Animal Boot fitment, is it adjustable?

[svxwilson]

Hello,

 

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In no way am I slamming these bindings or HO by describing MY fitment issue with them. I happen to own all HO gear (6 slalom skis and 2 sets of pairs) and all my bindings for all those skis are HO. Just looking for advice from those that are more familiar with these bindings. All my bindings have been lace ups before this point.

 

I just upgraded to a Syndicate Hardshell and a Animal rear from a 2017 vMax double boot setup. The animal rear is (12-13) one size larger (per HOs recommendations) than my harshell front (10-11). The new Syndicate hardshell is awesome and very comfortable and feels great.

 

The Animal has a hard plastic piece that holds the front toe section together. There is the rubber in between my foot and the plastic but I can feel the plastic piece pressing into my foot through the rubber. To describe the location on my foot its the joint just behind my small toe (widest portion of my foot) in my toe area.

 

The boot was rather tight to begin with for my foot before I skied. I did remove the toe strap after my first set and that created some room and was less painful standing on the doc in the binding but when I turn on my offside (LFF) and cross the offside wake I experience tremendous pressure and pain in that area.

 

I noticed all the screw locations on the bottom of the binding. Are those for adjusting the binding such as widening the toe box? I also considered completely disassembling them and grinding some extra plastic off that piece that is causing the pain.

 

Or should I just move to a different rear binding?

 

Thanks for your help and thoughts, Cheers!

 

 

 

[reedhntr]

I have been dealing with the same issue all year. I am currently running an old rear approach that I had apart and took a dremel to in an effort to smooth out that plastic part. I even tried it with a screw out, etc. Even after using a dremel and reducing a large portion plastic, it still is not very comfortable. Same with the Animal rear which is a similar base setup. I have tried xmax (liner tore pretty early in season) and skymax which was too stiff.

 

I have a wiley high wrap that I tried and struggling to get it comfortable. So far the most comfortable is the old approach I have been just making work.

 

HO has announced they are coming back out with a venom rear, I guess I will try that and hope it provides a comfortable rear boot platform. I hope it is actually comfortable and works.

[svxwilson]

Just following up on this, I don't think the animal is the right boot for me. It did provide great performance, but the fit didn't agree with my foot.

 

HOs customer service team as always helped me out and went above and beyond discussing the problem and coming to a solution. That's why all my gear is HO.