fit you like a ski boot - perfectly and then you you had to decide soft tail/hard tail, wheels, tyres, etc after your first week MBing. Chances are you won't get it right first time and it is ridiculas to spend so much money on skiing in the next few years, in boots you consider yourself stuck with because you paid a lot for them.

Do some research, especially on sizing, buy some lightly used boots, be prepared to trade them in a few times. When you really know what you want, go out spend some serious money on boots, fitting, etc.

I should add, it depends on how much you like to muck around with gear. I like to mess around and try as many things as possible, others don't.

Trencher

Silly thing to overlook, but on most ski boots, the toothed part of the buckle is movable on the cuff. It normally comes in the larger calves position, but may be moved for a tighter fit on smaller legs. Make sure the rental shop moves these for you.

Trencher

I can't address your problem directly. I'm sure there are other who can.
A couple of ideas did occur to me though.

Have you ever tried inline skating (or ice skating)? The progression for making turns is very similar. I suspect your problem is getting your inside leg out from under you and skating would be a way do do this without wasting valuable ski time. Ask for more info if you are going to try this approach.

The other, more personal question to ask is, do you have problems with other task that require physical movement symmetry ?. It's one of those left/right brain things and would be useful to rule out. A lot of people have differences between thier left and right turns on skis. A lifetime of asymmetric movement takes some time to overcome.

Trencher

A possible solution might be eliminator tongues (see below). You could take these with you to use in your rented boots. If you were really desperate, you could also take some closed cell foam sheets to cut up. Not great, but better than your calves slapping around in the boot cuffs.

http://www.bootfitters.com/eliminator.htm

trencher

Most factory waxings on new skis should give you a week or so skiing with out problem. What Pavelski is alluding to, is that this is a wax and base structure for average conditions. If it's warm, your skis will feel a little slugish. If it's very cold they will feel a little slower and the harder snow crystals will wear more on the ski's base.

Racers and perfectionist will change base structure according to the time of the season. A water shedding structure for early and late season. A water capturing structure for the coldest period. [Structure is that patern you can faintly see on the ski's base]

If you know how to wax (see Pavelskis' class on the subject) you can improve the performance for a given temperature of snow.

Most mortels (like me) are fine with the factory finish or an all temperature wax job. When it's below -30, I think about going home not changing my wax.

trencher