I have been doing a lot of testing of a variety of base snowboard bindings for use for skiboarding and have come to some conclusions that I want to share for DIY skiboarders or for those who will use the new SBOL conversion kit when it becomes available
1/ try to find a base binding that has a pretty rigid highback and has an aluminum heel cup . The entire baseplate does not need to be aluminum and an aluminum heel cup attached to a plastic composite side wall and baseplate is fine as long as the plastic composite is pretty stiff . This is important for lateral stability at the base of your boot . A fairly rigid highback is important to give enough side to side support for the attached wings when you lean sideways.
Lots of snowboard bindings , even more expensive bindings are made of all composite material and tend to be have more lateral flex then we skiboarders want . There is a trend in snowboarding even in high end bindings to have more flex laterally to perform better in the park and also to have a more flexible highback . Remember in snowboarding the rider is going mostly heel to toe whereas we are going side to side . Interestingly even for hard boot snowboarders who use Bomber bindings .. Bomber has created ways to give the rider more side to side flex in their ultra rigid bindings. We don't want or need that . The Rocker binding was originally an attempt by Jake to create a new snowboard binding combining a uber rigid 3 strap winged binding on top with a mechanical subfloor to allow more flex laterally for snowboarding . I liked the top of the binding and asked Jake to adapt that for skiboarding and it worked fine. Expensive bindings do not necessarily mean better for skiboarders , finding the right binding to convert is really important . I have been working directly with Greco to find the right bindings to convert for his SBOL modified bindings and I think Greco being a rider of soft boot bindings himself understands all the issues involved and has been able to come up with the bindings that have the right requirements .
As an example of a failed coversion attempt . I used an all plastic Salomon Binding called the Salomon Boss that my son has had good results with snowboading . I did not like it at all for skiboarding . The highback was too flexy and the all plastic sidewalls and heel cup had too much give laterally for my tastes for skiboarding .
2/ How about Flow bindings? While the idea of a rapid rear entry binding is super cool , the Flow binding design has some inherent weaknesses for aggressive skiboarding . Previous Flow bindings were difficult to convert because the Flow lever rested right against the highback and there was no room to install wings. New high end Flow bindings have a separate rachet receiver that allow enough room above to install wings . I converted a high end Flow Nx2-At 300 dollar binding to use for skiboarding and thought it had great promise and was super cool in terms of ease of entry but yesterday I had a catastrophic fail . Here is an analysis of this fail :
The flow binding is a double ladder strap system on 4 ends of a leather pad over the top of the boot. There are plastic rachet straps on both sides with a lock lever to allow adjustment of the length of those straps .. on the new high end Flow bindings on one side are thick deep grooves with a traditional big rachet lever . That side did not fail. On the other side the strap has very low grooves very close together to allow micro adjustability. The lever that holds the strap in place is very small and has a very small part that fits in the groove . Ok the other thing to understand about a Flow binding is that you run the leather pad over your boot a little looser then you would traditional straps to allow some give in the system once the highback is locked down otherwise it is uncomfortable on the top of your boot . Ok, next think about an advanced rider trying to hold an edge on a steep icy slope . Valmorel has shown some pictures of the angulated stance we use . The idea is to throw your body down away from the slope looking down the hill rather then leaning into the slope. You can get great edge pressure by your whole body leaning away from the hill while your inside edges are right up against the steep hill. I was just in this position when I caused the catastrophic failure . As I was doing this my boot pulled against the leather pad on top of my boot and forced both straps to slide right out on the side with the micro shallow grooves and flimsy rachet hold down which were on the edge of the skiboard edging into the hill , while I was leaning the other way down hill forcing a catastrophic ejection .
My Technine binding which I used later yesterday also has a double ladder but the ladder on both sides have nice deep grooves especially on the critical ankle strap and a much more robust rachet lever on both sides .. Also it is a three strap system so the load is only on a single strap at a time rather then on the big leather pad and in a three strap system you run the straps nice and tight , rather then looser like a flow system .. A three strap system will likely never fail doing the same manuever .. I actually did the exact same manuever using this binding on the same slope later in the day with no issue , of course .
In final analysis .. I would be very hesitant about converting Flow bindings if you are an aggressive skiboarder . Remember again we put way different strains on our snowboard bindings then snowboarders do who are edging front to to heel and not aggressively putting the extreme lateral stresses we put on bindings !
Bottom line , if you really want to have the best experience ,let Greco do all the work for you finding the best base bindings and cobbling it all together or if you are going to do it on your own be careful what binding you choose to convert and remember that an expensive snowboard binding great for snowboarding does not always equate with a better binding for skiboarding .!
1/ try to find a base binding that has a pretty rigid highback and has an aluminum heel cup . The entire baseplate does not need to be aluminum and an aluminum heel cup attached to a plastic composite side wall and baseplate is fine as long as the plastic composite is pretty stiff . This is important for lateral stability at the base of your boot . A fairly rigid highback is important to give enough side to side support for the attached wings when you lean sideways.
Lots of snowboard bindings , even more expensive bindings are made of all composite material and tend to be have more lateral flex then we skiboarders want . There is a trend in snowboarding even in high end bindings to have more flex laterally to perform better in the park and also to have a more flexible highback . Remember in snowboarding the rider is going mostly heel to toe whereas we are going side to side . Interestingly even for hard boot snowboarders who use Bomber bindings .. Bomber has created ways to give the rider more side to side flex in their ultra rigid bindings. We don't want or need that . The Rocker binding was originally an attempt by Jake to create a new snowboard binding combining a uber rigid 3 strap winged binding on top with a mechanical subfloor to allow more flex laterally for snowboarding . I liked the top of the binding and asked Jake to adapt that for skiboarding and it worked fine. Expensive bindings do not necessarily mean better for skiboarders , finding the right binding to convert is really important . I have been working directly with Greco to find the right bindings to convert for his SBOL modified bindings and I think Greco being a rider of soft boot bindings himself understands all the issues involved and has been able to come up with the bindings that have the right requirements .
As an example of a failed coversion attempt . I used an all plastic Salomon Binding called the Salomon Boss that my son has had good results with snowboading . I did not like it at all for skiboarding . The highback was too flexy and the all plastic sidewalls and heel cup had too much give laterally for my tastes for skiboarding .
2/ How about Flow bindings? While the idea of a rapid rear entry binding is super cool , the Flow binding design has some inherent weaknesses for aggressive skiboarding . Previous Flow bindings were difficult to convert because the Flow lever rested right against the highback and there was no room to install wings. New high end Flow bindings have a separate rachet receiver that allow enough room above to install wings . I converted a high end Flow Nx2-At 300 dollar binding to use for skiboarding and thought it had great promise and was super cool in terms of ease of entry but yesterday I had a catastrophic fail . Here is an analysis of this fail :
The flow binding is a double ladder strap system on 4 ends of a leather pad over the top of the boot. There are plastic rachet straps on both sides with a lock lever to allow adjustment of the length of those straps .. on the new high end Flow bindings on one side are thick deep grooves with a traditional big rachet lever . That side did not fail. On the other side the strap has very low grooves very close together to allow micro adjustability. The lever that holds the strap in place is very small and has a very small part that fits in the groove . Ok the other thing to understand about a Flow binding is that you run the leather pad over your boot a little looser then you would traditional straps to allow some give in the system once the highback is locked down otherwise it is uncomfortable on the top of your boot . Ok, next think about an advanced rider trying to hold an edge on a steep icy slope . Valmorel has shown some pictures of the angulated stance we use . The idea is to throw your body down away from the slope looking down the hill rather then leaning into the slope. You can get great edge pressure by your whole body leaning away from the hill while your inside edges are right up against the steep hill. I was just in this position when I caused the catastrophic failure . As I was doing this my boot pulled against the leather pad on top of my boot and forced both straps to slide right out on the side with the micro shallow grooves and flimsy rachet hold down which were on the edge of the skiboard edging into the hill , while I was leaning the other way down hill forcing a catastrophic ejection .
My Technine binding which I used later yesterday also has a double ladder but the ladder on both sides have nice deep grooves especially on the critical ankle strap and a much more robust rachet lever on both sides .. Also it is a three strap system so the load is only on a single strap at a time rather then on the big leather pad and in a three strap system you run the straps nice and tight , rather then looser like a flow system .. A three strap system will likely never fail doing the same manuever .. I actually did the exact same manuever using this binding on the same slope later in the day with no issue , of course .
In final analysis .. I would be very hesitant about converting Flow bindings if you are an aggressive skiboarder . Remember again we put way different strains on our snowboard bindings then snowboarders do who are edging front to to heel and not aggressively putting the extreme lateral stresses we put on bindings !
Bottom line , if you really want to have the best experience ,let Greco do all the work for you finding the best base bindings and cobbling it all together or if you are going to do it on your own be careful what binding you choose to convert and remember that an expensive snowboard binding great for snowboarding does not always equate with a better binding for skiboarding .!
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