Looking for a good boot fitter - North London area

"Joe Roach" wrote in message
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Clive Backham wrote:
Matt T wrote:
I'd advise you wait until you get out to a resort if you're going this
year. A good shop should let your daughter try the boots out with an
option to buy - if you don't buy, they'll just charge you a rental fee.

Matt, thanks for your advice.

Sounds like buying in resort might be the thing to do. We're going to
Flaine at half-term and Alpe d'Huez at Easter (how I long for the kids
to finish school so we can go at non-peak times!).

I guess a vaguely similar alternative for you would be to go to the MK
snow-dome and try things out there. Never been myself, but don't they
have some slopeside shops that might do the try-before-you-buy thing?

I've been to the MK snowdome once (Ellis Brigham is right next door,
and they did let my wife test some skis a few years back). But we'll
not go there again. It has to be the worst value in skiing anywhere in
the world (we got a total of about 1 minute of actual sliding down the
slope during the course of a 1 hour session, which cost more than the
price of a day's lift pass in the Alps. Admittedly, it was a Saturday).
In any case, the slope simply isn't big enough to do any kind of
meaningful evaluation.

Clive,

I have been skiing for 20 years (50 weeks), am a BASI
instructor, and have no idea how to buy boots that fit.
"She has very short feet (size 3 1/2) but they are
wide, and she has wide ankles & calves"

I am a 6' male with small but big feet (well about 9.5 long
and 11 wide) I cannot buy shoes that are not too narrow.
I have suffered nerve damage from ski boots.


The only substantive advice that have had has been
to go to Precision Ski in Chamonix. Accept no substitutes.
I have not yet spent money with them but they
are next on my list.

Altenatively, there is a boot shop in Tigne le lac, yes it sells
nothing other than boots, which is run by a gentleman who
was the boot guy for the French team. I forget the name
but he is well enough known. The shop in in the main Le Lac center
well up the hill from the supermarket.

Under no circumstances accept the advice of anyone selling stuff
in the UK.
All they can think of is £200 a pair - give me the money now.

Strolz Boots
Dale boots

Very expensive.

From personal experience this "Under no circumstances accept the advice of
anyone selling stuff
in the UK." is simply not true in the case of Lockwoods. I spent



to continue..... more than 2 hours at Lockwoods, got a really well fitted
pair of boots and paid less than 50% RRP because they were last year's
model. I have used both Precision, who very good, and Lockwoods, who were
better.

On Mon 27 Nov '06 at 09:42 "MoonMan" wrote:

Clive Backham wrote:
Posting this here because it's a specifically European-oriented group.

My 14 year old daughter is having great difficulties finding a boot
that fits properly. She has very short feet (size 3 1/2) but they are
wide, and she has wide ankles & calves. Her current Salomon T3s are
now quite painful and need replacing. We've tried Snow & Rock, but
they couldn't help out much. So I was wondering if anyone has any
recommendations for good boot fitters in the North
London/Herts/Bucks/Beds area (we live in Watford).

Thanks.

Ski Bartlett at Hillingdon,

Oh yes, I bought my first pair of boots from there, the guy was quite good.

I also went and tried them out at Wycombe Summit a couple of times, and had
them adjusted back at the shop for free.

They were indeed perfect when I hit the slopes.



A.

Ace wrote:
On 27 Nov 2006 04:48:15 -0800, "Matt T"
wrote:


Precision seems to own pretty much
half the shops in the Espace Killy now (Called Precision or Favre or
Snowfun or Black Cats - any others?) but I'm not sure they'll have
outlets in Flaine or d'Huez.


No, they haven't. In Flaine, though, I'd recommend Flaine Super Ski at
the Forum level. Gilles and René are both expert (ex French team) ski
trainers and _really_ know their stuff. Make an appointmentm, though,
as they're usually out most of the day doing race training.


I'd recommend Jean Blanc in Courchevel 1850 too...

On 25 Nov 2006 05:43:44 -0800, "Clive Backham"
wrote:

Posting this here because it's a specifically European-oriented group.

My 14 year old daughter is having great difficulties finding a boot
that fits properly. She has very short feet (size 3 1/2) but they are
wide, and she has wide ankles & calves. Her current Salomon T3s are now
quite painful and need replacing. We've tried Snow & Rock, but they
couldn't help out much. So I was wondering if anyone has any
recommendations for good boot fitters in the North
London/Herts/Bucks/Beds area (we live in Watford).

Thanks.




I got my 14 year old daughter sorted out in Courchevel last year.
Jean Blanc looked at her feet, knew the boot that was right for her
but it was a model they didn't stock. The small shop at the
Courcheneige hotel did a fitting service. and had access to the model.
I was referred to them. Indeed, they agreed the same Raichle model
was best match for her feet. Adult, not junior. They had the correct
size brought over from Meribel and, 4 hours later and dark, my
daughter had a fit.

Three days of perfect skiing later and no problems.

Yes, I was warned that her feet might grow and that there wasn't much
room for adjustment to length. Yes, it was a EURO 400 boot in the
end.

But, the first time she really felt her feet as one with the ski. Big
smiles and much more aggresive skiing.

Stan

Clive Backham wrote:

Posting this here because it's a specifically European-oriented group.

My 14 year old daughter is having great difficulties finding a boot
that fits properly. She has very short feet (size 3 1/2) but they are
wide, and she has wide ankles & calves. Her current Salomon T3s are now
quite painful and need replacing. We've tried Snow & Rock, but they
couldn't help out much. So I was wondering if anyone has any
recommendations for good boot fitters in the North
London/Herts/Bucks/Beds area (we live in Watford).

Thanks.

I suggest you contact Colin Martin, at this address.

http://www.solutions4feet.com/

He's a bootfitter with 17 years experience, also a qualified
Pedorthist, and has conncections to Lockwoods having trained their
bootfitters.
He's currently providing me with a metatarsal bar and has received
written endorsement of his work from my Orthopaedic surgeon.
His workshop is one of the few sites in the UK, where a ski boot can be
dismantled and re-riveted.

sjt wrote:
Clive Backham wrote:

Posting this here because it's a specifically European-oriented
group.

My 14 year old daughter is having great difficulties finding a boot
that fits properly. She has very short feet (size 3 1/2) but they are
wide, and she has wide ankles & calves. Her current Salomon T3s are
now quite painful and need replacing. We've tried Snow & Rock, but
they couldn't help out much. So I was wondering if anyone has any
recommendations for good boot fitters in the North
London/Herts/Bucks/Beds area (we live in Watford).

Thanks.

I suggest you contact Colin Martin, at this address.

http://www.solutions4feet.com/

He's a bootfitter with 17 years experience, also a qualified
Pedorthist, and has conncections to Lockwoods having trained their
bootfitters.
He's currently providing me with a metatarsal bar and has received
written endorsement of his work from my Orthopaedic surgeon.
His workshop is one of the few sites in the UK, where a ski boot can
be dismantled and re-riveted.

To tie a few answers from this thread together, courtesy of a special day
arranged by the good folks over at www.snowheads.com I bought mine a few
weeks back from Lockwoods at Leamington Spa, we not only had their
bootfitters for the day but also Colin from Solutions 4 Feet and Steve from
Footworks in Chamonix as well! To cap it all we even got a discount!!
I gave my newly fitted Atomics a run out for a couple of hours at Castleford
and then had 4 days in Les Deux Alpes for the Mondial du Ski. Apart from
some discomfort when I had a 2 hour wait in the queue when the lift broke
down they were excellent, no mods needed at all.

James...