Salomon X-Wave 9

Author's product rating:   

Comfort	Comfortable
Durability	Very durable
Value for money	Average

Advantages:	Good quality boot
Disadvantages:	Take a while to break in

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

After years and years of renting boots I thought it was about time that I finally shelled out for my own pair of ski boots. Since I’ve been going every winter for the last few years I figured that I would make most of my money back within 4 to 5 years.

I went down to my local ski shop and before long had paid about £180 for my new boots. They retail for more like £220 but fortunately for me they happened to be on sale!

The boots have what is called a “3D Custom Fit Liner”. What this means is that when you have the boots fitted, the inner liner is custom shaped to your foot using a special machine that heats the liner. I felt like a bit of a ninny sitting their in the shop with my feet in a machine shaped liked a foot spa, but it’s good to know that the boots will be a very snug fit to my feet.

As for the hard outer part to the boot, this is very adjustable. There are four buckles in common with the design of many modern ski boots. In addition to the fitting adjustment that you get by using the different buckle positions, the buckles shorten and lengthen very slightly by rotating. This allows for very fine fine-tuning to your fit. One of the buckles is called a “3D Buckle”!!! This means that its position can be changed to best fit your foot.

Once broken in, these boots are extremely comfortable. None of the sore feet that I have had in the past from a succession of rented boots. I used them for everyday skiing and also wore them in a race. For the race I was able to tighten them up slightly to get even more control.

These boots also look very smart indeed. I have had mine for two years now and they still look amongst the coolest boots on the slopes. (Although I think boarders would disagree that anything skiers wear can possibly be cool!)

I have used these boots with carving skis, twin tips and ski blades. They have proved to be very versatile.

I do not recommend these boots for beginners, and maybe not even for intermediate skiers. I followed all the advice to break in my new boots before going on holiday by wearing them around the house. However it was not until midway through my second week with them that they started to feel comfortable. Also I know that if you shop around there are many boots available at a much cheaper price than these. So unless you’ve been skiing for at least 5 or 6 weeks I would suggest that these are a little pricey and take too long to break in for the not totally committed skier.

If you do get a pair of these then make sure to break them in thoroughly before taking them to the slopes. Also don’t leave them in the cold damp boot room overnight. It is much better to take them inside, separate the inner liner from the boot and thoroughly dry it out before putting them on again the next day. Otherwise you’ll get damp feet! Believe me I know from experience!!!!