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Help - I can't feel my toes!
I'm 33, brand new skier, 5'9", 180 pounds, street shoe 10.5 to 11,
slightly wide (can't wear Nikes). My feet pronate significantly (3.5 degrees left, 3 degrees right), which naturally means I have either flat feet or fallen arches (not sure how to tell which), and my legs are externally rotated. I also have an irritated sciatic nerve from a back injury last summer. I spent a weekend at Sunday River last year and had a blast. This Christmas, I went again, and after just a few hours my feet were killing me in the rental boots, so I decided to take the plunge and buy a pair. Buster Bean at the ski shop tried me in a few boots from Nordica, Technica, and I think Atomic before settling on a pair of size 27 Performa 7's. I skied a few runs in them, and went back to have them adjusted; another salesman added some SBS shims to help my pronation, which really helped my balance. This weekend I went to Sugarloaf, and within an hour of putting on the boots, my (nonexistent) arches were in agony, and my pinky and ring toes were numb. I went to the ski shop, which has won some sort of "best bootfitting" award from Ski magazine, and Russ spent about four hours with me, blowing out the toes, cutting the SBS shims better (they were curling), adding a heel shim, and heating the boots. I was still getting numb after 15 minutes or so in the store, but we figured it was time to try a few runs to loosen them up. So the next morning I went out, and while the arch pain was mostly gone, my toes were still getting numb after an hour or two. Back to the shop. I didn't feel the boots pressing anywhere except the ankle, so Russ ground the ankles. Went back out, still getting numb. Came back, and Russ was gone, so Ian helped me. We tried a few things, and finally, I asked - is it possible that the boots themselves are the wrong size? Sure enough, they were too loose; I should really be in a 26. They won't normally exchange boots from one ASC shop to another, but the manager was coming in the next morning and could do it. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and upgrade to X-Wave 8's since I knew I'd outgrow the Performas rapidly. At first they were agony, but after swapping the footbeds for wintergreen Superfeet they were wonderful. Monday morning: Manager exchanges the boots for me. We put in the Superfeet and I hit the slopes for a few hours - sans SBS shims since they won't fit yet. Big improvement in control, but my outer toes are still numb. Back to the shop, where Ian blows out the toes, grinds the ankles, and heats the boots. Still numb. Adds back the heel shims temporarily, since outer numbness can be from pronation stressing the metatarsals. Still numb! I have to catch a bus to go home, so I don't get to hit the shop on my way off the slopes. I am really frustrated with this. What, if anything, can I do? Options include: - Just ski through the pain for 5-10 days before revisiting it. The boots are new and relatively stiff, and both the boots and footbeds will adjust to my feet. And once the boots expand, I can reinsert the SBS shims. - Try custom footbeds. Ian doesn't recommend this; he says that footbeds improve performance but diminish comfort compared to Superfeet since they're firmer. - Try orthopedic footbeds. Apparently there are some things doctors can do that ski shops aren't allowed to do in terms of shaping. Again, Ian recommends against. - Try a fancy shop with the scanning machine. Internet FAQs make these sound fairly common, but Russ said that they were only at "super- specialized" shops for high-performance skiing. - Something else... Help! Ideas? -- Jay Levitt | Wellesley, MA | Hi! Faster: jay at jay dot eff-em | Where are we going? http://www.jay.fm | Why am I in this handbasket? |
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