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foot-beds, canting, alignment and all that good stuff


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I am a big advocate of footbeds...I love them...

 

last season I got a new pair of conformables...they cured alot of boot-specific pain I had, but seemed to completely whack my knees out of alignment...I kept trying to tell the boot guy that the footbed should fix my whole skiing posture, not make parts worse and parts better...he wasn't convinced...am I off target??

 

I need so much canting adjustment that it is beyond the range of the built-in-canting-adjuster-thing-a-ma-bob on my boot...so he said I need to drop another 16000yen to insert an angled plate under my boot...

 

I didn't buy it, and used a 5yen-dama and some duct-tape on my bindings for a temporary fix, but never could get it right...the end result was a bit more stress on my knee (compared to my last foot-bed, which was custom from bottom up...), and I imagine some edging problems, as the natural position forced my knees in....

 

any opions here??? What should I do for this season????

 

danz

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yah...I have Head World Cup (this is my second season on them)...

but EVERY boot guy I've talked to says the head injection sucks...its the boot itself that rocks..

so I never did it...

 

danz

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The injection may work.

 

You might wanna take the foot beds out or re-do them when you inject too just in case it is a combination problem.

 

I am a big skeptic of injection as you can only do it once and so last year when I bought I made sure I got the oven bake jobs that can be re-done if it don't feel good.

 

I dunno about injection but with heat liners if you don't do it they feel really uncomfortable and tight as a mother! Moulded and all and they are like socks!

 

BTW, I don't know much about this.

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IF you get orthpedic beds they will hurt for 2 days and I mean hurt but then your problems will be solved. But these are only done by professionals, Doctors.

 

Or ask to get your foot beds posted. This means getting the bottoms filled in with crok or something and the foot bed sits flat in the position you want.

 

Last go to a small local race shop they know what they are doing a lot more than the big places. they should be able to fix the problem.

 

PS "skis and Bikes" canada look up their email and ask them this question they can tell you the answer. Great pro boot fitters with loads of exp.

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I am the first to admit that I have bad lower leg foot alignment problems, so... I have done a lot of research on this subject as technology has developed....

 

Firstly, Footbeds are designed to correct static stance problems - How flat your feet are on the ground, How aligned your ankles are, How your foot is supported in the arch and so forth... A good footbed - doctor made or pro ski shop done - should correct all of these things but it is not designed to correct dynamic alignment problems... It can help by putting your foot in the right place to start with as half of dynamic alignment problems are a result of poor static alignment... But a footbed cannot make up for badly aligned knees, leg length differences, align prob related to tramatic injury (I fit into this one)....

 

With today's carving skis the whole footbed / alignment issue is of much more importance.. with old non-carving skis, you could get footbeds to make your static stance flat and you were cooking even if you had a dynamic problem... but now if you are knock kneed or bow legged then you can have your skis flat on the snow with beds but as soon as you flex you put the skis on opposite edges - a big problem with carving skis....

 

Dynamically you could be knock kneed

flexin.gif

.

or bowlegged

flexwide.gif

 

With me for example I stand flat without flexing but as soon as I flex or squat my knees come in together ( putting both my skis on their inside edge )... Footbeds did not correct this because it is a dynamic problem...

 

Most people will think that the "canting" adjustments on most boots will help but they don't in 75% of the cases.. this "cant" alignment in most boots is only a static "boot cuff alignment" only and it doesn't correct the alignment angles as you flex the boot...

 

This year I have bought boots to correct this ( and this is not an endorsement )... The new Technica boots with the twin cant system doesn't change the angle of the cuff but instead changes the pivot points of the cuff....

 

so for me... ( knees aligned at full stance and knock kneed at flex ) my boots are set up to travel from a centered position to the outside ( bow legged ) position at flex.... so now my footbeds give me good support and static alignment and my boots pull my knees outward slightly at flex so that my knees are aligned over my big toes at rest and also at full flex...

 

flexmid.JPG

 

here are a few good links to explain a little better than this:

 

Alignment

Alignment overveiw

 

Tecnica Dual Cant

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I have orthotics that I wear with just about everything.

If you have any foot problems when wearing normal shoes I'd suggest getting some orthotics to start with. Note also that problems with your ankles, knees, hips and lower back can pften be traced back to badly aligned feet.

 

Once you are comfortable with your orthotics, take them with you to a good boot-fitter so they can see what the podiatrist has worked out for you. Take all the info that you can get from the podiatrist about what problems you have. It will make the boot fitters job so much easier.

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Do they have specialists at anything in Japan? I mean it's all very well to talk about 'your bootfitter', but it's probably just a really thick kid with spots who will say the polite formulas, but really doesn't know anything and cares even less...

 

I went to my local Alpen today and looked at the gloves. Just before the season starts, they have no mitts at all, and all the gloves are pretty miserable looking short things. Biggest boots are still 28 this year. There me a murder at Alpen soon...

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Higuma - great reply. And with the emphasis on "There's no perfect solution to all and sundry's feet/alignment problems". But I did visit Surefoot in Sydney last year on a ski down under and it was the best thing I have done ever re. my feet. They were knowledgable, thoughtful and explained well the go on the "status" of my feet. They clearly knew their field and in fact advised me NOT to buy the new Lange boots I was told here would be the beez kneez for me, as champion boots they may well be, they wouldn't configure with my oddities. Cutting it short, they aligned my feet/legs/knees in a semblance of correctness and computer modelled my sole(soul),weight bias/transference etc. etc. Check out all the teknikal info on their site. Result - 1 1/2 hours later I slipped into my boots with their newly bespoke laser cut footbeds and tears welled. Of joy. And 2 days later on the powdery inclines of Hotham (was just good timing) I dipped me toe(s) and carved. \:D If you've got poor eyesight, do you borrow your mates glasses to drive a car? No- you go to a pro to get fixed up. Do it. But alas O-11, in Japan who knows where? If any of you do spread the word. \:\)

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cheers higuma!

 

Thanks for that...actually, my problem is still static, which is why I think he did not make my footbeds properly...when I stand in a normal position you can slip a sheet or 2 of paper under my boots from the outside...

but will have to futz around a bit more...

 

thanks,

danz

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With regard to my footbeds... I got new Comformable top of the line ones made - retail around 13,000 yen or so... I was lucky because with all the equipment that I purchased they threw in the footbeds and a few other things for free....

 

With Comformable - if the guy doing the fitting is a "Sidas Certified Pro Fitter" then Sidas Guarantee the Fit is right or will redo / replace them....

 

I would gladly recommend the fellow who fit mine as I feel he did a good job and seemed to take his time to make things just right... but alas he is in Sapporo...

 

Cheers..

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

Cant

 

I ride on the outside edge of my right ski. The problem is a bow in my lower leg. The boots fit fine, best I've had, so I'll not interfere with them. Didn't want to make my skis handed, but I'm going to experiment with duct tape to get the wedge I want, then make one up in solid.

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Snowboarders are well 'ard, so they've already gone down there.

 

And moguls are, frankly, silly - so many snowboarders avoid them. And have fun instead.

 

;\)

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