short, heavy rider board size and foot pain questions

[supernutts]

Ok this is a multi question topic here.

This is my 3rd year boarding and I have been having severe foot pain in my lead foot (I ride goofy) almost the whole time.

I'm 35yo, 5'8" and hovering around 275lbs with a 9.5 to 10 boot...short and heavy.  I'm not a complete sloth...I still workout biking, hiking, paintball and such....anyways.
I originally bought a Morrow Syphon 159wide using the chin to nose method.  I had also bought size 11 boots wich I found out are way too big.
I was having problems with my feet especially my lead foot cramping on the outer edge and the ball mainly on toeside turns.  Excruciating pain.  I ended up getting different boots going down to a size 10 in Salamon Synapse wides wich helped alot with pain in general but not with it on the toe side turns.

I still get heel lift in these boots and have tried jbars and such to tighten around my ankle but nothing works.  I have tried playing with my stance and binding angles without much relief.  I had read somewhere that trying to keep your knees bent on the toeside to push your heels down would work with the pain.  It has a bit but I still have the pain.

Does anyone know of anything else I  haven't tried or what could be the problem here?

I moved to a 2008 Sims Protocol wide in a 159 last year.  Got it free from a friend.  Am I riding too wide of a board or too short of a board?  With the calculator it says for my freeride/allmountain style I should be around a 163 to 165 for my weight.  Is that length going to bee too big and hard to turn?  Even though my boot size is not not near needing a wide do I need a wide snowboard because of my weight?  Would the wide board be causing me to put too much pressure on my lead foot trying to turn? 

I have looked all over the internet for answers and nothing has really helped.

The few shops around here cater to the skiers so aren't much help.  The few boarders that do work them aren't much help either.  No offense but they are younger skinny kids that have basically told me I'm too fat for a snowboard boot to fit right.  I have big calves and they don't tighten up like the should around the ankle.

Any help anyone has would be greatly appreciated.  I absolutely love snowboarding with my kids.  Just can't stand the foot pain.

[Frosty]

Welcome and thanks for all the details of your situation.  It makes answering much easier

  Would the wide board be causing me to put too much pressure on my lead foot trying to turn? 

I would not be surprised if that was the source of your problem.  With a size 10 boot, there is just no real reason to ride a "wide" board.  It will just place undue stress on your feet and ankles (which may be contributing to your heel lift) and increase overall fatigue.

Plain and simple, get a normal width board.  It may be OK to go with a SLIGHTLY wider board due to your higher weight, but not being a tall guy, you really cannot leverage that weight as dynamically, so don't go more than say 25.5cm wide.

As for length, not too important unless you are having problems floating in powder.  Otherwise, the 159cm length should be fine. 


Ride On,
FR - 8

[supernutts]

Ok was at the mountain this weekend and here's what I did.

I rented a regular width board there in a 160 length.  I really wanted to try it with my own bindings but they won't let you put them on their rentals so I had to use the nitro's they had on there.  They were horrible!  I can't say if a regular board as opposed to a wide helped with my foot pain because my feet were on fire in pain the whole run.  The strap bindings were horrible over the front of my foot.  I couldn't board more than 100yrds without having to stop because of the pain.

One thing I did notice though is that the board was REALLY responsive...to the point of being squirrelly and almost out of control.  I don't know if thats just because I have ridden a wide for so long now or what.  I did go back to my wide board and boots and bindings later.  Still had the foot pain in the lead foot obviously.  I did notice though the huge difference in response though in the board.  With the regular board just a bit of pressure and it would initiate a turn.  The wide board definetely took alot more pressure to turn.

So I really can't tell for sure.  I am gonna try and borrow a regular 162 this weekend with my bindings and see what it feels like then.

[Frosty]

" I am gonna try and borrow a regular 162 this weekend with my bindings and see what it feels like then."

I bet that will be a lot better!

[Travis Hightower]

Hi Supernutts!

I also suffer from lead foot pain while riding. If you can, take a look at your foot angles on your baseplate and post them back here. I find that if my angles arn't just right, that my feet die in pain. Its just another thing to look at, but its something that can cause the pain you described easily. I get fatigue when riding still, but can ride through it most of the time. But the leg/foot pain that I get when my angles are wrong make me stop ALOT.