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Never ending boot saga continues

marzNC

Angel Diva
At Roundtop, you have to sign up as a novice, beginner, intermediate, or advanced lesson. I'm not sure what I should say. I definitely don't want to hold a group back if I can't keep up, so I'm leaning toward intermediate.
Have you noticed that @AltaEgo is an instructor at Roundtop? She hasn't posted that much lately. Perhaps try to check with her.

The advantage of an "advanced" group lesson is that it should be taught by a L3 instructor, or a L2 with comparable experience. In theory, L2 certification is only good for teaching beginners or intermediates.

There is always a "slowest" skier in any group lesson. Had a couple in my Taos Ski Week last week. One was an older woman with perfect form on groomers but fear issues in black bumps, even when they weren't that steep. The other was a middle-aged woman who had never had a lesson who learned as an adult from hard charging friends so had plenty of experience on steep terrain but terrible form and stance. Instructor kept telling her to "stand UP." I was in the middle in terms of ability (and age, average age around 60). I opted to avoid skiing behind the no-lesson skier because it would distract me. But otherwise it was fine that there was a spread in the ability within the group of six. Not going to complain when paying $300 for six 2-hour lessons. Happened to luck out and had one of the most senior instructors at TSV, with over 30 years experience after passing the Full Cert exams (equivalent to L3 exams).

Do you know about the 1-day Women's Clinics at Elk? Happen once a month, usually on a Saturday. Not particularly easy to find out the dates and details without calling the Elk Ski School as I remember. I was in the advanced group with a L3 instructor and three other women when I checked it out on the way north for something else. None of the other women wanted to even try the bump run. Learned a few good drills that day.

Elk has a strong ski school partially because one of the trainers does a lot of PSIA-E instructor clinics in general. Watched him teach my Mnut instructor with a group of other L3 instructors for a couple days (prep for DCL) several years ago. Absolutely fascinating to observe L3 instructors struggle with a drill on baby bumps that the trainer made look sooo easy. He was not holding back on comments as they tried their best. No one else was on the slope besides them and me, so he was yelling pretty loud. Only one out of the seven students came close.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
and I learned to take most of it in my knees because my boots will toss me (or I'll slide more in my boots). I've been thinking of having my boots softened so I can have more versatility, so maybe at this point a lower flex would be better. Super stiff has been nice, and it helps me drive my kenjas for sure, but I want to have more versatility so I can improve in other areas.
The sliding in the boots is because they are too big. It's not related to the flex. I tried the same thing, and it's the reason I bought the Chakras. The last was the exact same as the Kryzmas and I bought a size smaller. Length was fine, but the volume was still no bueno. When I skied them on their softest setting, the ankles actually bowed out on the sides. That made the problem worse not better.


FWIW, I haven't had a lesson in years. Every year, I've been waiting to get my boots sorted out first. I didn't want to take a lesson in boots that I had to fight to control. Seemed like a waste to take a higher level (beyond intermediate) lesson where I need precision when I can't trust my boots.

I know EXACTLY what you mean. I hated years of not trusting my equipment. My brain still won't accept that I can trust my new boots. I actually skied a bump run the other day and linked turns the whole way down. However, it took three tries before my brain would accept the fact that I didn't have to stop every fifth turn and readjust my foot in the boot!
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
One of the (former) instructors where I ski whom many of you took a lesson from during Diva week when it was here skis with his buckles loose...all day. He says," you ski with your FEET." Oh, and he was a PSIA examiner. I bow to the ski Gods here, as I could NEVER do that BUT I will say that having similar fit issues as you ladies (that are much better now for me) if I focus on my FEET and how they move the ski, a lot of fit issues kind of disappear or at the very least are minimalized.

I also think one thing that some people don't understand (men:fear:) is that a lot of we women are thinkers and feelers, so to shut the brain off and ski like a "dumb jock" (as I was told to do recently) is really hard.

I think what I'm trying to get at here is @SquidWeaselYay, don't sell yourself short on the lesson. You truly do want to get as high level an instructor as you can because they will hopefully be able to dial into some minute things that are going on that may not be related to the boots at all, but will help you balance in them better at least for the time being. The instructors I know (and I know a lot) all LOVE a lesson like you, the skier who usually skis advanced terrain but is struggling at the moment.
 

SquidWeaselYay

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I wish I was good enough that loose boots didn't matter. That would pretty much solve all the problems. Hm.... Maybe I should invest in lessons in place of chasing a good boot fit. Lol.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
I wish I was good enough that loose boots didn't matter. That would pretty much solve all the problems. Hm.... Maybe I should invest in lessons in place of chasing a good boot fit. Lol.
They are not skiing with loose boots; they are skiing with loosened buckles. I am able to do that now the my foot does not slide around inside the boot. If the boot is well fit, the foot doesn't slide around.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I wish I was good enough that loose boots didn't matter. That would pretty much solve all the problems. Hm.... Maybe I should invest in lessons in place of chasing a good boot fit. Lol.
During one of the first lessons with Walter that ended up a solo lesson, he told me a story about doing a 2-day PSIA clinic at Hunter with the top buckles undone when he was prepping for L3. Meaning skiing bump runs. That experience showed him that he had work to do before taking the ski portion of the exams.

When I was skiing with my daughter and her friends when she was an beginner/intermediate, I would sometimes forget to tighten up my boots after lunch. After starting lessons with Walter, I wouldn't worry about it that much. Especially since there are only short groomed trails in the southeast. Figured it was good practice for fundamentals.

In recent years I've loosen buckles a few times on purpose before skiing a slightly steeper trail when skiing solo. Have done a few medium bump runs. Definitely interesting to repeat the same terrain with the buckles on the usual setting afterwards.
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
They are not skiing with loose boots; they are skiing with loosened buckles. I am able to do that now the my foot does not slide around inside the boot. If the boot is well fit, the foot doesn't slide around.

Yup. This. Since I got my new boots, the bottom buckle (3 buckle boot) is basically doing nothing. It gets latched just tight enough so it doesn't come unfastened and flap about while I'm skiing.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
....The advantage of an "advanced" group lesson is that it should be taught by a L3 instructor, or a L2 with comparable experience. In theory, L2 certification is only good for teaching beginners or intermediates....

I know why you say this. It's a great way for a person seeking worthwhile instruction to avoid getting a less-than-optimal lesson. I took so many less-than-optimals before deciding to become a ski instructor, and I did that because the job comes with good training for instructors that is free. So trust me, I do understand, and it's great advice.

But every time you say it, @marzNC, I flinch. I'm a LII, and probably will remain such because of my age (68) and late entry into the world of ski instruction. Just sayin'.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Since I got my new boots, the bottom buckle (3 buckle boot) is basically doing nothing. It gets latched just tight enough so it doesn't come unfastened and flap about while I'm skiing.

People in the know say this. I've read it for years. I used to think that this advice was odd because I had to buckle my bottom buckles to tighten the boot over my foot. I wondered what was going on with all these people who talked about the buckles doing nothing over the foot. Is this the case with anybody reading here?

Once I finally, FINALLY, got into boots whose "volume" matched my foot, this advice suddenly made sense. I no longer need to tighten those bottom buckles (I'm in a four buckle boot). I even leave them unbuckled most of the time now, and hold them in place with bootgloves.

If you are reading here and you know you simply must tighten those bottom buckles because otherwise your boots will be loose, then those boots probably have too much volume for your feet. You may need a "low-volume" boot. Next time you buy boots, definitely make sure your bootfitter measures your foot for volume. Then ask if the shop carries boots listed as LV and ask to try those on. Also make sure the bootfitter does a shell-fit.

People with LV feet who are not in LV boots are giving up a lot of control over their skis. That's not because of the air-filled space over the toes, but because of the air-filled space over the ankle area and just in front of the lower leg as it rises from the foot. This air space is hard to fill if the shell isn't a LV shell which is shaped to do that. When there's air there, the ankle and heel move.
 
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Olesya Chornoguz

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
To change topics - during my Taos ski week I was told I may have been in too soft of a boot because of my stance in ski boots. My boots had over a 100 days on them at that point so I getting to the point it was just about time for new boots. I went to Dieter at Alpina last night for bootfitting and it turns out that the flex may not be as much of an issue, but perhaps that I needed boots with a taller cuff, I also wanted more upright boots that were a bit stiffer than my current Nordica GPX 95. Dieter put me in men's Dalbello Krypton 120 boots that have heat moldable intuition liners. They fit very well in the shop, have very nice progressive flex, we shall see how they feel when I ski tomorrow!
 

VickiK

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I guess I posted above before I realized how many more pages there were on the thread.
Maybe I need to go to another doctor...i have only been going to this guy because he is close to my work.
Yes, I hope you can find one who isn't as dismissive and close-minded as that guy seems to be.

As for boot issues, hang in there.
 

SquidWeaselYay

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well, I'm back from Alpina. Let me just say first and foremost that Dieter was a really down to earth guy. None of the arrogant doucheyness I've come to expect from boot fitters. But he also didn't BS me either, which I appreciated.

So first he looked at the shell fit on my x max boots - too much space in there behind my heel, especially for having downsized. He had me try on a Dalbello Chakra 95 in a 22.5....toes scrunched. So to do an "experiment" he heated up the intuitions and stuck me in them with toe caps. Ow. But then afterward he had me try them again to see if my toes were flat, and they were. Couldn't get my heel all the way seated into the heel pocket though. He said that the Chakra isn't the boot for me (bc my heel to instep ratio measures at about 21), but that he thinks he can get me into a 22 boot.

Next up, technica mach 1 LV 95 in a 22. Shell fit left me with about 4mm of space behind my heel. He had me try them with the liners. Again, just like last time I tried this boot, the top of the liner bit into my shin while flexing. Also my toes were squished, but less so than in the Chakra.

Ultimately he concluded that a boot doc liner is going to be the only way to fix the instep problem, and that putting me in the smallest possible shell (with potential shell work to accommodate my toes) is the best fix for my last and LV-ness. His wife and one of the other fitters were pretty surprised at the level of LV of my feet lol.

The problem: He wants to put me in a model of boot docs that have a foamable tongue, which he does not stock. He also is not sure if they make a liner in a 22.5. He called one of the boot doc guys in Vermont while I was there to ask him to look into it. If they do carry it, he is going to order it and put me in the Mach 1 LV 22. If not, the plan is to put me in a 23 shell and foam the boot doc liners extra. He is going to give me a call on Monday or Tuesday to let me know once he gets an answer about the liner sizing. I may be looking at having to get another custom insole made (argh) if the instaprints are too high volume or big for the downsizing. I showed him the old superfeet custom insoles and he threw them straight into the garbage "where they belong" lol. (They were torn up from having the hotronics removed and worthless, just had them still in my boot bag and showed him what I had before the instaprints.)

I'm a little nervous about downsizing this much, I don't want to lose toenails again. But Dieter seems to know what he is doing and he teaches workshops for boot doc, so I'm going to go with his judgment.

He also said that my x max 110s were too stiff for my height and weight, even if I had been a true expert (I'm not). He said that he wouldn't put me in anything over 95, and that the boot doc liners will stiffen the boots a bit, so I may even need the 95 softened.

So no new boots today, but we have a game plan that does NOT involve shims and tongue padding. Or a race plug.
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Glad it went well. I didn't even know he carried Boot Doc liners so great!
 

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