Lo-Fi wrote:My conclusion, and this may be obvious to most, is that you need full contact of the ball of the rear foot on the ski to pressure it most effectively.
While tele-turning more than half of my weight (around 70/30) is on the back foot, and it needs to have full pressure from the ball of the rear foot, flat on the ski.
If you can’t get your body weight over the rear ball of foot, your foot will necessarily tend towards being up on your toes, and that makes for poor lateral control. As Mike’s original post pointed out, the back ski will feel all wobbly.
I do pressure the back foot, but it takes a lot of very directed exertion to balance over it. The stiff-flexing NNN BC boot sole (in this case, Alpina Alaska) resists the ball-of- foot contact, while the virtually free-pivot NNN BC binding does nothing to help keep my ball of foot down.
Of course, with a 75mm boot, even with a non-active binding, you can lever against the duckbill of the boot to keep your ball of foot down and put pressure on the back ski.
.
Awesome stuff. And very, very true.
The interesting thing is that the way a boot-binding performs is a complete complex of the combined attributes of that entire boot-binding system.
The Alaska NNNBC vs 75mm is a great example for me.
I bought the Alaska NNNBC first- because I had already switched to NNNBC for XC-focused backcountry XCD skiing.
I had always wondered whether I wouldn't have been happier with the 75mm Alaska; due to the "potential" greater effectiveness of BOF pressuring on the rear ski...
Late last winter, I got a chance to test out the 75mm Alaska with super teles back to back with my Alaska NNNBCs. My close friend has both the same boot size (43) and super teles mounted on Eons/Annums!
I was really surprised by how much more I preferred the NNNBC Alaska than the 75mm on the downhill- greater stability; greater torsional rigidity; stiffer, more powerful flex....
So although 75mm offer inherently greater potential downhill power...I stand by my perspective...When it comes to BC-XC bindings- boot means more than binding.
And here's the thing- when it comes to the telemark on BC-XC tech- the pressure and control of the rear ski is CRITICAL. Lo-Fi it is very interesting that you go as far as to say that you feel that you put as much as 70% of your weight on your REAR ski...very interesting and very cool.
And Lo-Fi- you are correct- a stiff-flexing NNNBC boot, forces you to focus on flexing and weighting that rear ski.
Also- a stiff-flexing NNNBC effectively prevents you from using an elongated stance (unless the conditions are absolutely ideal).
Flex and weight the rear boot!
Maintain a compact stance- keep that rear foot underneath!
Both LJ's and Lo-Fi's videos are excellent examples of this.