Everyone’s lower leg has a bit of bow to it and ski boot upper cuffs have to accommodate that slight angle so that a normal stance places the soles of the boot flat on the floor. That should translate into better edge performance, less knee strain and symmetrical edge performance from side to side. In other words, easier skiing. At least that’s the theory but we wanted to know if this kind of uber-tuning makes sense for recreational skiers.
As technical editor I tested the concept on my own boots. Our first step was to find a pro and we settled on Lou Rosenfeld, MSc., whose Calgary shop, Lou’s Skiing Performance Center, specializes in boot fitting and gear for enthusiasts and experts. Lou uses experience, training and a high tech device called Tekscan to evaluate and adjust boot alignment.
Tekscan is a pressure mat with software capable of mapping the foot into quadrants and calculating pressure distribution within the quadrants. The result is displayed on a monitor allowing minute adjustments. It can measure percentage of total body weight on each foot, percentage on the forefoot and rearfoot in each boot, and percentage on the medial and lateral portion of each foot.
It’s a very valuable tool for cuff alignment because it displays medial and lateral numbers for each foot. In my case I was surprised to see how unequal my cuff alignment was from left to right foot. Lou says that’s not uncommon. I couldn’t feel it but I had about 60% of my weight on the medial side of one foot and 30% on the other. This translates to unequal pressure on the ski and helped explain why my recently repaired knee was complaining. Using the Tekscan data, Lou adjusted my boot cuffs to equalize the pressure. Some boots do not have the cuff adjustment feature. As I discovered, if you are serious about skiing make sure your boots do have it — it’s that important.
 I couldn’t feel any difference in the shop but the difference on snow was immediate and impressive. After a week of skiing on hard snow I can say with confidence that alignment is something I should have done years ago. Not only did the edges bite evenly, I forgot all about my badly abused knees and didn’t feel a twinge the entire time. That hasn’t happened in years.
Lou has recently started a project to use Tekscan to better understand ramp angle (slope from heel to toe). From anecdotes and experimentation, he has discovered that many skiers improve the stability of their overall skiing stance when forefoot pressure is reduced so they can better control fore-aft pressure. Stance is balance, and balance is skiing. Lou’s academic background ensures that this research will meet professional standards and I can’t wait for the results.
My conclusion is that alignment is an important part of boot-fitting and ironically, might be more important for weekend skiers than experts. |
