Sounds like a great quick fix, epic! It's nice to be aware of options like that, especially when dealing with casual skiers.
Dan:
Yes you have (run into an intermediate in person who fiddles with that stuff). Lynn is adamant about BOF over CRS for her bindings, and requested that we convert to Tyrolia Railflex so she could further experiment with ski control, and is seriously considering converting to HA's new way. And me too.
A degree in lateral alignment can be a lot. If you need it, there is night and day difference when they stick a shim under your boots to validate what their eyes are seeing. My guess is that Glenn long ago looked at your skiing and felt that your alignment wasn't a problem.
I think you ought to make time for a Harb camp -- I think you would love it.
I wonder if there are still openings in the "Bushwacka private with Harald" group?
Huh. I stand corrected. I didn't know you guys spent time on that stuff.
If I remember right, I have 2 degrees under one foot and 1.5 under the other. I've switched boots to ones that haven't been aligned for me though, and they skied fine (touring boots, demos, etc). Sure, I like ones that have been aligned for me best, and will continue to have my setups aligned, but I don't think it's that huge a deal when compared with the ocean of technique improvements I still need to make. The only time I've felt an alignment was really a problem is when a shop had set up the inside of the boots wrong, was aligning me backwards, and had me off by about 4-5 degrees on each foot, as well as having the cuffs set backwards. That setup was pretty rough.
Glen's been skiing unaligned for the past several years, and he still seems to ski okay, too.
I'm not saying that all this equipment setup is irrelevant or anything--it just seems that people spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing over their gear, when it seems to me that spending that energy obsessing over technique would yield far greater improvement.
Clearly folks who have serious alignment issues are in a different category, as are people running gates and chasing tenths. Yes, it makes it easier to do things even as simple as sideslipping when your edges release at exactly the same moment. It just seems like people obsess over this stuff in a way that seems out of proportion to its importance, in my view.
Maybe it's just what people talk about on the internet. I don't remember Lynn or Jim talking about gear at all while skiing with them!
Regarding the Harb camp, I might get there one of these years, but it's a tough sell for me. I've got great coaching at home, and am fighting to keep up with that. As long as I have more material than I can implement, I don't feel compelled to travel for coaching. When I travel to ski, I want to go explore someplace fun, and don't really want to spend all week in class. Maybe if there was a Chamonix or St Anton camp in February, I could be talked into it, though. Anybody want to suggest it?
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