Ski bootkatasana

OK, what to do to procrastinate from my home practice today (since I slept late today, having the luxury of the Husband taking the kids to school for once...yay!)...

Well, I could talk about these AWESOME new ski boots I now have in my possession!

In all the years I have been skiing, I have never bought myself my own pair of boots, choosing instead to test out the better rentals (they call them "demos") in the hopes that maybe I will like them enough to buy them. But up until now, I have never motivated to actually try on a variety of boots and commit to a pair for the long term. Finally, I did it. I've been walking around in these at home to make sure they don't pinch or give me "shin bang" (the shin is pressed forward in a good-fitting ski boot, much like in Uttkatasana, which I sometimes refer to as "Ski-Bootkatasana" when my mind is on skiing). It's harder to be sure about the shin bang unless I'm actually carving. But walking around in them, cooking in them, that all works to a certain extent.

I had gone into the store with the intention of buying a pair of Rossignols, since those always seem to fit me well. But there were no Rossi's in my size. I reluctantly tried on these Salomons, and lo and behold...an even better fit than Rossi.

It's really important for a woman, especially a small woman (one who is fairly light-weight), to have a boot that provides "flex" in the shin, and these flex oh so nicely! With too "hard" of a boot, a small woman (or child) can't build up enough pressure to carve decent turns; the shin presses forward, but the boot doesn't respond in kind. The shins end up bruised, and you can't carve your turns. This is a particularly big issue for me, since I have nice, wide feet, but (thankfully), I don't weigh so much. I can't tell you how many times I have rented a pair of boots only to have to unbuckle them halfway down my first run of the day, ski the rest of the way with unbuckled boots (basically with my ski's pointed into a wedge) and then trade in the boots for something softer and more responsive. For kids, it's the same issue, generally. They need a softer boot in order to actually get the boot to respond when the shin presses forward. But kids tend not to whine and whinge as much as a 40-year old. So, I never seem to hear about it from them. Bless their happy little hearts!

YC