J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by cem

full alignment assessment with sole planing, plating and finishing is £120 for all the external work, internally the SBS work which some people find is enough and others don't is £80-£90 and done by Alpine McCannix

Swingbeep the plates are £25 for replacements and £45 for the first set fitted and the boots routed back to DIN...we only ever put them on solid soled boots and only if the boot is new/or very nearly so that the sole is still flat (or close to it)

normally, about the life of the boots, but it depends on so many factors, insole type is the most noticeable, the superfeet Kork footbeds will last longer than the conformable type just because of the material, applying heat can destroy many types in a few hours if you get too much on there, your feet change over time, but if they have changed sufficiently that the insole doesn't work for you then the boot probably doesn't fit any more either!

other factors include body weight, amount of pronation of the foot materials they are made from, posting material density, fit of the insole to the boot, the boot to your foot etc etc. but for the average recreational skier skiing 1-3 weeks a year 3 years is em err well IMO taking the P

biggest problem is that many shops treat custom insoles as an add on sale, a little extra revenue stream....please believe me, they are not, they are an integral part of the fitting process and the foundation of the fit of your boots

shouldn't be a problem to make them narrower, as Bandit suggested, you may need a new pair if they need to be made wider, the insert is firstly made to your foot shape, then excess material id removed to fit it to the boot liner/shell

i might have a few lying around :D :D

send me a pm with what you need and an address and i will see what i can do

or contact me via the website in the sig link below where i might actually see the message

Very good post Pav

it amazes me every season the number of people who call up asking if we have a spare cant bolt or ankle rivet for their boots, there is (in most cases) a tool/allen key/torx wrench) supplied with the boot for exactly this purpose, well worth checking everything is tight before and after every trip, every time you flex the boot this bolt is flexing with you, it takes a while but it can and does work loose over time

BTW we do have lots of spares for many models if this happens!!

yep, the uk media seems to be fixed on the no snow issuess...but just look a little further afield, you could have goen throught the mont blanc tunnel to courmayeur or pila where the snow is still in great condition...austria has had some pretty good snow too

yes this has been a pretty poor season in terms of snow in SOME areas but the last 2 have been fantastic

alternatively get to the other side of the pond...Tahoe has had some 84" of snow in the past couple of weeks and there was 70+ " a few weeks earlier

Tony,

you are lucky.....

the single biggest problem we see as boot fitters is a lack of available motion at the ankle joint, can be caused by a tight calf muscle can be cause by other problems, but it is the biggest cause of pain, there are things that can be done to minimise this pain, often simple strethes will have a dramatic effect...the problem comes when the customer feels that the stretches are not really exciting to do and doesn't do them..... we know the ski boots work, it is YOUR body that doesn't always work with them

it always intrigues me when people complain about shops and boots on forums..... all very difficult to say what is right or wrong with the boots that the complainant has but there is probably a reason for everything that has been done to them... footbeds don't get glued in, but if the liner is heated on a boot drier they can stick to the base, the foam, or plastic wedge below the ankle is probably to do with some limitation of ankle joint motion so needs to be there. now all this is without seeing the boots or the feet.

often times customers come to people such as myself or profeet because they have tried all the "regular" options without success, sometimes there is unconventional stuff done, but it is normally done for a reason, mostly because the conventional stuff hasn't worked, now sometimes this is due to a salesman not knowing his job, sometimes it is down to biomechanical issues that the skier has, these are issues that no boot fitter can solve...if your ankle does not bend i cannot make it bend for you, i can make the cuff of your boot more upright, or raise your heel to try and reduce the angles inside the boot then fill the gaps under your foot,I can even give you some stretches to do, but if it is fixed it is fixed and sometimes this causes pain, if stretches are required and you don't feel the need to do them, again i am unable to control this..... if there is a problem with a boot i would like to think my customers can come and talk to me without the need for them to shout about their problem on a public forum before i have had the opertunity to put it right.... there are two sides to every boot fit, that of the customer and that of the fitter, fitting ski boots is an ongoing two way process which requires feedback from the customer to the fitter in order to establish what is working and what is not, when that feedback loop is lost then the fitting becomes based on the experience of the fitter alone (probably the most important part) but without the feedback of the client the fitter does not know if the theory is working in practice.

this post is not a defence of anyone good or bad, although it annoys me when shops bad mouth each other especially as both mentioned are reputable shops with great fitters running them (if indeed this is what was said and not just an embelishment) i just feel that sometimes the fitter seems to get the brunt of the abuse, maybe some of this is due, but maybe the skier also needs to take responsibility for their own body and fitness, I for one like to explain why a boot will hurt to my clients if i feel that i am not going to give them pain free skiing, it is all about managing expectaions and giving the consumer the best that is available to them, now for some people this may be a reduction in pain of as little as 50% or maybe as much as 90% and for others it is absolute comfort and performance...there is a balance out there, but our bodies play a lot more of a part in that balance than you can imagine