Conformable Foam Liners - experiencing too much forward lean

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Conformable Foam Liners - experiencing too much forward lean

Postby sunrise » Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:20 am

Hi,
I've just returned from a few days on the slopes to test out my new skis and Conformable foam liners.
As per my previous thread, I got the liners put in my Head FR9.5 boots. Up till then were nice and neutral in stance.

If you scroll down the page on this link to pics of fitting the foam liners at

http://www.sidas.com/index.adml?id=3051 ... =614&l=183

you'll see someone standing upright on a stand with their boots pointed up at an angle while the foam is molding. This is how I was fitted. I didn't think about it at the time, but from my own experience of feeling like I was skiing in high heels (well, low high heels), and looking at the photo, surely this invites too much forward lean in other people, not just me?

Although I didn't fully realise it at the time, once I hit the slopes it was obvious that my once neutral boots had changed. On the slopes I found that there is now way too much forward lean. I also had an issue with my large (lower female) calves too, and between all that and new skis I wasn't able to figure out what was going on for a few days. My calves were being gripped like a vice every time I flexed them, so on day 3 I wound up going to a boot place on the slopes and the guy pointed out that the liner was too high for me, and suggested cutting the top off. This may well have killed the full effectiveness of the liner but at the time I said go ahead and cut it because I simply couldn't ski in them the way they were. I missed some of the extra stiffness, but I could feel the difference with how my feet were now firmly planted on the footbeds, whereas before they weren't solidly touching them because of my calves being too big for the top of the liners.

No heel lifts in there (as per discussions on a previous thread), but I felt like my heels were lifted, so for an experiment I asked the guy to put a little padding underneath my toes/ball of foot to raise this area a little. I did a run and I suddenly had a LOT more control of the front of my feet again, even though this solution can only be temporary. Unfortunately it was too tight so they had to shave some of the padding off. The back of the heel was a little loose so they put a bit of padding there too. It was far from ideal, but a lot better than the original setup. But once they shaved the padding under the front of the foot, even though more room, I felt like I was back on high heels again (well, not quite as high, but definitely not correctly balanced). This is even without skis on. That was the end of the day so I left it and skied the way it was for the final half day and will go to the boot shop now that I'm back home sometime in the next few days.

At the worst I may have to put the stock liners back in, though I'll need to put more padding in if so, as there was too much room in them before. It's possible the boot was a little large, but up till now I've equated it to having a narrower (female) heel and lower (female) top of foot as being part of the problem in a man's liner.
I had fitted the boot last year according to advice in Harold's book and also on bootfitters.com - the boot may err on the side of a little larger than smaller - 3 fingers at the back with foot inside shell - (though my smaller fingers, not a big guys' fingers), and it didn't originally feel too wide (narrow if anything at the time), but of course I'm no expert so I could still have erred.

Anyway, I'm not expecting anyone to provide solutions here - I doubt I'll get a proper solution until the time I can afford to travel over to a real alignment centre on your side of the Pacific. But if anyone has any opinions to offer about the way these liners are fitted (as per the pic from the link) I'd be interested to hear what you have to say.

In the meantime I'll just do my best to get a solid neutral fit to tide me thru till I can get properly fitted and aligned by people who really know what they're doing.

Happy skiing!
Julianne
sunrise
 
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2004 7:44 am
Location: Japan

Postby *SCSA » Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:57 am

Hi Julianne,

HH and company are all at the National Convention, so that's why you haven't heard from them on this. I'd also try calling them.

Diana has told me that the Comformable runs hot and cold. It either works great the first time, or the silicon collapses and it's a nightmare. I would call the shop and ask for Diana. She has a lot of experience with the Comformable.

later,
*SCSA
 

Postby sunrise » Wed Jan 05, 2005 10:05 pm

Hi SCSA,

Thanks for the tip. The liners definitely didn't collapse :lol: I'll check for feedback when I call about the skis.

cheers
Julianne
sunrise
 
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2004 7:44 am
Location: Japan


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