by John Mason » Sun Mar 28, 2004 3:12 pm
Here are two footbed pain stories - both probably not your situation.
1. I had some "balance shims" made for me at the race camp I went to this summer by "racer's edge". The tech had put one in folded over. Needless to say, I couldn't even get the boot on.
2. Another fellow at the camp had footbeds made, and he somehow put them backwards in his boots. Not sure how he did that, but everytime he had a beer everyone would hear the story again.
Pain isn't normal, I'd go back to the persons that made them. Are they HH's? If they are not HH's and they are of the rigid type, then pain is normal. HH had a young racer in his shop that was being fit when I was there recently. This lad had gotten the rigid type a couple of months before and they hurt his feet so much he tossed them after a couple of days. I had the rigid type before myself and experienced the same thing. I also had really soft cork ones to.
Harold's are not that soft and not rigid either. They are extrememly comfortable and have a tad of give allowing in boot presuring of the little toe edge. The fully rigid ones eliminate any ability to modulate your turns inside the boot and force larger muscles further up the leg to do this work.
So, if they are HH's I'm sure they'll work with you to get them right. If they're the rigid type, I'd start over.
I've skied just over one year now and have gotten 3 different footbed systems. HH's were the best for me. If they aren't right they can be the most frustrating things. Once you get the boots and footbeds right you wish they'd never wear out!
Hope you get them fixed up!