Yesterday we were back at it for the weekly Stowe Ski Bum races. Beautiful sky, nice snow and COLD, COLD, COLD wind blowing out of the NorthWest.
Dave had a good run, finishing a season-high 6th, 20 points ahead of his handicap. Lots of racers DNF’d including yours truly. I just never felt right on my skis, and when I couldn’t get my skis out from under me on the knoll and was about to high-side, I determined that discretion (AKA “wimping out”) was the better part of valor, so I skied out of the course.
It got me thinking that maybe I needed to do some sole canting and cuff alignment adjustments so I could better tip my skis. (It’s a well-known fact that one MUST find an equipment problem to explain circumstances such as DNF’s … it’s NEVER the pilot!)
When we got back to the shop, Dave & I started looking at our boots closely, including shell-fits, so we could better see how our position was in the boots. Dave’s are looking pretty good. My knees track so strangely that trying to determine what is good or bad is more of a challenge. Now, it’s important to know that my boots feel fine, I’m just looking to see how small changes affect things.
One big revelation is how my foot fits in the shell and how it contacts the shell walls. With the liner in the boot, the fit is awesome and feels really terrific. Believe it or not, when my foot is in the shell only, my navicular contacts the medial wall of the shell and actually prevents the whole medial side of my foot from having proper contact with the medial wall of the boot.
So, yesterday and today I am doing a major punch on the medial wall of the boot to move it out almost 5 mm and to give my foot lots of space to pronate. ( I must be really cool, `cause this is also what I do on Warner’s boots.)
I’m anxious to ski on this new set up and see how it reacts. I’m feeling pretty positive about it.
The only problem with this is it eliminates one more excuse for my lousy performance. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to improve myself!
Ski fast.
Bill