Be Careful What You Step-In
December 5, 1997
A couple of years ago, only snowboarders that used hard boots and skiers could get right off the lift, clip down (if they had not done so already), and go. Soft booted snowboarders were left behind while they were buckling and (even slower) ratcheting. This is a very bad disadvantage on a crowded powder day if you care about getting fresh tracks. It should of no surprise that my skier friends call snowboarders: slow-boarders. The need to be able to just step in and go with full performance functionality has been obvious for years. The first generation of step in bindings performed the function they were made to do: step in. As usual with first generation technology, there were problems: clogging, comfort, and lacking performance. We are basically 4 years and a few players have 3Rd or 4Th generation products. This article will cover 4 basic topics: the bindings, the boots, this best of this year's products, and the rumors about next year.
The Bindings
The basic binding mechanisms have been refined some to operate better and clog less. I still recommend spraying your bindings and boots with silicon, RainX, or something to prevent fresh snow from clogging or sticking in your bindings (this works for regular bindings too). There seems to be 2 main schools of thought when it comes to interfacing the boot with board: toe and heel connection, and the middle of the boot connection.
The Toe and Heel Connection
This approach has the advantage of delivering energy closer to the boards edges. The disadvantage is that the connection has to be under the boot (unless you ride with a racer stance).
Toe Heel School: K2/Shimano Clicker and the Device.
The Middle of the Boot Connection
This school of thought is the most popular (probably due to patent laws; not the laws of physics) and has produced the most easy to step-in systems. These connect and thus deliver most of the riders controlling energies from the middle of the boot and board, not the most efficient setup. Even with some of the systems allowing some boot to board contact, most in this category lacked the control provided by toe and heel connections.
Middle School: Switch, Rossignol, Santa Cruz, DNR, Blax, and Arcane. The Quicksilver Arcane uses a base-plate that you rotate your boot into, I will put in into the middle connection school, but the connection grooves are rather broad so these guys are kind of going their own direction.
The Boots
The real progress has been made were we really needed it: the boots. The boots were so bad at first that they either did not have enough support or more typically they had so much poorly designed support that they hurt and provided sluggish performance. Now there are a lot of manufactures in the step-in market that make comfortable and still functional enough boots
The Best
All of the players have made so much progress by going from really bad to functional enough. These recommendations vary depending how you ride and of course your foot (try on as many boots as you can, comfort is key).
Rider profile 1 is the easy rider and beginner. Easy step-in, comfort, and enough function to get done what you need to do are your priorities.
The easiest to step-in and one of the lightest of any bindings on the market is the Rossignol SIS 360 systems.
The most comfortable boot I tried was the Switch Axle with the simple enough Switch binding.
The Device Electron binding used to have bad problems in deep snow, but that has been improved (that is what they said, but I did not have any deep snow to put to the test at the demos).The Device boots are very comfortable and the system performs pretty good.
Rider profile 2 Freerider
Shimano Skylord boots with the Clicker Binding system will be a good combo for the all day big mountain rider as well as the weekend boarding athlete.
Switches Axle boot (with Switch binding of course) will be a good choice for big mountain riders, instructors, and mountain employees.
Rider profile 3 Freestyler
K2 Yak or Shimano Enduro boots with the Clicker binding will be very popular with locals and all but the most tweak worthy rippers.
Santa Cruz and DNR step-in systems (basically the same) felt the most like traditional bindings while riding along with some traditional style foot pain. Some tweakers will accept the lack of cushioning in these boots to be able to step-in. This system has potential, we can just hope the boots get more comfortable next year.
Rossignol SIS 360 system has a very traditional binding feel, it is the easiest to step-in, and it is one of the lightest binding systems available. This binding may convert some traditionalists. If not this year, then next year when the boots get better.
The Future
The future is now, while I stand there all clicked in and waiting for my friends that still have to strap it on (sorry my friends, no waiting on powder days). Very near in the future will be the spring demos of next year's boots and bindings with many rumored improvements to the established players. All this buzz buzz buzz, what about Burton and Solamon. Rumors are cheap, but there are fresh rumors are that these players may be coming out with products next year.
News Flash: Morrow will have a step-in for the 98-99 season. The binding is a triangular baseplate with three attachment points. The boot feels pretty good and has some innovative ideas.
We will check more out as soon as we can. Until then, I wouldn't be waiting for you on powder days.
Email: gwc3@boardz.com
URL: http://www.boardz.com/
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