A good boot fitter will spend time making sure you get the right size boot.

By Paul Oberin - Updated June 2005

Your boots are the most important piece of equipment you will purchase, and the performance of your skis or board will increase noticeably with a close fitting pair of boots.

I have always said that when buying a new pair of boots, don’t make the lowest price your main priority – search for the best boot fitter you can find, in a shop that has a large selection of boots to choose from. Paying full price for a pair of boots that fit well is far cheaper in the long run, than the many pairs of ill-fitting boots you get on special at a clearance sale.

A good boot fitter will spend time with you, making sure you get the right size boot. They will remove the liner from the shell and, with your foot inside the shell, check the shell size to your foot.

Tip
When getting new boots, go with a thin sock as all boots loosen up. If you try on new boots with a thick sock, you will need 2 or 3 socks later when they loosen up.

Also keep in mind that almost all boots will need some modifications and adjustments after you have worn them a few times, even when you get fitted correctly, a new set of boots will feel too tight the first time you try them on, if you want any reasonable level of performance from your boots, you will have to trust the judgment of your boot fitter.

Stance alignment

For many years boot fitters thought that heel retention was the most important factor in ski boot control. But these days the greatest gain can be by cuff fit – an alignment of boot sole to cuff, called ‘canting’.

Cuff canting is the single most important feature on a ski boot. If the cuff doesn’t match the lower leg shape, the ski will not sit flat on the snow. About 80% of the skier population will find it impossible to create a balanced stance in a boot without cuff cant adjustment, a canting evaluator is a bootfitters most valuable tool, but very few shops have one.

Most ski boots are designed to accommodate knock-kneed skiers and pronated feet; very few suit the bow-legged skier. Bow-legged skiers should seek boots with a dual cant system - that is a boot with canting adjustment on both the inside as well as the outside cuff pivot point, such as the Atomic R11 boots.

Lifters or risers under bindings can also affect skiers in different ways. Bow-legged skiers can benefit from a reasonably high riser. The extra height allows the femur to line up more naturally over the inside edge of the ski, without it immediately hooking up in a turn. The knock-kneed skier should try for 10mm or less, to prevent the skis from tipping excessively to the inside edge.

A knock-kneed skier would also benefit from a wider than 64mm under the foot ski, which is almost all skis these days. In contrast, bow-legged skiers gain from skis that are narrower than 62mm although these are becoming hard to find. This gives a narrower platform under the foot, allowing them to bring the centre of knee mass and femur in line with the ski edge.

Tip
To check your stance, stand in bare feet with your feet together, and slightly flex at the knees, a normal stance is when you can fit at least one but not more than 2 fingers between your knees.

Bindings vary with each manufacturer – some have the same height at the toe and heel; other models or brands can be up to 6mm higher at the heel than the toe. This 6mm may not seem like much, but the effect on the upper body is significant to your fore and aft balance – and getting this fore and aft balance set can make a big difference to your skiing, a shop that really knows boot fitting can measure what suits your skiing style best of all, although as most skis do not allow a choice of bindings, other methods of correcting fore/aft balance may be required.

Equinus

Some skiers with flat feet or high arches have what is known as equinus deformity. This is when the forefoot is lower than the heel.

Typically the ankle has very little flexion, and the feet lack flexibility. So, when the knee is flexed forward, the heel lifts off the ground.

If a skier has less than 15 degrees of dorsiflexion, (Flexion of the foot in the upward direction) they need a stiffer flexing boot – regardless of their skiing ability, i have found this is quite common in females that were once very active in their earlier years, but are now less flexible, regular stretching can help, but usually, a stiffer boot will allow what little ankle flexion they have to be transmitted directly to the ski boot, and not dissipated by soft plastic in low flex boots.

A corrective procedure for this is to use heel lifts so the shaft of the leg is aligned better to match the angle of the boot cuff, but just inserting a heel lift, will increase pressure on the instep, so other modifications are required at the same time.

Skiers with bowlegs will be disadvantaged as the ski waist becomes more than 65mm, but a knock-knee skier will find the wider wasted skis an advantage. If you suffer from bowlegs or knock-knees and you want to use wider or narrow waist skis, then boot sole shaving can be performed. The sole should be shaved full length to the appropriate angle, and then plastic sole pads screwed on at the heel and toe to replace the thickness of the sole that was lost. Then the top of the hold down lugs can be machined back to conform to the din standards. This is a much better method than building up those lugs, as the built up material invariably falls off.

Common problems

Cold feet are a common problem. The cause is usually excessive pressure on an artery, stopping the blood flow.

Tip
If you are skiing for more than one day at a time, always wear clean socks – dirty socks are not as good at insulating against the cold.

Aching arches is also common. This is most likely from a vein being restricted, causing a build up of lactic acid. At high altitudes, smoking and alcohol can add to the cramping problem.

Sometimes the foot can become numb, as a result of pressure being applied to nerves.

For toes going numb, within a few minutes of putting your boots on, the solution is usually quite simple, you have to reduce the pressure on the instep part of your foot, maybe by loosening the second buckles on your ski boots, or rearranging how your snowboard boots are laced, allowing for less pressure on the lower part of the boot, but tighter up the boot that holds the shaft of your leg, sometimes a bootfitter will modify the liner of your boots to reduce this pressure.

A good boot fitter can help you work out ways to try and fix a problem that has developed. Boot stretching and inside shell grinding can fix certain problems, as can a footbed or orthotic from a podiatrist. They can alleviate painful spots in the boot and give an overall firmer fit.

Arch flex determines how flexible the foot is, and therefore determines the type of footbed required. Unfortunately, many skiers and snowboarders are using the incorrect type. Although superfeet and surefoot brands suit some users, they are not for everyone as they tend to be flat along the base. A foot with a low range of flex requires a little flex to be included into the footbed. A simple windlass test can determine the amount of arch flex.

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