Safety ski boot structure

Claim 1

A safety ski boot structure for receiving a skier's foot and lower leg, comprising: a shoe member for receiving a skier's foot; a cuff member having a central cuff axis for receiving the skier's lower leg; an articulating cuff support means operatively interconnecting the shoe member and the cuff member for firmly supporting the cuff member above the shoe member and for enabling the cuff member to be forcibly articulated by the skier's lower leg in four dimensions with respect to the shoe member; said articulating cuff support means comprises a plurality of helical compression springs mounted in an upright orientation at angularly spaced locations about the cuff axis with upper ends rigidly fixed to the cuff member and lower ends rigidly fixed to the shoe member to prevent the fixed ends from moving with respect to the respective members; said helical compression springs having intermediate coil sections that are bendable, compressionable and extensible to enable the cuff member to forcibly articulate (1) in a first forward or backward dimension with respect to the shoe member when the skier's lower leg exerts a corresponding forward or backward force of sufficient magnitude to the cuff member, (2) in a second lateral dimension with respect to the shoe member when the skier's lower leg exerts a corresponding lateral force of sufficient magnitude to the cuff member, (3) in a third vertical dimension with respect to the shoe member when the skier's lower leg exerts a corresponding vertical force of sufficient magnitude to the cuff member, and (4) in a fourth rotational dimension about the central cuff axis with respect to the shoe member when the skier's lower leg exerts a corresponding rotational force of sufficient magnitude to the cuff member to minimize injury to the skier's lower leg.