The MASTERFIT UNIVERSITY curriculum has been developed by master boot technicians Jeffrey S. Rich, C. Ped, Gregory Hoffmann, C. Ped, Michael Tambling, C. Ped., Robert Gleason, Mark Elling and Dana Cagen. Mr. Rich, Mr. Gleason, Mr. Hoffmann, Mr. Tambling, Mr. Elling and Mr. Cagen have all lectured extensively on the bio mechanics of snow sports and related boot fitting and modification issues. The MasterFit U. staff has more than 300 years of combined orthotic manufacturing and boot fitting/customization experience.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT/FULL-TIME STAFF
Jeffrey Rich, a practicing pedorthist since 1982 with Board Certification since 1993, owns the New York City-based U.S. Orthotic Center, an acknowledged ski industry leader in advanced fitting techniques and orthotic and footbed manufacturing. He has served numerous world-class athletes
including tennis players Ivan Lendl and Monica Seles and Olympic skiing gold medallist Debbie Armstrong. He writes regularly about ski boots and fitting issues for Ski Press Magazine where he is technical director of the boot-testing program. Prior to joining Ski Press in December 2001, he had been director of the Ski Magazine boot-testing program and written extensively about ski boots and fitting issues for the publication. Mr. Rich
has also written for Biomechanics magazine and has lectured for the
Professional Footwear Assn. and the Professional Ski Instructors of America.
Bob Gleason is co-owner of The Boot Doctors, specialty boot fitting shops in Telluride, Colo. and Taos, N.M. He has lectured extensively about boot fitting and created training programs for several major ski boot manufacturers. He has also designed ski boots and made custom footbeds for many top-level ski racers. He has written about ski boots and fitting issues for SKIING Magazine, Skiing Trade News and Transworld Snowboarding Business. He has lectured on boot fitting and stance issues for the Professional Ski Instructors of America.
Greg Hoffmann, a board certified pedorthist since 1993, owns the Stratton, Vt. based Green Mountain Orthotic Lab which manufacturers custom orthotics and provides stance balancing services to skiers at the base of Stratton VT. He has worked with the Professional Ski Instructors of America Eastern Demonstration team in fitting boots, manufacturing orthotics and stance balancing. He has written about ski boots and fitting issues for Ski Press Magazine (where he is assistant boot testing program coordinator) as well as Skiing Trade News. He has lectured on boot fitting and stance issues for the Professional Ski Instructors of America, the Eastern Ski Journalists Assn., the New England Ski Areas Assn. and Ski Areas of New York among others.
Mark Elling is an accomplished outdoor and snow sports expert with experience in various fields. He is the author of The All-Mountain Skier: The Way to Expert Skiing (McGraw-Hill), a regular contributor and editorial review board member to The Professional Skier and National Ski Patrol magazines and technical contributor and equipment review consultant for Skiing magazine.
He is based in Oregon where during the winter months he is a professional guide at Mount Bailey Snow cat Skiing, head boot fitter at Mount Bachelor Ski and Sport and owner of Mercury Mobile Performance, a custom footbed and bootfitting service. In the summer, he is a professional raft guide and staff trainer with Sun Country Tours and a contributing writer to Paddler magazine. He has received certifications as a Level III Alpine Ski Instructor and Level II Backcountry Tour Leader from the Northwest Division of PSIA. He is also a Certified Level II Backcountry Guide by The American Avalanche Institute and a Certified Wilderness First Responder by The Wilderness Medicine Institute. He has also been a ski boot tester for Skiing, Ski, and Ski Press magazines.
ADJUNCT STAFF
Jeff Bokum is a board-certified Pedorthist and owner of Profile Orthotic
Center at S&W Sports in Concord, NH. He is professional firefighter with
the Portsmouth, NH Fire Dept. with a Level III state certification in
firefighting, EMT intermediate certification and Level II Rescue Systems. He has been a ski boot tester with Ski Press magazine since 2002.
Dana Cagen is a certified examiner and Level III instructor by the Professional Ski Instructors of America organization. He is an experienced ski equipment specialist who has owned and operated retail ski shops and provided professional boot fit service to world-class racers including Olympic Gold Medal winners Jonny Moseley and Donna Weinbrecht. He is the former ski school director at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, NY and former director of development and assistant athletic director at the National Sports Academy, a private high school in Lake Placid. He holds a Masters in Administration, Physical Education and Recreation.
Brian Graham has been a board-certified pedorthist since 1994 and is owner of Performance Zone, an Auburn Hills, MI firm specializing in custom insoles
and alignment services for all athletics. Performance Zone also has a substantial practice providing prescription orthotics and footwear to orthopedic patients. Mr. Graham has written about foot anatomy for BioMechanics magazine and co-designed a patented, pre-fabricated device to treat the cavus foot. He is a pedorthic consultant to Michigan State University, Michigan International Foot & Ankle Center, Detroit Fury, Oakland University and the University of Detroit Mercy. Mr. Graham has completed courses of study at Northwestern University Medical School Orthotic & Prosthetic Center (Chicago, IL) and the Cleveland Clinic Orthotic Prosthetic Center (Cleveland, OH).
Jim Schaffner is a certified pedorthist and co-owner of The Start Haus, a high-end specialty ski shop specializing in custom boot fitting and
alignment in Truckee, CA. He was a nationally ranked amateur and
professional ski racer, a World Cup ski racing service technician, manager of Salomon's North American Racing and Promotions Department and consultant for the race departments of several ski manufacturers.
Mike Tambling has been a board certified pedorthist since 1998. He is the owner of Southern Ski, a Columbia, SC winter sports shop specializing in ski
boot fitting, Palmetto Pedorthic Care, a pedorthic facility serving the midlands of South Carolina and Southern Ski Tools, the manufacturer of the Toe Jam Spreader boot stretching tools. Mr. Tambling has provided custom fitting and manufactured custom insoles for top members of the National Ski Patrol and Professional Ski Instructors of America. Through Palmetto Pedorthic, he has worked with local minor league baseball and hockey teams, area high school football teams plus a number of nationally prominent professional golfers.
James “Willy” Wilbur is a board-certified pedorthist and manager of one of the tri-state New York area’s premier ski shops, Ski Barn in Paramus, NJ. He has been providing his knowledge of boot fitting, biomechanics and custom insole fabrication since 1990. He is also a member of the Ski Press Magazine boot testing team.
Nick Blaylock has a rich practical background in skiing as well as a formal education. He graduated from the Univ. of Maine at Farmington's acclaimed ski industry program in 2000. He immediately began working as a ski boot tech with Green Mountain Orthotics Lab (GMOL) at Stratton, VT where he has achieved distinction as a master bootfitter.
He continues to work for Skibootfitting.com (formerly GMOL) at its new Vail Sports location in Vail, CO. He has lectured on stance analysis and bootfitting for the Professional Ski Instructor of America, an organization from which he has earned Level III certification. He has been teaching bootfitting with Masterfit University since 2001.
Charlie Bradley has been fitting boots professionally for 19 years, the last 15 at the renowned Boot Doctors shop in Taos, NM. He has been an associate instructor at Masterfit U for six years and also teaches at PSIA-Rocky Mountain stance balance workshops. A graduate of the Feldenkrais Training Program in Santa Fe, he has extensive knowledge of functional skeletal movement.
Jack Rafferty has been a practicing pedorthist since 1980. He attended Ball State University and is accredited through The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society, The American Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Society. Jack has been an instructor at Masterfit University for 10 years. He developed and currently fabricates orthotic supports for the Orthopaedic Associates of Aspen and Glenwood Springs as well as the Roaring Fork Family Physicians group. He is founder and owner of the Thotic Shops of Snowmass/Aspen and has worked with top athletes, fabricating orthotics for tennis champion Martina Navratilova, U.S. cycling gold medalist Alexi Grewal and PGA golfer Chris DiMarco.
Bob Egeland is a Board Certified Pedorthist with extensive experience in footwear sales, retailer fit training and product design. He spent 25 years with a major hiking boot manufacturer before training as a C. Ped and subsequently launching his own private orthotics practice. He is currently a senior instructor with Masterfit University and created the program's Backcountry Connection curriculum. He is also national footwear/medical sales representative and Rocky Mountain/Snowsports rep for Masterfit Enterprises products. An avid Telemark skier, hiker, mountain biker and fly fisherman, he lives and works in Niwot, CO.
