Bindings and boots are where your money should be spent plain and simple. The difference between a £300 board and £400 board is, despite what brand spiel will tell you negligible. But £100 difference between boots and bindings is everything as it directly relates to your comfort and therefore the amount of time you spend on the hill, so if you’re going to spend some bunce bindings are where you should be looking to invest.

The most important elements of bindings are good straps and plenty adjustments for the high back, forward lean and heel cups so you can customise the fit for your feet. The areas to keep a close eye on are the ratchets and the teeth straps they grab. If the ratchet is metal then it will be very strong and unlikely to crack or lose teeth, unfortunately a metal ratchet will eat the tooth strap so if the bindings you’re looking at have metal ratchets check the tooth strap for wear. Equally if the ratchet is plastic then it will be the first point to weaken or wear. The good news on both fronts here is that ratchets, tooth straps and straps themselves if they come from a pedigree brand are readily available in most shops so replacements aren’t an issue but should be factored into your budget.

Cap or Wrap straps are a great way to judge the price point of bindings and to a certain extent the year that binding was made. Cap/wrap straps are toe straps that run over the top and around the front of your toe, so as opposed to just holding your toe down as the old over the top strap did, they now push your foot into the binding and hold it down. Only the very cheapest hire end of the market bindings come without cap straps and this has been the case for the last three to four years so you know that bindings without cap/wrap straps are either old or cheap. Again you can invest in new straps if you think the base plate and highback are solid.

What a segue, baseplates and highbacks are pretty simple fare, most baseplates will be plastic as it absorbs and cushions without warping, but some heel cups are aluminium which unless you are hitting 30 metre kickers with icy landings shouldn’t be an issue. Interestingly Burton hold the patent on the one piece baseplate, so all other brands have to make a two piece baseplate, which will weaken them slightly but again this is only an issue if you’re landing huge jumps with an anvil strapped to your back. High backs just need to have plenty of padding around the top and a good easy forward lean adjuster as this is essentially what controls how responsive your board to body interface is.

The last thing is to check is discs and compatibility, in simple terms Burton boards have a 3D system (uses three screws) while everyone else uses a 4x4 pattern (four screws). Burton bindings come with 3D discs and 4x4 discs, everyone else has one set of 4x4 discs that in most cases have enough hole options to fit a the 3D system, but do check this. As an aside in 2008 Burton released the EST Channel system that uses one central bolt, these EST bindings are not compatible with any other boards.

All of the above refers to the classic strap binding, but there are other options out there. The most closely related to the strap in binding is the Flow Binding, these have one strap over the foot that is locked in place and instead the highback flips open so the foot enters through the back of the binding. These have been around for a long time and I have come across many people who swear by them, I personally have only ridden a prototype pair fifteen years ago and they worked then and were very comfortable and I’m sure they’ve come along way since then so if you’re up for trying something different then they’re be worth a look. Now Step-Ins, I might get slayed for this but in my opinion step in bindings were always rubbish, they are heavy, the plates are so wide they affect the flex of the board and a lot of the mechanisms clog with snow in powder. I’m not sure anyone still uses them apart from rental boards where they are cheap for a shop to invest in, but unless you have a really bad back and can’t bend down to do up your bindings I would steer well clear of step ins.

That leaves plate bindings, these are ski bindings for snowboards and they are designed for the now close to defunct slalom racing and the odd boarder X racer. The pros are that they give an immediate and direct control of the board because of the rigid interface between boot, binding and board. This means that you can lay down huge high G carves with your face in the snow. The cons are that they are mercilessly unforgiving and require a good technique, much steeper stance angles and they offer no flex or cushioning for jumps so they are really just on piste speed machines.

Remember comfort is everything, so if in doubt throw a bit more money at your bindings. Any problems or queries hit me up on ed@snowshed.com and I'll do my best to get back to you quickly. Cheers