gavski

The answer is 2... Why? Because it is a grossly misunderstood and under appreciated subject. From top race coaches, manufacturers, elite skiers, & instructors etc etc. There is a reason that AM was so dominant...apart from his talent, he understood this stuff better than anyone..his setups were always different, why? Because he worked out how important it was.. Just read about how different his rtp was....

Look at this photo of the Italian demo ski team...the best Italian ski instructors....how many of them have good boot alignment? https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pmts.org%2Fpmtsforum%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ff%3D9%26t%3D4578&psig=AOvVaw27rcmc1jmo0UrpckaRWVVc&ust=1607635317055000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPj48LDqwe0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

@Anderson: yes and yes... Because my boot is the first supershell, the cuff rivets are just that...rivets that allow the cuff to move fwd & aft..I think version 3 started to incorporate lateral cuff adjustment.. So, after successful snow seasons using diy cuff adjustments with foam pads - read this: http://www.skibootalignment.com/page9.html I took the plunge and got my boots properly aligned by Harald Harb - https://harbskisystems.com/ Armed with this knowledge, and after trashing my ankle in an animal boot I decided to go plastic. I originally canted my whole binding over with an under binding wedge. This worked great, but I needed to drastically raise my rear boot to get my feet at the same height... After much help from Adam C, I am where i am now...I managed to drill out the cuff rivets and create a cam to laterally cant the cuff over... but, like in all ski boots, that adjustment is generally not enough. So I use a small foam pad taped to the inside of the cuff on the ‘Inside’ of my leg...before I cut the cuff down and the bottom out of my liner, that foam wedge was Velcro’d to my liner - so it was always in position. Something like this: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdodgeskiboots.com%2Fwant-to-get-spoiled%2F&psig=AOvVaw2MDzYU-qU5OXxhaNRbwZy4&ust=1607633643260000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjj0ZLkwe0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAU I have successfully added a wedge to several slalom skiers at all levels both plastic & hybrid boot. The lower down you cut your cuff, the smaller the wedge that you need. The further over you can laterally move the cuff, the smaller the wedge.. You are trying to get your lower leg to be central in the cuff. With the wedge, you take up the ‘extra’ space because your leg is over to one side..this then means that when your boot is tightened up, your boot then stays flat - neutral...without it, the cuff will conform to your leg, which will then apply unequal pressure to the cuff when the boot is flat...in most cases, this will be the onside edge of the cuff...the resultant effect is a unbalanced on & offside turns...super strong onside, and weak offside....yes, you will get used to it, but you will be making adaptive and unnatural & un-instinctive movements, that will be hard to consistently reproduce... The wedge can be any old piece of rubber/ neoprene. You will need more than you think..once you hit the money shot, it’s magic and obvious..keep testing, go larger to see what happens when you use too much..it will feel funky, prob just like you’re first sets on the plastic boot.. Side note...when you get it right, you will also start to notice that none of your previous aches and pains that plagued your ski season are there... Ski longer, harder & with more balance.

My foot is flat..there maybe 1mm height difference from heel to toe. I have a custom footbed to hold my foot in a neutral position. Without it, my arch would collapse under pressure of the boot and weight and my lower leg would then drop inwards as I flex my ankle. Consequently, my center of knee mass would then track inwards during flexion. If your base (foot) isn’t supported properly, then every time you load and flex, your misalignment gets magnified as it travels up the body causing you to make pretty big compensatory movements. My foot needs support - I know that because I have had it measured and had major work done to my ski boots to get me in alignment - both boots are different..Most people will need Footbeds and most will need alignment. The difference between good and bad alignment to your skiing is night & day.. Note: not all footbeds are equal...the one I have is a SIDAS/ comformable type, which still allows my foot to move naturally...cork type foot beds, which are rigid make things worse as they block your foot completely...you might as well be wearing a cast...As long as the arch support has some give, and it holds your foot in neutral, then you might be able to get away with an off the shelf footbed - like Radar & superfeet..you can even customise those with a little silicone and help form YouTube.. Flatten your boot, cut down the cuff, cut out the bottom of your liner, get a Naboso insole and use a neoprene wedge to balance your cuff...go rip up the slalom course... Other things you can consider: 1. add a 1inch cut out between the boot buckles on both sides of the boot to allow the boot to move with your foot. 2. Lock the cuff in position - there is an optimal angle, which has been discussed before somewhere on this forum. 3. Add a small piece of neoprene to the liner in the area of your toes. This will add downward pressure onto your toes, which massively helps your fore/ aft balance. Note: when you flatten out the boot, you will need to wrap duct tape, or something similar, around the toe bar to fill the gap. Once I respray my boot and cut some holes in the cuff, I will post some photos..

@bko. I am not sure about the function of the circular holes on adams boot. The cut between the first and second buckle has 2 purposes: 1. To allow the boot to ‘give’ and move a little - allowing a bit more natural movement of the foot. I think these boots are way to rigid and actually block/ restrict your foot & lower leg natural movement. How Joel Howley skis with his set up is beyond me..but he could probably ski just as well with a flip flop. 2. When you flatten the sole of the boot, it allows the top part of the boot to move as the shape of the sole changes. supershells need a lot of heat and the 2 cuts helps the boots change shape.. As for the Naboso insole. I would go for the ‘Performance‘ insole..tbh, they all look similar. I have conformed mine to my custom footbed...that custom footbed was also modified - ideally it needs to be cut down to 3/4 size so that the ball of your foot and toes are touching the bottom of the boot. Done correctly, you shouldn’t be able to feel where the footbed ends. https://us.v-cdn.net/5017617/uploads/editor/2c/tlltfb8lmv8k.jpeg I then peeled off the red cover and then glued the full length naboso insole on top...this is then stuck inside my boot to stop it fall out when the boot is turned upside down. Patience and a lot of trimming is the key to getting the footbed and liner fitting perfectly..

@Anderson - those hex spaces are standard.. initially, I just packed them up with a couple of layers of gorilla tape..you WILL need some form of grip tape covering the whole footbed area that you stand on..despite your foot being held tight, the amount of shear force your transmit down into your foot is incredible and your foot will slide forwards...Waterproof pool/ shower type - heavy duty. The gold standard though is to get a Naboso insole and hold it in place with some very thin double sided tape from 3M. The Naboso insole will give you grip and balance like you wouldn’t believe... The cutting out the bottom of the liner will take a while to get right..you actually need to trim more than you think to get it & your foot comfortable.. Once the liner in placed into the boot and correctly seated, I use washing up liquid on my toes, ball of foot and heal to help slide my foot in as it is a snug fit..

That is the one downside of the hardshell set up...I think most of us have had horrendous releases..maybe one of these days I will switch back to a rubber/ vapor boot.. I love head products - they make the best ski equipment..sadly not in head boots as they are too narrow. Even head boots need work to get them aligned..Harald Harb is the master. This is just using his principles and Adam C’s tweaking to create the best hardshell setup possible..

@adamhcaldwell, Sorry, my mistake..I couldn’t remember what material you used...but the point was that you used something strong to lock the cuff to the lower boot.. @Deanoski: I would bet that most skiers are using hardshells because of an ankle wrecking fall - in my case ...Undoubtedly the best setup is a rubber/ vapor front and rtp... Rubber boots remove all the issues with lower leg & cuff angles...very few people have lower legs that sit perfectly central in a hardshell cuff..it’s the same in snow skiing. This is a huge subject and it can be the difference between podium and scraping a top 10 place...marginal gains, but many a dominant World Cup Skier one season has bombed the following season and all that has changed is the boot setup....

This will give a simple explanation about the cuff and lower leg. Cutting the cuff down goes a long way to reducing this problem. However adding a foam wedge between the liner and cuff on the ‘inside’ (big toe side) of the cuff will help to make the cuff neutral and not biased to your onside.. Read here for more info: http://www.skibootalignment.com/page9.html I managed to pursuade an ex pro friend of mine into trying this set up, as he has never skied to the same level since making the switch to a hard shell after a bad ankle injury. He couldn’t believe the difference...he said that it felt like his old Wiley binding..he could feel the ski and felt like he could move again. Having dropped to 34 mph a while back. He is back up to 36 and blasting through 39’ off with ease. My boot: currently going through a winter respray. I insert the liner into my boot first...then slide my foot into the binding. I am standing directly onto the footbed, which is custom and I have added a Naboso insole. This season, I have skied out of my skin and the only change to my setup is the addition of the Naboso insole... The bottom of my liner looks funky, but it is cut to match my footbed..

Be care with that setup before you ski...you haven’t finished job..if you look at Adam Caldwell’s boot, he has 2 strips of aluminium at the rear of his boot that lock the cuff to the boot...this serves 2 purposes: 1. He has the cuff locked in at the optimal angle. 2. The locked cuff has a robust release mechanism - just like when the webbing strap pulls tight in an otf fall - thereby transmitting your force to release the binding. All you have is a small bolt that will 100% break/ bend just from normal skiing, let alone a fall..your Achilles will then take all the force of a fall.. Under adams guidance, I modified my boot..lots of r&d, learnt a lot..ultimately came up with an almost identical design..I used 2 steel plates that I carefully bent into shape to lock the cuff in place...1 simply wasn’t enough. The amount of force you generate just from normal skiing kept bending the plate... I kept the webbing strap - although it is not used.. You also have more important steps to make... 1. you have to flatten the sole of the boot. 2. You have to cut the bottom off your liner. 3. You have to make adjustments to the cuff to get your lower leg in the center of the cuff when the buckle is done up.. 4. Consider swapping out the top buckle for a wake/snowboard ratchet style - it will conform to the shape of your leg better than your current buckle.. I can honestly say that this binding modification has made the biggest improvement to my skiing... Happy to send photos of my set up.

https://facebook.com/david.akers.94/videos/10225173067897915/

Short answer...your boot will need a minor tweak to compensate for your lower leg angle where it enters the boot..nobody has straight lower legs and the your boot will be exerting an imbalanced force toward the outside of the boot. This will be noticed by a strong onside and a weak offside turn...if you stand in your boot without the liner, you will see the problem..The outside of your lower leg will be closer to the cuff of the boot than the inside of your leg. Here is a photo highlighting the problem: Good news...there is an easy fix. All you need is foam/ neoprene to create a wedge and some duct tape and/or Velcro... Read here for more info: http://www.skibootalignment.com/page9.html

Having built multiple floating courses, the easiest way is to get the whole course to float at the same height. There is a minimum depth - 1.5m. There is also a minimum buoy height that should be above the water line - slightly different depending on what the buoy is used for - gate, turn, boat lane...measure this height, draw a line on the buoy and then measure from that line down 1.5 m to the pipe... If you are using pvc pipes, you will have to fix a small weight to the pipe underneath where the turn buoy is fixed..it is also recommended that you install the half course buoys - these won’t need a weight..this will ensure that the pipe stays level in the water...Like a counter balance. Also, the buoys are meant to be different diameters - adjusted by inflation..make sure you measure this accurately.. Once the course is floating level, and the buoys are all set to roughly the right diameter & height above the waterline - it all magically sits in the water perfectly.. The key is to get ALL buoy fixings at exactly the same height from the pipe to the waterline.. Final point, make sure that there is a good amount of tension on the course...

https://www.xtreme-gene.com/

Don’t forget that he tricks RFF & slaloms LFF..

Skied with great skier and respected coach and judge a few weeks back, and he talked about putting a 196 prop on a 200...he said you would be a pass up, but for some reason it wasn’t allowed/ sanctioned? Not sure why or by whom, but he said defo give it a go, you will be amazed...

Ok, so I tried a little testing the last couple of days. I have a heavily customised & cutdown reflex supershell front Binding mounted on an aluminium plate, and a similarly customized radar rs-1 boot at the rear. Firstly, I removed my custom footbed from my front boot, which is about 5mm thick. The thickness of the supershell base is about 5mm. I then added a 1.5mm thin cutting/ chopping board material under my rear rs-1 boot - not under the plate. The rear pivot plate has a foam backing which raises the plate up higher than the front plate by about 1mm.. The boots now looked fairly level.. I could tell the difference immediately..my rear leg had so much more influence - too much. I gave it 3 passes as my front foot started to ache without the footbed... Footbed installed, again, I could feel the difference immediately..this time, it felt much more balanced. Less influence from the Rear foot, but I felt more centered over the ski... it is still early season, but I am already skiing much better than expected for this time of the year..

bump....anyone still trying this out?

More like 35’off...back in the day, I drove Matt Southam skiing at 36@32’ off, he double handed/ flicked me the middle finger with his inside hand on every buoy... Joel tricks RFF, and slaloms LFF.. I think he can run 38’off with either foot fwd....

https://tacticmethod.com/the-game-changers-scientific-review-and-references/ Makes interesting reading...

Check out “The Game Changers” on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/81157840?s=i&trkid=0

PM’d...

Plenty of info here: https://finwhispering.com/easy-fin-dft-measurement/

Try watching alpine slalom events...the quickest in round 1 have to ski last down the course that is rutted to hell in round 2 - true they have a time advantage, but the course is trashed by the time they get to it.. this is sport - you can’t always have perfect conditions all the time..these guys can ski in anything - they relish the challenge...world records don’t have to be set at the world champs....

ZO settings and boat driving are 100% linked. If your driver is not 100% concentrating, then he/ she can make the pull feel completely different to what you expect/ want. Worst of all, it will be different buoy to buoy and pass to pass.. Sadly, the more we rely on technology to aid us has only made us more disconnected from the skiers rhythm. We ski together and there is a lot going on with your skiing - not happy with your ski, set up etc and inconsistent boat driving is not gonna help. By all means change the ZO settings, but that is just adding to the layers of sticking plasters..we need to strip it all back to basics and rebuild. Edited to be less of a tool.