Best Alternative to a PMTS Alignment?

[Smackboy1]

Unfortunately I live in NJ so I am nowhere near any PMTS trained professionals. In fact even finding any shop which can plane the soles of my boots is difficult. There is only one I found close to me, in PA (1.5 hours away). I don't go on ski vacations so I will not be in the vicinity of a PMTS professional for the foreseeable future. It could be a few years before I can get before a PMTS pro.

What are my best options in the meantime? The shop in PA seems not that knowledgeable about boot alignment. They were suggesting not using a custom footbed, but instead an A-Line off the shelf footbed. And then they were recommending shimming the foot bed to get the correct canting for my alignment. Of course they had no idea about lateral or rotary boots. Their only saving grace is that they are the only ones with the equipment to plane the sole on ski boots. Although they did mention that the Speedmachines are difficult to shave. What should I do? I'm thinking about having them cant my boots, but how can I tell them how to do it to minimize any screw ups? Thanks for the help.

5'10"
180 lbs
39 y.o. male
Boots: Nordica Speedmachine 14
w/ Instaprint custom footbed (from a previous boot)
Knock kneed
Right Ski: 2.5* shim
Left Ski: 1.5* shim
Level 7-8 skier

[milesb]

The off the shelf ones are likely to be as good as anything you get custom made, but you could get lucky. The ones you get from a PMTS trained tech are designed to support PMTS movements, specifically free foot tipping and stance foot balance. If you can get video of yourself and post it in the PMTS section, sometimes you can get alignment advice from Harald ( hint: be respectful). Also you might want to contact Joseph, he's a PMTS trained bootfitter in the East coast and is highly recommended by many here. I'm not sure where he works out of these days, but he travels around so it might be worth contacting him.

mailto:jrp@neskisystems.com