New skis and old boots

Dave Mac wrote:
Something may be different this time from previous trips. Different snow or slopes, you have made a step change in speed/ability, you have developed a back/knee problem that is changing pronation.

That's a good observation. I really noticed that as I demanded more from my skis I could feel the deficiencies in my boot fit. The same thing happened with snowboard hard boots.

I think if you only have one pair of boots, there might have to be compromises. A comfortable boot for messing around with the family at kid's speeds or all day teaching is not going to give the response you want for high speed carving or racing.

Great story Dave Mac


Trencher

Dave Mac wrote:Your boots were good in previous four week usage, they should be good now.

I think bandit had it right really, 4 weeks is just about breaking in for a pair of boots, the expectation the liners would compress ought to have been on the fitters mind.

As to whether a pair of boots that's too big is better or worse than a pair with a couple of foot-beds in is hard to guess, both are going to bad. The extra foot-beds might be more comfortable but the performance will be awful. Best check the fit as suggested above, i.e. the shell test.

As an indication of real packing, I've some Salomon Xwaves, the liners have packed on these after around 120 days use and even now it's not at a point that they don't fit, I don't need to tighten the buckles more or add more foot-beds. The boots I'm using this season have 50 or 60 days (I guess) and there's no question of them packing, they're just bedded in nicely now and should be perfect over the coming spring skiing.

Dave Mac wrote:...What I need is a pair of inner soles, says I, not the namby pamby supermarket stuff, but real inner soles, made from authentic Austrian carpet...

Can't find any of this, even on the Austrian ebay site.

Dave Mac wrote:I often wondered after the end of the season, at what stage did the Haus Frau spot the carpet tile under the bed, with a left and right size 10 foot shape missing.......

Dave, that's brilliant... have you considered marketing Austrian carpet tiles for this purpose?

Beg to differ Ise, I guess we all base on our personal experience. My boots felt like carpet slippers when I bought them, and they still feel very relaxed. I did spend 3 hours in the ski shop, before paying.

Haven't counted the number of days usage, but it is somewhere between 300 and 400 days.

They are rear entry, so I am usually half way up the T bar, before my ski buddies have finished latching their boots up.

I weigh 14st, so cannot be too kind on the liners.

Maybe I just don't ski quickly enough, but then I did break the Niederau day run record in 2001, with 32 runs. (He said modestly)

Hamish, you need to look in an Austrian carpet shop... (or under the bed) I digress here, but in Worgl, there used to be a shop that sold feathers!

Dave Mac wrote:Beg to differ Ise, I guess we all base on our personal experience. My boots felt like carpet slippers when I bought them, and they still feel very relaxed. I did spend 3 hours in the ski shop, before paying.

There's something exceptional about your experience in that case, obviously I can't know what it is remotely but it's a fact that liners do pack over time. Is there something special about yours? Are they foamed? Thermo-formed? Of a particular vintage that precludes the modern materials most boots have been made from in the last 10 years or so?

Dave Mac wrote:They are rear entry

oh, well, that answers my question, they're very old and don't represent the boots anyone would have bought for 10 -15 years.

Jeez, I didnt expect it to get quite so technical.

In response to Dave Macs post, yes - I have mad significant step changes the past couple of times I have ski'd. I have also ski'd on new skis this past week, partly why I have progressed so well. I have ski'd harder, and at times faster, but I have improved no end over the past couple of weeks on the slopes.

My boots fitted like a sock when I got them, and have done the weeks I have ski'd in them, until last week, and even then there was no pain, but an observation that I was doing them up tighter than usual, and sometimes onto the furthest adjustment, leaving nowhere to go. Like I said, no pain or discomfort, but they felt looser.

It was particularly hot as well, with temps well into double figures most days.

Maybe the temps and more aggressive skiing have something to do with this?

Ise, I obviously could not say if my case is exceptional. Had a chat with a couple of ski buddies on the issue today, and they both concurred with me that they would not expect to have any pain problems with boots. I don't accept that this is luck. My wife also bought boots on the same day as me, and she too has never had problems, in terms of pain/breaking in.

Maybe...this is something to do with the boot design. You correctly identified that we bought our boots 15 years ago, from the fact that they were rear entry.

I have never accepted the guff that ski gear companies put out without a great deal of scepticism. I am an engineer, I know how things work. Rear entry makes significantly more sense to me than any multi-clip design.....providing that you have set the boot up right. They are easy to get into. One rear cam clip pushes the foot forward into a held position.

In the Gondola, release the same clip, ensuring good blood flow, and at the top, tighten one clip.

Do you remember Pavel writing about skiing his first run of the day with loose clip? So why do we need to clamp the blood vessels?

You use the term "footbeds". I have not heard this before. Most sportsmen/persons bottom arch changes shape over time. So if you have a gap under your arch, and buckles clamping the foot down, it isn't difficult to see where pain may emerge.

My boots are standard Raichle, not foamed.

Tony, I would still consider having the boots set up for you. Something maybe has changed, but I re-iterate my point that if they worked before, it ought not to take too much change to make them right now, particularly since the issue is too roomy, and not too tight.