I've never had an alignment session with a good bootfitter. My intent was always to get to see HH, good intentions and 2000 miles away - never happened. I recently saw a listing of fitters qualified to work on Dodge boots, and, the list included a local fitter, named Billy Kaplan (who has a great local reputation and is a certified podiatrist), so, I made an appointment. Bill has been in the ski business for 35 years, and, has a independent, bootfitting shop that the Skunk Works would be proud of. He was checked out, then, recruited by Dodge, and, sells that boot and others, mostly via special order. We spent 75 minutes on the fitting, now, I just need a window when he is available and I'm not skiing to get boot planning done.
The first portion of the fitting was just having my body and feet checked out to determine if I there are abnormal issues or flexibility problems - I was lucky in that nothing abnormal was discovered. ( He did not inspect my brain )
My only analysis about canting was from HH after he reviewed a video of my skiing. Harald offered that my left leg is knock-kneed and wanted a 2 degree shim placed with the high portion to the inside of the stance. Todd W gave me some shim material last year and I've been skiing with shims on one boot.
The key component of the fitting is a large platform containing 2 blocks of wood that are stood on while wearing boots. The blocks float to permit analysis of the stance. Bill asked me to make small, slow rolling side to side motions while he watched the bottoms of my boots. His fitting "concept" is referred to as "timing". Timing means that soles of both boots must be in synch with each other during the rolling movements. So, they are perfectly flat at the same time, and, rise and fall to peak rotation at the same time. The theory is that if the boots are out of "time", then the skis have to move in different paths as they will not be edged equally. Bill stated Harb uses the same timing concept in his fitting process.
The timing part took a surprising amount of time. Most of it was learning the feel of the movements. Initially, I could not transfer weight from one foot to the other as we would do in skiing. Then, it was clear that there was a hitch in my rolling. Bill just kept adjusting the shims on both sides until it became perfectly smooth. To my surprise, the solution calls for 1.5 degree shims, placed with the high side to the outside of the ski - the opposite of what I've been doing. If correct, this would add edge angel to my skiing, and, help me gets better tracks on hard steep snow.
My plan is to use some shim material under my boots to achieve the angles, and, see what happens. It will be at least 10 days before I could have my boots worked on, so, it's a great opportunity to see what the change brings.
Any thoughts on the process or what to look for when skiing? Does HH use something similar to timing?
BTW, I did get to see the real-deal Dodge boot. His largest size available was just too small for any chance of getting my foot in. I know John Botti did downsize, but, no way I could reduce by 1 full boot size. I need the largest they make 28.5.