Shin Bang - A 2 year case study.

Ok here is the story:

 Been skiing bumps most of my life in a pair of 80's vintage Lange boots.  These were the old black and red boots that had the plug-in moldable goo that formed around your foot for a perfect fit.  I was only 14 years-old at the time & the sales person scammed my mother into thinking it was a great deal to purchase size 11 boots for a size 9 foot because I could re-mold the liner as I grew.  Crazy, if you are a boot fitter, however the sales person turned out to be correct.  I never re-molded the boots but skied in them for 23 years until landing on the knuckle in -10F conditions & the aged plastic finally shattered.  Two cracks from toe to heel on both sides, on both boots.  Bottomline - time to go shopping.

Bought a pair of 27.5 Salomon SPK because I thought the gel pad in the heel would be great for an aging jumper.The boots were great for one year, then the dreaded beginning of shin-bang, a pain I had not felt since the ski swap boots I purchased back in 1986.  Below is a bulleted version of the learning curve that occurred while solving the problem:

1. Research - found tongue eliminators - (these are pads inserted between the shin and the tongue) figured this would stop the removal of skin that was occurring on the front of my shin right at the top of the boot tongue.  It worked but more skiing produced ever increasing pain.
2. More research - determined boots are too big and likely heel lift problem.  Purchased pads, foot beds, sole inserts, heel lifts, etc.  Successfully adjusted the boots to prevent heel lift.  Pain did not subside.  Determined the pain was the worst when getting too far back on the skis, especially if landing backseat.
3. More research - appeared boots that are too big can't be fixed, also decided to turn it over to the experts.  Went to Larry's Bootfitting in Boulder CO.  They are the best.  Purchased a pair of Lange RX120 26.5 - smaller, better fit.  First time out had problems with top of foot pain.  Re-fitted at ski-lodge and fixed.  Generally seemed to work but......................
4. Dang, didn't work - massive shin bang near top buckle of boot.  Went back to Larry's, they guarantee their boot fits.  Inserted heel lifts and padding around shin.  Result - did not fix the problem directly.  At this point in time I was really at a loss.  I had a perfectly fitting boot, but couldn't seem to solve the problem and the experts would give me my money back, but I wanted to ski pain-free like I did in the past, and there was no guarantee that any boot was going to work.  Here is how the problem eventually got solved:
5. More and more research and a little common sense.  Shin bang is caused by severe pressure exerted unevenly to the leg which can cause tearing etc. of the muscle from the shin.  The damage is done when the pressure is exerted as the shin hits a pressure point caused by the front of the boot (uneven tongue pressure).  Extreme pain can be felt when landing back seat because the damaged muscles get exerted in an opposite manner, the backseat means of applied pressure doesn't in itself seem to be doing the damage, but certainly puts the pain threshold over the edge, and creates an inability to continue skiing.  

Therefore the approach was to lean on the tongue of the boot and figure out how to get the shell & tongue to apply even pressure to the shin.  No amount of padding would fix the problem, instead leaving the top buckle loose and tightening the one below seem to create more even pressure across the shin.  With damaged shins, I skied the boots in this configuration for a day and did not feel pain.  Hopefully next year this will continue to prove to be the fix for the problem.  I find it amazing how such a simple adjustment could be the solution, but when it is all said and done it was obvious - the top buckle was the location of the pain and was the primary cause for uneven shin pressure.  Therefore the top buckle was loosed to relieve the pressure, and allowed the boot to flex.  As the shin and boot flex forward the pressure spreads out more evenly across the tongue.  This boot has an elastic top strap, basically equivalent to the booster straps advertised for improving performance and reducing shin bang, but beware.  Booster straps cannot fix a pressure point that occurs high in the boot, and instead apply more pressure high in the boot.

Bottomline - what I learned is that ski boot problems are specific to the person's foot.  Shin-bang in particular can have various causes.  In my case, I have skinny angles & narrow feet.  I fit well into a Lange boot, but the boot does not mate up well with my lower shin.  Therefore when I tighten the upper buckles, more pressure is applied to the top buckle shin area, and adjustment is required to enable the natural flex of the boot to apply even shin pressure.  In this case the adjustment is to keep the upper buckle loose so that early in the flex, pressure is not applied to the upper shin, and instead it requires my shin to flex much farther forward before tongue pressure is applied so that the shin makes even contact with the entire boot tongue.  I'll admit this feels weird given us oldschoolers