Broken Bindings......at speed

Not started a post for a while, so might be a little rusty :-)

Decided last night that I would have a lie in and go riding a little later in the day. So alarms switched off, watch in the bathroom and TV unplugged I fell asleep, only to wake up at 6.30am. The trouble with getting up at 5am every weekday is that your body believes 6.30am is a lie in. So 3 coffee's, a quick edge of the board, tighten the bindings and I'm off.

Just after 8am at the top of the Gornergrat and first track territory, not a cloud in the sky and a mere -27C, luckily no wind. The conditions were great and after messing about with my settings for the last 3 weeks it was just right and I was flying, really enjoying myself. Playing around before heading up to the Rothorn, I was having more fun than I've had for ages. That was until I was taking a corner with a long toe side turn only to realise I wasn't turning and getting closer to the edge of the piste (quickly).

It's funny, if you were in your first 5 or 6 weeks riding that would really throw you, however it's amazing how rationally you think. I had no idea what had happened, so decided to drop to my knees and see if I could get enough of an edge in to stop, which I managed quite easily. So stopped and covered in a coat of very fine ice at about -20C I looked down to see my front foot was no longer attached to the board, the bindng had failed spectaculary. No fixing this as they are a hybrid step-in binding.

I was enjoying myself so much too.

A beer at 10.30am to console myself I decided to head home and change to my big Prior board (177cm) which I was reserving for powder. It has a new set of bindings on it which I'd never used. 1st run out I decided to take it on a flat run to get used to it. Absolutely useless. With the hybrid camber and the extra length it was like trying to drive an elephant round an ice rink. However on the steeps it was more fun than taking a Penguin to the supermarket. The camber coupled with and extra 12cm meant I could rocket down sections with abandon. The entire edge is tuned (no de-tuning of the nose and tail) at 87deg and if you look up to take in the view you find yourself rapidly carving back the way you came from. In short you need to pay attention. However, when doing so it is hilarious fun!!

So all in all a great day and sometimes the best things come out of adversity, I'll be out on her tomorrow for some fun before heading to the bar to watch Newcatle vs. West Brom at 2.30 :)

Oh yeah, the bindings are 1 week over 12 months old, had 50+ days on an extremely stiff set up and been good servants. Any point in trying to persue the manufacturer or should I just cut my losses and spend the effort looking for something new? I bought them in Ellis Bignham in London and have no reciept.

I think you might be getting the hang of this snowboarding stuff ) that you had time to think of how to recover the situation and put your plan into action, nice one :thumbup: It's er good that it happened somewhere close to a lift and other people (if a broken binding can be considered good)

Not sure of how EB would respond to the return of the binding, an email would cost nothing. You might also contact the makers, as I don't believe it's acceptable for a binding to fail so quickly. Did you pay cash?

I did the up at sparrow fart stuff for years, and know exactly what you are going through. Still, it gets you 1st tracks 8)

tino_11 wrote: With the hybrid camber and the extra length it was like trying to drive an elephant round an ice rink. However on the steeps it was more fun than taking a Penguin to the supermarket. The camber coupled with and extra 12cm meant I could rocket down sections with abandon. The entire edge is tuned (no de-tuning of the nose and tail) at 87deg and if you look up to take in the view you find yourself rapidly carving back the way you came from. In short you need to pay attention. However, when doing so it is hilarious fun!!

It takes a while to get used to the extra length when going slow. Pretty soon though, it'll all seem natural. That length, with hybrid camber is going to hole an edge like crazy.

Binding failure is a boarders worst nightmare. Glad you survived.

I will have you know Trencher, that binding failure is no joy for skiers, either! Once had to ski down in the dark, on one ski!

might be worth contacting the maker with detailed analysis of the failure pointing out you are very experienced....you never know they may be very happy with the feedback and reward you!!

What is the mode of failure, Tino? Hve you googled to check if there is an incidence of failure?

Dave Mac wrote:I will have you know Trencher, that binding failure is no joy for skiers, either! Once had to ski down in the dark, on one ski!

I know which situation I'd sooner find myself in. The big difference is that the remaining binding is non releasable. It would be like suddenly finding in mid turn that you are skiing on one ski with a non releasable binding, but worse than that, the binding is mounted a foot behind the normal position.

Just tried to visualise the way trencher described that and ..its horrible... instant mashed leg... well done for handling that!!