How to Choose Snowboard Bindings

• Getting Started
• Your Rider Profile
• Types of Bindings
• Stance, Mounting and Position

When shopping for riding gear, bindings are often treated as an afterthought, an accessory. Despite their lack of shiny graphics and hip attitude, bindings are in fact a critical component in the board/boot/binding trio as they are THE link between body and board. They need to be properly matched to your boots and board and are worth your attention when gear shopping.

Getting Started

The Basics

Snowboard bindings keep you safely attached to your board at leg-burning, freefall speeds, plus they communicate your adrenaline-fueled intentions down through the board's edges to the snow, ice and steel handrails rushing by below. They endure avalanches of wrenching use and abuse.

Bindings are as versatile as they are simple. Almost every general-use model is more than capable of tackling everything from shredding powder to freestyle park and piping. While there are noticeable differences (particularly in stiffness) between models, few are great enough to absolutely pigeonhole their usage. Unless you plan on living at the terrain park or in the halfpipe, a good general-use binding will deliver solid performance across the mountain and even in the backcountry.

Know Thyself

Think realistically about what type of riding you will be doing and where. This may be tough to gauge if you are new to the sport. Where you live or what resorts you like to visit is more obvious. Are you into long-radius carving and exhilarating plunges down the mountain Or do you pine for contorted aerials in the halfpipe? Do you live in powder country, the often-icy Northeast or the humid Pacific Northwest with their epic dumps of wet snow.

Your Rider Profile

Seasoned riders have a good feel for their abilities and preferences. Keep in mind that most people get at least two or three years out of their first board/binding setup. Even starter bindings deliver good value and commendable performance during the first seasons of your budding snowboarding obsession.

Riders fall into three basic skill groups:

• Recreational: You're trying out the sport for the first time. Or you've boarded roughly ten to 20 times and have mastered the rudiments of the sport, but you know you'll only get out a few times each year. This category of rider is still gaining a feel for what is possible in the world of snowboarding.
• Intermediate: Definitely bitten by the bug, you have advanced well past the basics, get out at least ten to 20 times a year and can stay upright on most terrain—and have fun doing so. While you're most likely very strong carving roomers, pulling basic tricks in the park and pipe, and riding through fresh powder, you still spend most of your time inbounds and are tentative on very technical terrain, steep terrain and the most difficult jibbing.
• Advanced/Expert: Two words: complete addiction! You know who you are. You've probably been riding for years and are confident on all types of terrain and all types of snow conditions. You have sampled the spectrum of boarding, from pipes to peaks, and may own several boards suited to different types of riding. This category also includes backcountry riders. The backcountry offers far different experiences than the resort scene due to the additional skills, fitness, tools and knowledge required for safe riding in such an unpredictable and potentially hazardous place.

Know Your Budget

The price range for bindings is not as great as it is for boards. They start at around $100 for a basic model to the mid-$300s for one that is state-of-the-art. In the middle you'll find a plentiful selection of solid, capable models that should provide years of virtually maintenance-free service

Other Things to Consider

• Boots: Boots and bindings are almost universally compatible. But occasionally a manufacturer's boot will work optimally only with their bindings. It's also possible, though unlikely, that your bindings limit the range of boot fit available. Boot fit is your #1 criteria, so make sure this isn't an issue.
• Release (or lack thereof): Snowboard bindings do not release like alpine or alpine touring ski bindings. Despite this fact, lower leg injuries are relatively rare for snowboarders. Why? In a boarding fall, both legs are anchored to one platform rather than flailing around individually as in a skiing fall. If you are prone to wicked, high-speed rag-doll falls or harbor serious concerns regarding injury, you might want to consider skiing instead. Backcountry snowboarders need to be especially aware of this lack of release. Should you become snared by a snow slide, without release, your bindings and board can act like an anchor dragging you downwards through the moving mass of snow.

Types of Bindings

The vast majority of bindings on the slopes today are either strap bindings or hybrids. These two types are distinguished by their relative convenience, with their slope-side personality and performance being lesser factors. Both are offered in a stiffness range that can be matched to the overall stiffness of your boot and board.

• Strap bindings: Hands down the most common type of binding, strap bindings have two ratcheting straps crossing over the forefoot and a rigid spoiler or "highback" cradling the rear of the leg from heel to calf. Their straightforward design is more than proven, though they do require a bit of groveling when dealing with the straps before and after riding lifts.
• Hybrid bindings: These are nearly indistinguishable from strap bindings, as much of their basic function and overall profile is the same. Instead of double straps across the forefoot, hybrids use a non-adjustable yoke (or sheet of fabric) to harness the foot to the board. The defining feature, though, is a hinged, high-back spoiler that drops backwards like a drawbridge for relatively hassle-free rear entry. Hybrids are favored by those who hate excessive rump-time buckling and unbuckling their straps, as well by surfers and carvers who like the uniform pressure they deliver across the forefoot.

Two other types of bindings, more popular in years past, have cultish followings amongst seasoned riders with specific needs and tastes.

• Plate bindings: Plate bindings are machined out of various metals and do not accept soft boots. Instead, they only work with "hard" boots like plastic mountaineering boots and alpine touring boots. Plate bindings are as absolutely rigid for precise edge pressure for downhill racing and carving. They are also the snowboard mountaineer's tool of choice as they require hard boots with lugged, welted soles for walking and cramponing.
• Step-in bindings: Step-in binding popularity peaked around five to ten years ago. Operating somewhat like a step-in bike pedal, convenience was and is their most salient feature. Burton, K2 and Switch all built, or build, step-in bindings. Suffice it to say, riders have mostly lost interest in step-in bindings in recent years making them essentially non-players and non-existent in today's market today.

Binding Materials

Snowboard bindings are made from a combination of metal, carbon and high-tech plastics, each of which has its own merits. The key to a quality binding is not necessarily found in the materials but rather how the materials are used and how well the binding is designed and built. The most recent wonder material, carbon fiber, does generally result in lighter bindings but at a higher pricetag.

Stiffness

Bindings don't fit neatly into recreational, intermediate and expert categories. Instead, like boots and boards, they are offered in varying levels of stiffness. The stiffness you opt for depends as much on personal taste as it does performance considerations.

• Softer bindings provide a more dynamic, flexible connection between you and your board. Forgiving and shock absorbing, beginning riders often enjoy these bindings along with advanced freestyler riding in the halfpipe and in terrain parks.
• Stiffer bindings more immediately transmit energy to your edges and excel at precise carving, speed and technical descents off backcountry summits.

Stance, Mounting and Position

If you're just starting out, here are a few terms to be aware of when shopping.

Regular or Goofy Foot: This refers to whether you stand on a board with your left (regular) or right (goofy) foot forward on a directional board. To figure this out, stand with feet roughly shoulder-width apart and have someone push you from behind without knowing when he or she is going to do it. You will naturally try to resist tumbling forward by extending one of your feet forward. Whichever foot naturally moves forward first determines whether you're goofy or merely regular.

Stance Width: Stance width refers to how far apart you mount your bindings and your feet.

Stance Angle: This refers to how many degrees your feet are canted away from being perpendicular to the board's tip-to-tail centerline. How acute these angles are depends on personal preference, your natural stance and how aggressive you want to be on the board. Most snowboarders riding directional boards do so with both feet canted forward, the front foot being 10-30 degrees off of perpendicular, the rear 0-10 degrees off of perpendicular. This is not etched in stone, however. If you are new to riding, then keep in mind you can play with all aspects of stance to tailor it to your comfort and performance needs.

Duck Foot: Riding duck footed is where the front of your feet are angled away from each other and towards your board's tips, Charlie Chaplin style. Duck-footed binding mounts go hand in hand with non-directional, twin-tipped boards. It is used for freestyle pipe and park riding where your direction of travel changes with each spin of the board.

Inserts: These are the threaded, metal sockets in your board into which your bindings are anchored with sheet metal screws. Snowboards are fitted with repeating sets of inserts allowing you to fine tune and customize your stance on the board.

Binding Position: Bindings may be mounted either centered or setback. Binding position greatly affects how the board rides, especially through soft snow.

• Centered stance means just that, with equal amounts of board between the outside of each foot and the corresponding tip. Highly balanced, this is the preferred freestyle stance for park and pipe.
• Setback stance finds you positioning the binding and your body away from the leading tip, towards the back of the board. Some all-mountain and powder riders use this position for better flotation in deep fields of unconsolidated snow. Setback position is not necessary for tapered powder boards.