J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by SwingBeep

Great news Scapula!

Sounds like your fore /aft balance is much improved. Ideally the spoiler should be made out of hardish plastic. If I were you I would take the boots to Hubert Sports (they seem to have a reasonable boot fitting setup), show them what you've done so far and see if you can scrounge a couple, lots people don't need them and many boot fitters advocate their removal.

Hi Scapula, hope change over day went off alright.

A spoiler is a rounded tapered wedge that is placed between the boot shell and liner, it is normally attached to the liner with Velcro so that you can move it up or down to take up any slack. Your boot didn't come with one because it's designed for people with big calves. There's a photo of one here: http://www.stylefeeder.com/i/95hxwxdy/Scarpa-Ski-Boot-Spoiler

Hope you have a good days skiing tomorrow. Let us know if there is any improvement or not.

Nice work Scapula!

The boot looks like a Head Edge+ 8.5, which is a very wide (104mm last) high volume boot often fitted to skiers with wide feet and large calves, so as well as it being too long it's also probably too wide and as your calves don't seem very large, there may also be too much room in the cuff.

As well as the fit issues there are also some performance issues. As the boot is so long, your foot will be positioned too far back so your shin will not be in proper contact with the tongue. This means you won't be able to flex the boot properly and as the boot is better suited to a person with large calves, your centre of mass might be to the rear of where it should be. You might be able to improve things by fitting a spoiler between the shell and the back of the liner.

A boot that is too long will also place you somewhat further back on the ski than you would be if the boot was the correct size.

This document issued by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention gives details of the prevalence of back injuries incurred whilst skiing
http://www.bfu.ch/English/Statistikverwaltung%20PDFs/2010/E_USP_T_06.pdf

Mrs SwingBeep was diagnosed with osteopenia last year. She has no intention of giving up skiing or any other sporting activity and was not advised to by her doctor. She was also prescribed Calcium and Vitamin D tablets but didn't take them because they may increase the risk of a heart attack.

Brilliant idea! If there are any pressure points just cut holes in the socks.

Washing ski boot liners won't make them fit better. It can be done, but it's not recommended. As Bandit said you have probably outgrown them and they are very soft. In all probability they will also be too big – take the liner out, slide your bare foot in the shell until your toes just touch the end of the boot if there is more than 20mm between your heel and the back of the shell they are much too big and it would be much better to get a new pair.

However as you are strapped for cash there are a few things you could try, such as replacing the stock foot bed with a thicker aftermarket one. http://www.superfeet.com/ make them in various thicknesses. Place something between the boot board and the liner to reduce the volume (take the boot board out and draw round it), boot fitters use something called Bontex (dense cardboard will also do) start off with something about 3mm thick. Alternatively you could buy a packet of 'volume reducer' http://www.mbctechnical.com/products.html If your heels are lifting you could stick some foam pads onto the liner http://www.stopheellift.com/

When you can afford to buy new boots make sure you go to a good boot fitter and not to a boot shifter!

The Val D'Anniviers and Lauchernalp in the Lötschental seem to have the most snow at the moment ~40cm at 1600m. Although conditions in most of the other local resorts are still quite good, in spite of the recent rise in temperatures. I skied in Saas Grund on Saturday and Zermatt on Sunday and on the whole the snow was good.

Tomorrow is forecast to be cloudy and a bit colder than of late, with snow in the evening and on Thursday, Friday should be fine. You can watch the clouds roll in here: http://meteo.search.ch/grimentz Its in English but sometimes you have to select the language manually in the drop down menu on the extreme right.