SX in the wild

[Philpug]

Closest I found were these being worked on in the shop yesterday
View attachment 89509

A virtual cookie for the first person who can say what brand SanMarco evolved into.

 

[KingGrump]

Head

 

[fatbob]

How about bonus points for anyone who can show the SX in its fully evloved state with the base plate still in the binding of a ski skittering off down the hill and the wearer hopping around with 75% of a boot around his foot just not the bottom.....

 

[Philpug]

How about bonus points for anyone who can show the SX in its fully evloved state with the base plate still in the binding of a ski skittering off down the hill and the wearer hopping around with 75% of a boot around his foot just not the bottom.....

I have seen many of boot blow up...I cannot recall an SX. I have seen 90's with disintegrated heel strikes but thats about it.

 

[Cheizz]

I saw these in Valloire, France two weeks ago...

By tha way... I read "sex in the wild" the first time. I have no pictures of that at the moment.

 

[James]

View attachment 89511

I saw these in Valloire, France two weeks ago...

Back to the ugly 90's for Nordica.

 

[Scruffy]

Grabbed from the internet several years ago:
View attachment 89397

What's on his lower leg?

 

[KevinF]

Ok... for those of us who weren’t skiing yet when rear-entry boots went out of fashion....

What is it about the SX90 series that has inspired such fanatical devotion? Obviously @mdf isn’t the last person alive to be rocking these.

 

[Chef23]

Ok... for those of us who weren’t skiing yet when rear-entry boots went out of fashion....

What is it about the SX90 series that has inspired such fanatical devotion? Obviously @mdf isn’t the last person alive to be rocking these.

They were very comfortable, warm, easy to get on and off and skied reasonably well. Very well for a rear entry boot.

 

[James]

I can recall seeing them in Tignes, France 1979 or 1980. The Red/Grey/White accent ones. They were not being rocked by Jerry’s, but were being skied by very good skiers and looked high tech. They could have been prototypes.

Never skied one. From what I understand, Soloman held their patents, and companies getting around them made inferior products. The inferior products swamped the market and eventually tanked it. Don’t know why Soloman abandoned it.
@bud heishman talked about testing every rear entry boot on the market in late 80’s or early 90’s. Some had no forward flex but flexed rearward.

 

[Alexzn]

I read somewhere that Salomon's patent was about the routing of the SX boot cinching cable below the ankle bone. Does anyone have an understanding of why these boots skied so well? Clearly all the famous freeriders from the 80s who rocked SX boots had access to the 4-buckle race boots, but chose to ski the SX. And I don't think those guys would tolerate a lot of performance compromises, as their health and even lives were often on the line.

 

[tch]

I read somewhere that Salomon's patent was about the routing of the SX boot cinching cable below the ankle bone. Does anyone have an understanding of why these boots skied so well? Clearly all the famous freeriders from the 80s who rocked SX boots had access to the 4-buckle race boots, but chose to ski the SX. And I don't think those guys would tolerate a lot of performance compromises, as their health and even lives were often on the line.

I'm not really a ski historian, but from what I remember, rear-entry boots were almost ubiquitous. I don't even remember seeing 4-buckle boots in shops. I guess racers were using them, but not guys like Scott Schmidt.
I had a pair I really liked b/c the cable did a really good job of cinching down my ankle and heel. I felt locked in much more solidly than I'd experienced before. The question of forward flex didn't seem to come up so much.

 

[cantunamunch]

The question of forward flex didn't seem to come up so much.

It did come up - sort of- and the proof is that forward flex and limit was set by those sliders you can see on the white SX91 and the Force 9 above. The ones just in front of the cuff/clog edge.

They felt like - slippers, even when properly sized. No point in trying to get rid of the slipper feel because cinching down on the cable gave you numb feet before anything else could be felt to have changed.

 

[AmyPJ]

What's on his lower leg?

I don’t know. Maybe his boots gave him blisters!

 

[Chef23]

I skied the 92Es for a season or two and they performed pretty well for me. The non Salomon rear entry boots never held as well.

 

[PNWRod]

Phew....I was afraid this was NSFW so I didn't venture into this room until the coast was clear.

 

[James]

I guess racers were using them, but not guys like Scott Schmidt.

Edit- I see now you meant Schmidt didn’t use race boots, he used the SX.

Yes, he did. A lot. The book, The Athletic Skier, 1992, has lots of photos of him in black and yellow Solly rear entries
.

 

[Alexzn]

I'm not really a ski historian, but from what I remember, rear-entry boots were almost ubiquitous. I don't even remember seeing 4-buckle boots in shops. I guess racers were using them, but not guys like Scott Schmidt.
I had a pair I really liked b/c the cable did a really good job of cinching down my ankle and heel. I felt locked in much more solidly than I'd experienced before. The question of forward flex didn't seem to come up so much.

I think the bolded part explains some of it. I don't think wide availability was a real barrier for a guy like Scott Schmidt or Glenn Plake. People like him were fairly methodical about their equipment (at least after they got some notoriety and money associated with that) and would get what they needed to be successful. My other guess is that the forward flex on the SX boots was quite a bit more "progressive" than in the race boots, which would have made a big difference for the skiing style of that time.

 

[Mothertucker]

Interesting, gold anodized. Never seen it.
Very old school pole.
Probably will have to call dealers. I'd probably start in Aspen or Vail.
At least they're easy to cut so you don't need exact size.

Alta UT January 1993. I am also wearing them in my shiddy avatar pic. They readily accepted a full crampon, which was perfect for the bc I was doing at the time.

 

[mdf]

That's a good picture when presented that way. You should replace your avatar pic with the cropped version.