A mantra of the 2-day Masterfit seminar I finished is "seek improvement, not perfection" ... keep expectations reasonable. You should be comfortable and able to make good skiing movements. Everything else is gravy.
Well, you have this ostensibly sensible approach, which says take everything in small increments, with user testing after each one. Makes sense to the developer in me. And it totally seems appropriate for people on a budget getting their first real fitting.
Meanwhile you have lots of people here like Josh Matta, who says, approximately, with what I take to be only the standard amount of hyperbole, "I couldn't make a turn without canting under my boots."
My problem with jmeb's quote above is that being "able to make good skiing movements" has a near-infinite amount of latitude in it. It means one thing to Joe Customer, who skis one week a year with his kids, and something totally different to Josh. So much is about about knowing your audience. Overall I have not been satisfied with fitters' ability to know their audience. (Note that I am not at all picking on you personally here,
@jmeb ; I'm just reflecting on my general disappointment with most of my boot fitting experiences as a customer.)
Seems to me that lots of folks on this forum ARE looking for perfection. Of course it's not really attainable, but it's certainly worth shooting for IMO. To this customer, the small increments approach is mildly insane in its inefficiency. <Tony momentarily channels 'Beyond' from Epic days>
I'm sure it's great for throughput in a retail setting.</> I don't have enough spare time left in my winter / skiing career / life, at age 56, to be willing to spend months going back to the shop over and over, wasting precious on-snow hours each time, for things I know I'm going to want addressed, just because the shop believes in taking things one tiny step at a time, if at all. I'm a perfectionist, so I say, "Gimme all ya' got, and we'll START from there."
For instance: I don't know what world the rest of you live in, but in my experience only once have I ever had a fitter spontaneously propose canting, even after observing sub par static alignment with footbeds already in place, etc. "Meh, that stuff is really only for [insert category of fussbudget here] skiers" is what I generally hear. I have a hard time squaring this with the strong opinion of many instructors and others that accurate and precise alignment is a must-have for high-performance skiing.
(I'm using canting only as an
example of how the "less is more" approach to fitting falls short sometimes, so let's not get all hung up on canting specifically.)
I've seen enough boot posts over the years to have read between the lines that many Pugs have the same trouble I often do in getting fitters to take my perfectionism and basic knowledge of the process seriously. I don't have a coach's jacket and I don't work in the industry and ya know, well, I'm an English major. LOL. I often walk out feeling like I've received not much more than a patronizing pat on the head and a pair of Superfeet. Have you ever felt like this? Ladies? Older people? Speak up if you have!
In short, in an ideal world there would be an easy, direct, fast way to find out which fitters are willing to go for perfection, and an easy, direct, fast way to establish cred with them so you can get past the sizing-up-the-customer stage and move straight to the business at hand. It's true that developing a relationship with a fitter helps a lot, but ...
boy is there a lot of turnover in that department. Just when you think you have something going, the person moves out of state, or the shop is bought by someone who doesn't care, or whatever. </rant>
On the up side, my most recent fitting experience checked all the boxes (except, naturally, price
), without the need for any tiresome pushiness on my part. What a wonderful change and relief. Thank you, Lionel! Of course I can tell already, without having even been on snow, that I'm going to have to go back for another punch - sigh - but I'm very optimistic that my ski mechanics will be good right out of the gate. Here's hoping. Fingers crossed.
