Bow legged skiers

[thager]

Any other bow legged skiers out there, and what are you running? I have extreme bow-legs. I can run my closed fist between my knees with my feet together and not touch. LFF, Can run 32 off fairly consistently with an occasional 35 and a couple at 38 off @ 34 on a really good day. Always feel my right calve in the water on my offside turns. Sometimes feels like it kicks me out. How do you guys compensate? Yeah, I know bow legs are good for swimming. and some other activities.  Worked great for football!!

 

Thager 

[Thomas Wayne]

The more you conform to "West Coast" style the less you'll notice the bowed legs, IMO.  This is because the unnatural leg position that results from extreme counter on your offside seems to bring your knees together, thereby compensating for the inherent bow - at least that's been my experience.  I've noticed that on some WC skiers the back knee almost seems to "cross over"  the front knee [on their offside] - at least that's my perception -  and you couldn't get your back-leg calf much more out of the water than that.

Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women...

TW 

[roda]

I'm slightly bowlegged and on my first pass at Rini's he noticed my rear knee not staying tucked in my offside turn. My FM hardshells had come w/ the standard rear boot twist so I straightened it up and it helps keep my rear knee tucked in.

On my front foot the top of the liner was wearing a hole in the side of my leg (drew blood every set) so I had to drill a new pivot hole for the top cuff of the binding on one side so that the shell now leans out with my leg (not vertical). Much more comfortable.

 

-Rod A.

[Old MS Accout]

The guy that is selling those calipers that measure the DFT has been using a wrap that holds his legs together. Dave used it for a few years and now he is keeping his legs closer. He doesnt look like Thagers bows but it helped him.    

[Deke]

In snow skiing you have a similar problem.  Actually, its really two problems.  First, you need to get your footbeds and boot cuff aligned to your leg alignment, which is mostly a comfort/fit thing.  Second, and most important though, is to get your knee over the middle of your foot or slightly inside for good geometry.  That is done by tilting the boot sole with the wedges to the outsides of your feet. This  may seem counter-intuitive since you think you need to fill the space on the inside, but that actually causes over edging and a lack of stacking.  Not sure how all this would work in the water but it does seem like it may help at least for the front foot.

 Deke

[thager]

I have a Radar RS-1 with the RS-1 boot plate and have been thinking of rotating the front foot full left(LFF) and rear foot full right. That should pivot my rear calve towards the center of the ski more and keep my weight centered on the ski. Anyone out there tried this?