More on binding placement

As I explained two days ago, binding placement on a ski can have sometime unintended consequences, especially in the form of hurting a joint.

While the Dynastar factory set up are obviously wrong and misleading (I since then checked all the skis on my racks to confirm it), there seem to be little agreement as to what's the best boot placement, except trial and error as long as the binding toe unit is movable and – ideally – is adjusted longitudinally by turning a screw instead of being dependent on fixed increments defined by a notched, adjustment track.

This said, there are basically three competing methods that a skier can use for approaching the perfect boot placement on skis: The Ball of foot (BoF) method used in connection with the Campbell Dynamic Balancer (see illustration), the Center of Running Surface (CRS) which is the middle between the contact points of the base with a flat surface, and then the mid-sole mark on the boot that must be aligned with a corresponding marking on the ski and is now the industry standard.

I will focus on the later, since it come from ski manufacturers that ought to have a clue about the product they put out (?) This said, the mid-sole mark isn't perfect as the increment should be more a split 1/3 – 2/3 with the longer portion of the sole going forward, instead of 1/2 – 1/2, as if there weren't enough approximations already!

Now, it's fair to say that a position forward for that mid-sole mark will make the ski more “turny” or over-steering, but less stable as the skier will be more likely to “go over the handlebar”. It may also help women that have their center of mass more toward the rear than men.

The opposite would be true for speed skis that need to be stable, turn significantly less and could use a backward position relative to that mid-sole mark.

The bottom line, in that entire discussion about the ideal boot placement should depend on a skier's age, sex, ability, morphology and style of skiing, as well as preferences in terms of turn radius, speed, terrain, and snow conditions.

I'm not even mentioning orthopedic considerations if my findings explained in my previous blog can be validated.

A full laundry-list that means that the best adjustment can only conducted on snow and via trial and error. Have fun and good luck with it!