painfull boots

A snowHead

Hi All

Can anyone help me. I brought new boots last year but they are still giving me greif. The feet feel fine and i can wiggle my toes but after a while the toes feel cold and the outside base of my feet and the ball joint begin feel painfull. I have tried superfeet but these make no difference. I spent hours in the shop untill i felt they where right. Has anyone tried custom liners as i am thinking of going to Snow and Rock as they have said they may be able to get my boots right.

A snowHead

mightysaints, Are they Salomon X-waves? Little Angel

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I was told to stay away from Salomons as i have a high instep. I have left the boots at the office as i have been walking around with them. I think they are Technica's riva 9.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

mightysaints, Take out the liner, a little difficult as the sole of the liner gets caught on the spoiler. On the base board, the flat bit in the bottom of the plastic shell there is an arch support, if you twist it through 90 degrees it should come off. Do this on both left and right boots. Put the superfeet back in the liners and put the liners back in the shells try this. If this doesn't help you will need to try a 10mm heel lifter underneath the liner on that base board you removed the arch lifter from, see a bootfitter in resort if this doesn't help. It's a little hard to help by correspondance. Good Luck. Stretch out your achilles whenever possible and advoid wearing those high heels! Little Angel

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mightysaints, Sounds like a job for CEM. A quick drive up the A34 as far as Bicester, not too far from Southampton. Drop him a pm on here.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks for the help. I knew those high heels would catch up with me someday

After all it is free

I have a high instep too and use the salomon verse boots - they are great warm and comfy.

Superfeet are fine for some people, but it sounds like you need a little more help.

Take the Superfeet out of the boot, place it on the floor and stand on it. Does the raised arch section follow the shape of your arch? If there is a gap between the Superfeet and your foot, it's a sure sign that you need some more support.

A custom insole will follow all the contours of your foot, taking the preasure off the ball of the foot. In my book they are highly recommended!

Cold toes could mean that their is too much preasure on the top of your foot. This could be down to how tight you have the boots buckled or a lack of boot height over the instep (which is rare in Tecnicas). If your skiing on harder terrain have the boots buckled a little firmer. When the going gets easy, relax the fit, let some warm blood into the feet. IMHO a new liner will not help that much.

If you do go to Slush & Rubble DON'T go at a weekend. Through a sickie and visit during the week. You will get a much better service and will probably be served by someone who knows what they doing and not just there for the commision ( sorry! being bitchy now).

Jon

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Boot comfort is an age old problem. In my experiance boots invariably they do feel a little uncomfortable, until used in anger. Wearing ski boots at home or in the office doesn't help, you don't get the blood circulating sufficiently, or mussle activity to achive a working 'Skiing' fit. Ski boots are not something that you can wear in your eveyday life, they are designed specifically to allow you to effectively interface and control your skis, likewise you cant ski in slippers or a pair of trainers.

Your solution really is to take the boots (and your feet) along to good shop/fitter and spend time ensuring that they actually fit your feet correctly first.
Lockwoods in Leaminton Spa http://www.lockwoodsoutdoor.co.uk/ are legendary ski boot fitters (although I haven't used them myself). Try the peolple you purchased from originally, almost every ski equipment shop in the uk wants happy customers (possibly due to the amount of money that we spendwith them each year). Snow and Rock/Ellis Brigham also offer a good service (I've used Snow and rock). Yes you will need at the very least a custom foot bed. But for custom boot fitting go during a quiet time, remember you want the service to work.

And above all remember that your boots impact your performance, ability, and enjoyment, get them right.

Bob

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mightysaints, Will second all that has been said,esp Lockwoods.Have a feeling that both CEM and SZK have hung out there in the past?
If anyone can get a good boot fit with minimal work,they are very lucky IMHO.Took me,I think,4 visits(custom soles,stretching here & there etc)Now fit like a glove.No pressure points,never need to touch them all day Very Happy

Well worth the effort.
Wife got her's sorted at Lockwoods in one visit(custom soles and heel padding)At this time of year,you must make an appointment;pref during the week.
Boots are the most important link in the chain.Get them right and the rest is easy wink

snow reports

mightsaints - sounds like you might need some footbeds - which can make a real difference. I'm sure the boot fitters mentioned above will be able to help you out - but take my advice, wait until you next get to a resort and ask around for the best boot fitter in town. Go see them on your first day and have them take a look - whatever they do to ease the pain on day one can be tweaked throughout your holiday as you try them out skiing - you can go back to the shop everyday if necessary. In my experience it is really tough to get a pair of boots fitted properly standing in a shop miles away for any snow!

mightsaints - sounds like you might need some footbeds - which can make a real difference. I'm sure the boot fitters mentioned above will be able to help you out - but take my advice, wait until you next get to a resort and ask around for the best boot fitter in town. Go see them on your first day and have them take a look - whatever they do to ease the pain on day one can be tweaked throughout your holiday as you try them out skiing - you can go back to the shop everyday if necessary. In my experience it is really tough to get a pair of boots fitted properly standing in a shop miles away for any snow!

You know it makes sense.

adamg,

that is all very well if you are going to a resort with a good bootfitter, can you name a few........, there is a destinct lack of good fitters in many resorts, and i am sure this is down to the attitude of the various nations to ski boots. many of the alpine countries do not go for what we would describe as a ski holiday, they go for the odd weekend or coulpe of days here and there, they also do not pay as much attention to their equipment. case in point, i was in Precision ski in Val D a couple of weeks back, there was a french chap buying boots, he did not want to take any advice from the fitter (also brought 5 family members for advice, two of which were wearing 80's one piece suits) tryed on almost every boot in the shop and then insisted on a boot two sizes bigger than was recomended. where ever they are located at home or in resort the original advice holds true find a good fitter

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Guess I was lucky. Bought X-Wave 8s last year in my local EB (Liverpool) spent about 1hr in all and had the liners moulded. 1 visit back to have the right shell blown slightly at the ankle and all was fine. This year treated myself to some custom footbeds before my trip. I do think that thay made a difference to the comfort and wearability of the boots. Boots nice and comfy, feet warm, skiing still variable (but that's down to me)!

A snowHead

CEM, Just because you don't know many fitters based in resorts, doesn't mean there are few. I would say the standard overall is higher, and their expierience of having you there with them for the week puts them on the fast track learning curve. That's from someone whom has done both, i moved here to fine tune my skills, something impossible outside resort. Little Angel

A snowHead

SMALLZOOKEEPER, i am not saying there are no good boot fitters in resorts, they just seem to be harder to find, unless you know the resort or someone there it will always be harder for the average holidaymaker to find the right man. Chamonix probably has higher concentration of fitters than most resorts prehaps down to the clients that you see in town or that the whole resort is trying to keep up with footworks, but if the standard is so good all over the alps why do you and I see so many badly fitted boots, gererally too big. they don't all come out of the UK (not that i am saying that there are not bad fittings taking place over here, there are plenty)

the other problem i have seen in resorts is unless the shop operates a system like you guys do with appointments it tends to be a bit of a bun fight.

may be a personal opinion but i have always said the best thing for any skier is to find a good bootfitter WHEREVER they are Little Angel

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I met a guy in Tignes called Terry in Late March 2004. He had bought a pair of books locally, but couldn't do up the ankle clips. However he did claim tyhat the bootsa were confortable.

Interesting?

No reallly..

I'll get my coat..........................

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Thanks for all your help, went to S&R mid week and did get a good service. Its quite obvious now down to you guys what was wrong. i do have a high arc, could almost get a finger in the gap between my footbed and the foot. got some customer footbeds made and have been wearing them round the house, the usual pains seemed to have gone, foot feels far more supported. thanks for all the advise snowheads.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

if the pain is towards the outside midfoot then it is almost certainly the arc height over the ball - I had this with my Head Ezons - they had a relatively flat sole liner (not heatfit unfortunately Crying or Very sad

) and immediately it was picked up that natural balance was making me stress the outside of my foot to compensate for the "flat feet" encouraged by the non fitted sole - hence pressure along the outside of my boot and aching feet. Replacement sole inserts cured it immediately and highlights the need to have boots properly fitted. I knew that my boot fit was the problem after a few hours skiing, but a novice could be easily put off thinking it just hurts to ski so it pays to have boots fitted properly.

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Interestingly (or not!) I've got custom insoles in my boots, and if I don't do the top two buckles up on the boot properly I get pain over the 5th metarsal head, I think because I'm shifting my feet forwards as I lean back. Doing the buckles up properly seems to have sorted it completely.

Help!!

painfull boots

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