Snowboard Bindings Pros & Cons

Equipment can play a big part in your snowboarding. Learn The Pros & Cons To Snowboard Bindings to help you have a better time on the slopes. Follow us by subscribing on YouTube to get all our new videos & tips. Flowing Freeride will teach how to pick the right snowboard gear best for you and drills to improve your skills. You’ll have access to all our snowboard tutorials when you sign up that cover every step and feedback from your coach. We also have some free snowboard videos to prepare for snowboard safety on our YouTube Page. I recommend watching these snowboard videos; Great Tips To Tune Your Snowboard, How To Repair Snowboard Part 2, How To Repair Core Shots, Snowboard Binding Types, Binding Angles, Picking The Right Size of Snowboard, Demo Snowboards, Snowboard Camber Technology, & Sizing Boots & Bindings.

The most common snowboard binding is the two strap ratchet system. There are different types of snowboard bindings, but I prefer the 2 strap ratchet system and here’s why. They keep you locked in and if one strap breaks whilst you’re on the mountain you can fix them or at least get down the slope. The most important strap is your ankle strap. If your toe strap breaks it won’t be that difficult to snowboard down the run. If the ankle strap does break you can try to connect the toe strap or use its parts to fix the ankle strap. If that doesn’t work you can skid down on your heelside edge. If you go to your toeside then your heel can lift out and your foot can come out completely. You don’t want that to happen and it can cause injury. I’ve found this system keeps you locked in the best and most reliable. The con to this system is that you have to reach down to put it on and off. You have to be able to touch your toes. This is hard for heavy set folks and it takes more time.

I have to give a shout out to the late Jake Burton for pushing snowboard technology. I found one of the first Burton setups with bindings that had three straps at a pawn shop in Truckee, California over 20 years ago. It must have been built in the 80’s. The snowboard was convex and shaped like a boat, great for powder but that’s about it. I didn’t like Burton bindings and boards because you had to buy their equipment. They are definitely the Mac of the snowboard world with all the Fucking Dongles! Their boards had a three hole screw system and you had to have a base plate that was compatible with their system. Bindings had to provide 2 base plates, one for normal four screw holes and the three screw holes for Burton. I call bollocks on that and now they’ve gone to just two screws, even worse. I’m an advanced snowboarder. I have the highest level of certification and bought one of their bindings that only works on their snowboards. I’ve had to really research what all their equipment does so I don’t make that mistake again. I ended up buying a used Burton demo board so I could use those bindings. With fewer points of contact to hold your binding to the board the screws come loose. Your toes and heels come off the board causing inefficiencies. They have pushed snowboard companies to make better products.

There are step-in or step-on binding systems. Flow is a company that developed a rear entry binding. You release the system by opening the high back or the rear and your foot slides in. You then pull the highback up and that locks the binding. It’s less work and much quicker than the 2 strap system. The bad thing is that if the wire that holds that in breaks you’re screwed. No way to fix it and you’re walking down. Another negative is that the locking system can fail. It happened to me at a high speed on my toeside. My foot came out and I flew out of control off the run. Lucky for me it was soft powder. I could have been seriously injured and haven’t ridden them since. You might be able to find older systems but they’ve had too many problems and you had to have their boots to fit their binding. Some didn’t even have a high back.

Burton has a step-on system that has a high back. These are very fast to get into. All you do is lineup your boots and step in. To release you do need to reach down so you still need to have some flexibility. Jake Burton designed these bindings so older guys 50’s plus good go out and ride. You do have to buy their boot and binding with this system. They are not great because snow gets into the binding and boot making them jam up. They have tried to perfect them but your snowboard pants can get jammed in them and then you can’t release them. If that happens you’re either ripping your pants or taking the binding off. That doesn’t save time and if you rip your pants you’ve just spent a good chunk of change for new pants. I feel a wee bit more of movement with this system. They are also very expensive.

The best thing to do is demo different types and see what you like. Most aggressive high end Rippers use the two strap system because of how reliable they are. I like being able to buy any boot that will work on any binding and give my money to a company that wants to be a monopoly. You can sign up for the full course to gain access to all of our snowboard lessons, study guides, textbooks, glossary, tests and direct feedback from your coach. Learn to snowboard online with flowingfreeride.com and take a look at our YouTube Page for more free content and learn to snowboard right! Online snowboard resources like videos on our YouTube Channel and articles like these can help you a ton. Professional snowboard lessons help even more. My name is Blake Tholen Clark Contact Me if you want to book a lesson or have any questions about Snowboarding.