I feel like I ski black diamonds better than green runouts because I have a hard time keeping my weight forward on relatively low angle terrain. Its not like I'm falling all the time on runouts. But I feel like I am working harder to ski more poorly on easy terrain.
I've always felt this way, but my current setup seems to accentuate the problem. Or maybe its just because I am skiing better and better on challenging terrain, so it feels worse on runouts?
When I am on steeps, I feel like I can really stomp on the toes when I need to dig in the shovel. Not so on flattish. On the flats I'm all tails.
So, the obvious answer is "just lean forward dude" to get that out of the way. I can't, not exactly. Rather, I can kind of dorsiflect and pull myself forward a little, but obviously I can maintain this for long. Or I can do the opposite. My heel doesn't really lift much out of boot, but I can put pressure on the balls of my feet this way. Which isn't really the same as "neutral" or weight forward, which I can obtain on steeps.
Anyway, here is my current setup. Fischer Progressor 13 Vacuum boots. These are great, but I do still have some slop around my very, very low volume instep. Still, best fit I've ever had. And no, they are not too big. Size 11 street shoe. Boots are 27.5. Toes are right up very snug in the toebox. But my foot is VERY low volume in the instep and heel (mol avg toe width). Ive worked some padding into the instep area and could probably improve things minutely, but I don't think this is the issue.
They were heat molded to a pretty upright stance. I had a pair of boots with adjustable forward lean in the past and felt like I had a lot of control with a more aggressive lean, but really destroyed my quads in no time. And was no better on low angle. And I am a cyclist, so conditioning is not the quad issue (although at 46, conditioning isn't what it used to be!).
I've made my own toe and heel lifts purely for experimentation sake. Butadiene styrene 6mm between the footboard and liner. Neither of these did much to affect the issue one way or the other. To be clear, I tried one and then the other, not at same time!
Bindings are Aaatack 13 demo bindings 0.5cm ahead of the line on Fischer Motive 95s. For some reason these line up either .5cm forward or back, but not right on the line. In and of itself, doesn't seem like it could be the reason though. Motives are 180 cm and I am 6'2" and 200 lbs.
I guess the only other thing to add is that I've had recent lessons with PSIA level 3 instructor and he was pretty happy with the way I looked on steeps at the end (his words "A very solid level 7, if not 8"). I don't think he really watched on the runouts and I didn't bring it up as I was focused on other things. But I don't think I am fooling myself that I am competent-ish on the steeps but still feel funky on flats.
I've always felt this way, but my current setup seems to accentuate the problem. Or maybe its just because I am skiing better and better on challenging terrain, so it feels worse on runouts?
When I am on steeps, I feel like I can really stomp on the toes when I need to dig in the shovel. Not so on flattish. On the flats I'm all tails.
So, the obvious answer is "just lean forward dude" to get that out of the way. I can't, not exactly. Rather, I can kind of dorsiflect and pull myself forward a little, but obviously I can maintain this for long. Or I can do the opposite. My heel doesn't really lift much out of boot, but I can put pressure on the balls of my feet this way. Which isn't really the same as "neutral" or weight forward, which I can obtain on steeps.
Anyway, here is my current setup. Fischer Progressor 13 Vacuum boots. These are great, but I do still have some slop around my very, very low volume instep. Still, best fit I've ever had. And no, they are not too big. Size 11 street shoe. Boots are 27.5. Toes are right up very snug in the toebox. But my foot is VERY low volume in the instep and heel (mol avg toe width). Ive worked some padding into the instep area and could probably improve things minutely, but I don't think this is the issue.
They were heat molded to a pretty upright stance. I had a pair of boots with adjustable forward lean in the past and felt like I had a lot of control with a more aggressive lean, but really destroyed my quads in no time. And was no better on low angle. And I am a cyclist, so conditioning is not the quad issue (although at 46, conditioning isn't what it used to be!).
I've made my own toe and heel lifts purely for experimentation sake. Butadiene styrene 6mm between the footboard and liner. Neither of these did much to affect the issue one way or the other. To be clear, I tried one and then the other, not at same time!
Bindings are Aaatack 13 demo bindings 0.5cm ahead of the line on Fischer Motive 95s. For some reason these line up either .5cm forward or back, but not right on the line. In and of itself, doesn't seem like it could be the reason though. Motives are 180 cm and I am 6'2" and 200 lbs.
I guess the only other thing to add is that I've had recent lessons with PSIA level 3 instructor and he was pretty happy with the way I looked on steeps at the end (his words "A very solid level 7, if not 8"). I don't think he really watched on the runouts and I didn't bring it up as I was focused on other things. But I don't think I am fooling myself that I am competent-ish on the steeps but still feel funky on flats.
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