overpronation (duck footed) and forward stance issues

[nillo]

I'm getting back into riding after a long break and want to work towards a HB alpine setup. In order to do this I am moving my SB stance from a pretty severe duck -18/18 to a more forward stance but I am running into some difficulties. I have been pretty overpronated from birth and even have one flat foot. This is a structural issue not tight hips or that sort of thing. If I try to bend at the knees with my feet pointed straight ahead, my knees will touch. When I try to setup a fairly typical forward stance my knees don't move in the same plane andit's really uncomfortable. Should I be focusing on getting my knee position right and just let the feet end up where they end up? Are there any duck footed carvers out there that might have some tips? Thanks.

[Neil Gendzwill]

I can't speak to your specific issues, but many new hardbooters make the mistake of trying to set those angles equally. Don't have both feet same angle, keep a difference (we say "splay") between them. For many people the difference is only around 5 degrees, you probably need more. However 36 degrees is a lot, maybe you could try reducing it some. The more forward you get, the less splay you need.

How about something like 5 and 30 to start with?

[nillo]

For reference my natural splay is around 45deg.

Yeah, I set up equal angles in my living room and it was torture. If I had tried that on the mountain I am pretty sure I would have broken something.

[teach]

The nice thing about alpine is that the bindings are highly adjustable, not just angles in the plane of the board, but in 3D -- cant and lift. I have somewhat similar alignment "issues" and find that some outward cant (very little in my case, like 1/3 degree) helps tremendously. Then a 3 degree splay works great.

Bomber TD2/3 and Catek bindings allow the fine adjustments I'm suggesting. You could do it yourself with other bindings, but that would be a lot easier once you know what works.

Have you done anything with your footwear to deal with the problem? A tip I got from BOL member Beckmann AG is to take an insole, like Superfeet, and use strips of thick duct tape under the inside front. That lifts that part of the foot up which in some cases allows the foot to find what it's looking for without having to pronate so much. In fact, it may be that with a well-made footbed I wouldn't even be bothering with cant. Hope to try that soon.

As a quick check to see if there's any promise in the "DIY custom footbed", take a stack of index cards or playing cards or something about 1/4" thick. Put two of them on the floor under the balls of your feet (inside only). Put your feet parallel or close to it and do what you did before. Does bending your knees work better? If 1/4" is too much try 1/8".

It can take a long time messing with this stuff. Good luck!

[b0ardski]

I've always used hardboots with forward angles but prefer 10-15 degrees diference (splay) between my feet.

No reason you can't work toward alpine stance with 5-10 rear/30-40 front to keep a splay you are comfortable with.

[nillo]

thanks for the suggestion teach. a 1/4" helps a lot. I have custom orthotics but they are mainly for arch issues. I think I'm going to have to play around with a custom footbed. It also sounds like keeping the back foot angle shallow and then setting the splay with a higher angle on the front will be a good place to start.