Toe pain/bruising anyone?

[skategoat]

Anyone experiencing bruising or pain in their front big toe? After a full day of riding, it's always a bit sore. Right now, it's killing me after riding for two full days on the weekend and then aggravating it playing basketball. There is bruising under the nail and I have a feeling I'm going to lose the nail.

I think the problem is on my heelside turns, the foot is moving up and forward and driving my toe into the front of the boot.

I have two different boots, both with molded liners. I have the same problem with both boots. I wonder if I should try a different size shell.

Anyone else have this problem and how did you fix it?

P.S. Photos available upon request.

[tex1230]

I had that a couple of years ago...
2 things fixed it -

1) my boot was too big. try downsizing 1/2 size.

2) make sure to trim your toenails! (seriously, it helps)

[pebu]

You might try filling in some space above your foot or on your shin. Foot moving in your boot is bad.

[skategoat]

I should have mentioned - one boot is 27, the other boot is 27.5. Both have the same problem. My son has a 26.5. I may try that. I don't actually notice my foot moving but I am assuming it must be moving to some degree to cause this. I may try packing some foam on top of my foot.

[Chris Houghton]

Totally different thought - my toes are sore if I set the stance too far forward on the board. I lean back to compensate, and that shoves my toes forward. Boot size is fine, if I move the stance back 1/4 inch ( I still don't think in metric) then the toe pain goes. Same thing riding pow with the stance too far forward.

[queequeg]

2) make sure to trim your toenails! (seriously, it helps)

I'll second that. I never ride without trimmed toenails. If your toenails are not trimmed they can become a source of pain. That said, it sounds like you are swimming around in your boots.

[skategoat]

Thanks Chris I will try that. I actually moved my stance back to a more centred position earlier this season. I used to be way forward thinking that would help initiate turns. Moving it back really helped my riding. I will try moving back 1/4 inch to see if that helps the toe problem.

quee: Definitely not swimming. If anything, the 27s are actually a bit tight. There is no heel lift. It's just the toe on my front foot that is the problem.

[queequeg]

quee: Definitely not swimming. If anything, the 27s are actually a bit tight. There is no heel lift. It's just the toe on my front foot that is the problem.

Hrrrm ... do you have thermos? I figured you were swimming around because you say your foot is sliding forward in the boot - that definitely should not be happening if your boot fitment is correct. If you are not getting heel lift but your toes hurt I wonder about three things:

do you have a custom insole? This will reduce the length of your foot and reduce your foots mobility in the boot, two things that should help with your problem.

Do you have a thermo liner and did you put in an adequately large toe-cap when you moulded them?

How tightly are you tightening your instep buckle/ cuff buckles? Perhaps not tight enough? If your instep buckle is too loose you could slide forward in your boot.

I had toe pain/bruising when I first bought my HSPs, but that was because the stock liner with the HSP is way too thick in the toes and they were being crushed ... you would know it if that was your problem ... it's really obvious. My toes were coming out black and blue after a day of riding. It was extremely painful.

As a side note, I get the opposite, problem, I end up with a (slightly) bruised heel at the end of the day, because of heel pressure as a result of crouching down between turns. The HSP instep strap positioning and anchoring (static to the boot, rather than dynamic on the cuff) seems to be the cause of this.

[skategoat]

Yes, both are thermos and I molded with a toe cap. I initially thought about remolding with a bigger toe cap or something wrapped around my big toe but I'm wondering if that will make matters worse. I guess I'll only know by trying it. I will try some of the other suggestions here before remolding.

[Hans]

May be another thing I have noticed. Formerly I had some insoles that were a little too short, may be 3 or 4 mm or so. My insole including my foot was moving to the front. So I let made some new ones and they fit in very tight now. I also noticed the length of my toenails. I always shorten them when I go out riding. So no pain anymore. And also just cranck my middle buckle down as tight as I can so my feet can't move forward and upward. I ride my boards as neutral/a little to the tail stance. I hope you will use insoles because you will have a not so good hold in your boots then.

Hope you will have sorted out.

[pow4ever]

Try some custom footbed. I lost a big toe nail before shell out the money.
Now it's much better. I havn't been riding hardboot all that long so YMMV.
Could be I was just breaking them in before.

--
David

[pebu]

Before you remold, do the c-clamp thing. Tighten a c-clamp down on your liner over the problem area (your toe) and leave it overnight or whatever. That way you won't waste a molding for a spot problem.
Also, something along the lines of the leaning back... You only have it on your front foot, so I wonder if you have too much heel lift or such on that foot. Basically your shin is in contact with the boot on your rear foot, but then if your stance is too wide, you'd be pulling your calf against the back of the front boot. You could try to decrease your stance width slightly to take the pressure off the inside of your legs or put a little toe lift on the front to balance out shin/calf pressures...
I only say this because I catch myself really pushing with rear foot (lots of shin pressure) but find that my front foot really isn't doing much besides helping me initiate turns and keep my balance. Probably why the nose keeps sliding out on my heelsides.

[Gtanner]

Other than changing your stance slightly (i.e. moving back on the board) one way to deal with the pain (and not have a black toe-nail) is to wrap some athletic tape around the toe itself. I found that this helped take the pressure off the toe-nail.

-Gord

[John E]

Also, I store my boots with some custom modified "shoe trees". These spring load the toe & heel to try to make some more room.

[Dave Pushee]

I have a theory that riding in walk mode can cause this toe jamming problem. In walk mode, as you pressure the back of the cuff, the upper boot flexes back and your foot is levered to the front. If you have BTS installed, you might want to set rearward flex stiffer.

[newcarver]

Had problem with front big toe for the first time this week. Riding on steeper runs than normal and having to do a lot of stops to wait on my 7 yr old to get in front of me. It was the side of my toe nail digging into my toe. Not sure what the cause was. Rode 3 days in 5 day period. Was wondering if 1 day in softboots cause it.