realskiers

Lynn, gotta stick with my 1/2 here. No reason at all that a snug-fitting boot needs to be or should be painful. A properly fitted boot should not be painful, it may feel slightly overly-tight for a couple of days but there is no reason the boot should be painful or have hotspots. My Atomics were race plugs that required grinding and all but they were actually very comfortable. They were really overkill. When I bought the Head S11's, all that was done was to adjust the cuff and make a couple of minor tweaks, like removing the spoiler.  The footbeds were so good (thanks Billy kaplan; fitter extriodinaire) the allignment was so close no changes were needed. Now, everyone is different but the point is if you start with the right shell and the right type of boot; racers need a different fit and different setup, that's more than 1/2 the battle.  Not everyone is going to be so lucky as to not need a grind or a punch but it shouldn't be extreme.