| 08 September 2010
It's been an interesting off-season as ususal. I've accomplished about 10% of the things I had planned thus far, and that can either be the result of the grandiose scale of my ambition or my inablitiy to see those plans to fruition. I prefer the former.
Shortly after my last, and coincidentally best day on the hill last winter, I traveled to the Georgia and Florida to visit some friends and attend a music festival. I'm going to call this trip a “Working Vacation” as far as the FED's are concerned because I packed my molds and a handful of DFP blanks to mold footbeds for my host and his girlfriend in Jacksonville. I have to say it's a whole hell of a lot easier – and for that matter more enjoyable – to complete the molding process in the kitchen of a close friend with plenty of Crown Royal and good music on hand.
After the molds were done using the kitchen oven (not necessarily reccomended, but effective nonetheless), I traced the stock insole outline onto the DFPs and replaced them in the bag for the return trip to Utah. Back in the shop I went to work on the grinder and sent the finished product back to Jacksonville. Shortly after, Johnson qualified in the top 5 for the Florida open (the DFPs were for his golf spikes) and his girlfriend (who won't be named because they've since parted ways) completed her next triatholon with her best time ever. Now I won't say the DFP's made all the difference, but
the evidence seems solid to me. You can draw your own conclusions.Next I was off to a little place called Tahoe. Two weeks of helping my brother getting his Wakeboard/Marine Supply business ready for the season and seeing friends in San Fran. Again I packed the molds and some DFP blanks and did some kitchen molding complete with the now standard issue Crown Royal (seriously, it's the way to go). This time for the brother's wakeboard boots because he tends to get numb feet after a long wakeboard session. And before you ask, no, the numbness was not from the glacial-cold Tahoe water. After grinding the footbeds in Utah and sending them back to Tahoe guess what? Problem solved. Again, I'll let the results speak for themselves.
Finally back in Utah for an extended time I quickly went further down the debt-hole by starting a new job and moving – in the same week. No rest for the weary. So far the new gig is treating me well and the new diggs are pretty baller if I do say so myself. Somewhere in there I found time to play beer-league softball where the Rubber Ducks proudly bounced back from a heartbreaking 2nd place finish last year to take the title with a 13-1 record this year, even carrying the undefeated record into week 13. AND, you-know-who had the game winning hit with two outs in the bottom of the 7th (we only play 7 innings). I know, don't act like your not impressed.
Interestingly enough, I was also the lucky recipient of a displaced sesimoid bone in my left foot. Thank the softball cleats for that one. So I have that going for me now, and it remains difficult to wear flip-flops but come on, its like 95 degrees out, I can't wear shoes. It actually has gotten to the point that I've had to go with the shoes quite a bit more often now, but I'll sacrifice the heat if it means I can stay in the ski boots all day this winter. If you don't agree with this logic it's probably best you and I never meet. Anyway, I digress. Conveniently, I'm particularly qualified to address such problems. A quick tweak to the old DFP's and a little padding added to alleviate some pressure and viola! Problem solved. Well, not solved so much as temporarily fixed, but who's keeping track. After a little trial and error I was able to do pretty much the same thing to my trusty flip flops and to my softball cleats. Hopefully it works because fall-ball starts in September.
Other than that I'm trying to get my river days up and have some good trips lined up this fall to chase trout around Utah and Wyoming. Speaking of fishing, (like that transition? I thought so), I also had to mold some DFPs for the 'ol wading boots to address the same problem. After a lot of grinding (old belt and Podium +'s that needed to be super-thin) I teseted them on the river with fantastic results. No foot pain, no noticable added weight and I caught fish all day, including a couple monster browns on the hopper.
Like I said before, I wont say it's all the DFP's, but the evidence speaks pretty loud don't you think?
