questions about liners and footbeds

[theorist]

1) I'm currently using a lace-up racer liner from a Rossi Z-series plug boot in my Dalbello Scorpion SR130's, which means I do a race entry and exit. Might this reduce the life of my footbeds?

2) My boot fitter, who is considered the best at my mountain, will no longer sell Intuition liners because he sold several to the local ski patrollers and, while they liked the light weight and warmth, had to come back to the shop every two weeks to have them reheated because the foam was losing its fit. Thus he now only does foam and ZipFit. Yet I know Intuition is popular among PMTS skiers, who require a sustained precise fit. Can anyone reconcile these two contrary findings?

[jbotti]

HSS really only uses one Intuition liner, The Pro Tongue. I own them and use them in my Raptor 150 boots. It's a solid liner and I have not had any of the issues your bootfitter has mentioned. Same is true for Diana who loves hers. I think that is because it is a very different liner than the standard Intuition lineup most of which (at least IMO) aren't very good.

I don't think going in racer style will reduce the life of your footbeds by much. Certainly the more they bend the more wear and tear occurs on them.

[h.harb]

John is completely correct and i feel sorry for your mountain's "best boot fitter". (I couldn't resist, I hear this all the time, "My boot fitter is the best in my area", funny, so why do you have to come all the way to Colorado to get your boots???)

We have very little issues with the Pro "race tongue" liners. I even put a NCAA GS Champion in them and he loves the fit and control. Most ski patrollers have huge boots, too wide, because they want comfort. You aren't going to fill all the fitting holes in those shells with any liner after a certain period of time. We fit boot shells to the skier's feet, so gaps in fit aren't a problem for our customers with the intuition liners we use.. Sometimes a wrinkle or a slight twist can happen in heating and fitting process, but that is easily resolved.

[theorist]

Thanks guys.