Salomon boots horrible on all the women who switched.

[h.harb]

I watched the GS races at Semmerling. I feel so bad for Gisin she can't buy her way into the top 10 anymore. Rast also, Robinson, terrible. All of this has to do with the cuff setups. The cuffs are so strong and the lower boot is so tight against the navicular they can not roll the ankle over. They look like robots out there. If you have the perfect foot for a Salomon they can work like for Odermatt, but most of the women don't have the right foot for a Salomon.

What is crazy is Salomon doesn't know how to fix this problem. I hope they are paying them lots of money.

[jbotti]

Watched Gisin at Zagreb. Super soft conditions and huge ruts after just a few skiers. In her Rossi boots last year she was among the best at navigating courses like this. But yesterday she was spraying significant snow on almost every turn. And she was at least a second off the leaders in each run (I think she was 2 seconds off on Run 1). I have watched her on hard snow this year, and she chatters in every turn and many of her turns are not close to clean. I know what it feels like to have a cuff that is too strong (I am big time knock kneed on my right boot therefore with no adjustment my inside shin bone is right against the cuff) and its impossible to arc well like this.

I asked a friend of mine who coached at the WC level why they don't just paint her Rossi boots from last year Salomon blue and put a big S on them. He said that although Salomon might go along with it to help save her season, if the FIS caught wind of it they would both be fined heavily.

The only other solution would be Harald sending her two HSS cuff alignment screws, which they produce with much greater range of adjustment for the cuff. I think without those, her season is lost.

[h.harb]

In her case, we would also have to heat the cuff and make it more oval for her shin. The Salomon WC boot is very tight around the throat near the top of the ankle. You can see in the latest race she couldn't keep up with the course and skied out, she's lost all confidence. Tear up the contract or come to Harb Ski Systems.