How to choose your snowboard bindings?

For every style, there are bindings! To ensure a safe and smooth ride, it is important to choose your snowboard bindings according to your practice. Indeed, as with slats, certain technical characteristics of bindings facilitate snowboarding, freestyle or all-mountain riding instead. Follow our advice...

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Snowboard bindings: how they work

They are the link between your body and your board, so it is necessary to choose your snowboard bindings carefully so that they transmit your instructions perfectly while ensuring comfort and safety. Unlike downhill skiing, here you will not have a hardness value to set on your bindings. To find the absolute best snowboard bindings for your practice and easy to put on, you will mainly focus on their flex and the type of entry.

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The different types of bindings

In order for everyone to choose the snowboard bindings that they find most practical, different types of bindings have been created:

• Ankle strap + toe strap: this is what you might call the traditional binding. It offers a very good foot hold onto the baseplate and the bottom of the spoiler, but also at the front. If the toe strap was until recently the standard, it tends to be replaced by the toe capstrap, a more covering strap that also holds the foot horizontally and thus prevents it from sticking out of the board. This can be particularly interesting for carving enthusiasts who will avoid many front edge mistakes. To put on these snowboard bindings, you have to enter your foot on the side.
• Rear entry: to step in your bindings, you lower the spoiler before raising it, in order to ensure the support of your feet. With this quick binding system, putting on the bindings is extremely easy. In addition, it eliminates the need to touch the buckles on the bindings and ensures that you always have the right setting.
• Mixed fasteners: the idea is once again to offer a quick and convenient binding system. Only one strap needs to be closed to secure the ankle strap and the toe strap and you'll need need to step in the binding from the sides.
• Step In System: also known as Step On at Burton, this quick fastening system for snowboards makes fitting even easier. All you have to do is slide your foot up and down, with your heel firmly stuck to the spoiler, and the boot will lock in.

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Freestyle, freeride and all-mountain bindings: the flex makes the difference

To feel perfectly comfortable in your bindings and get the most out of your board, it is important to choose equipment that is appropriate for your practice. For snowboard bindings, it's what's called flex that will let you know if you're on the right track. It is in fact simply the stiffness of the binding. The size of the spoiler will also need to be taken into account. Types of bindings according to practice:

• Freestyle snowboard bindings: to perform tricks, tweaks and other grabs, you'll need a soft flex and a spoiler that's not too high for more freedom in your movements, but also more tolerance to mistakes.
• Freeride snowboard bindings: to drive the power needed to ride in deep powder and still keep control of your board, you need to choose stiff snowboard bindings with a high spoiler.
• All-mountain snowboard bindings: for these all-mountain boards, the recommended flex is medium. If you are a beginner, you can go for a soft flex and increase the stiffness of your bindings as you progress later on.

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What snowboard bindings size to choose?

To choose the right size of snowboard bindings, the size of your boots will help you choose between the sizes M, S and L. Each brand has it's own correspondences and here is a list for the main manufacturers:

For your board to respond perfectly to your power impulses and for you to have fun in complete safety, it is important to choose the right size snowboard bindings, adapted to your practice and compatible with your equipment. So, before you get started, don't forget to try them out!