We had a nice visit today from Canadian junior racer Chris Steinke and his dad Tom. 
Chris needed a heel punch and we did a little tweaking on his set-up. Chris first skied on the DODGE carbon fiber boot earlier this year as part of the beta program we offered to early adopters and has since traded in his `09-`10 boots for the new `10-`11 boot. (Sorry, the beta program is no longer offered … you snooze you lose.)
Chris and Tom had a nice day for the drive from Ottawa and we certainly enjoyed our time with them.
Dave & I had the unusual pleasure of not having to build boots today. This is the first day in weeks we haven’t had production going, so it was rather quiet. That doesn’t mean we weren’t busy. We both needed to finish setting up our own boots before we start the trip West on Monday. The ankle punches I did on my boots are super comfortable, so I’m ready there. I did increase the forward lean a little as I felt too upright in a static position. This will help me pressure the front of the boot better, especially with the stiffer WC flex. Other than that, I left the cuff alignment neutral. I can play with positioning of the tongue to find an optimal leg position, then, if I want, change the cuff bushings accordingly. I do plan on doing a lot of exploring on the effect of the tongue position, especially in different types of terrain and turns. (Essentially, I can move my knee position 3-4″ laterally just by how I position the inner boot tongue. It should prove interesting.)
I packed up the Audi allroad with boots and gear this afternoon and feel pretty good that everything fit. We’ll put Dave’s ski box on top tomorrow, and then load in our personal stuff, though we don’t have a heckuva lot of room for that. Eh, who needs clothes anyway? The good part is we can actually see out all the windows!
Tomorrow I’ll do some catch up stuff (bills, laundry, etc.) watch the final F1 race and then spend some time with Bonnie before abandoning her for awhile. Oh yeah, and I’ll keep fretting about what it is I’m forgetting!
More later.
Bill