Cold and windy at today’s Ski Bum race. Fast course with some big, across-the-fall line turns.
Disappointed in myself as I skied slower than my handicap. A couple of reasons (excuses?) I think contributed to it.
One is I am just plain scared with my skiis. I discovered the reason they felt like they haven’t been holding in hard turns and ice is I have been on the verge of pre-releasing the bindings. Basically, when really pressured, the heels have been opening enough to let the ski flatten out and I have been this close to having the heels pop off. Scary when you think of having a ski fall off at 35 or more mph. I’m too old for that stuff.
Other thing is defintitely of my own making. As anyone who follows this page knows, I am playing with my boots every time I go out to see what happens. Latest modification was to adjust the cuff alignment a little more. I pushed it to 1.5 degrees out on the left boot (from 1 degree) and 1 degree out on the right boot (from 0 degrees). It felt awesome when I was free-skiing. I mean, I was honking on turns like I couldn’t believe. And it really did feel good.
Until I got in the course. Then I was crap! I couldn’t turn worth a damn and especially couldn’t ride a flat ski. I could never get my knees to move out enough to get the ski to track right. As a consequence Dave said it looked like I was falling the whole time and that I was scared of committing on my skis. I was!
So, tomorrow, Dave & I will closely examine just how the cuff looks in relation to my leg in different positions and stance. I will probably back off the cuff alignment to the 1 degree on the left and maybe 0.5 degrees on the right to see how that works.
The point is, the Dodge Ski Boot is really sensitive to these adjustments. Something we never experienced in a rubber boot. But that is the learning curve.
Busy tomorrow. Trip to St. J to fit Duffy with his boots, then back to Waterbury to spend time with PJ and JP to teach them all about our special boot press and some of the fitting techniques.
Anxious to hear from the boys in Europe. Ski fast guys.
Stay warm.
Bill