Good Setup for Bindings for a Tricks Snowboard

An all-mountain setup is a great way for beginners to get a feel for snowboarding, as it’s the setup designed for maximum versatility. Once you’ve learned the basics of snowboarding, however, you may wish to specialize your gear to match your riding style. While snowboarders who prefer to ride downhill adopt an alpine stance and stiff, short board, riders who prefer park or half-pipe riding – tackling terrain that allows them to perform a variety of tricks – must choose a more flexible board and tailor their boots and binding setup for terrain performance.

Instructions

    • 1

      Select freestyle or park style bindings before setting up your stance and binding rigging. These bindings are stiffer than alpine or all-mountain bindings, and respond better to the quick rotation and hard cuts associated with tricks performed on half-pipes and terrain parks.

    • 2

      Set the position of your binding plates. Do this by standing on your board and placing your feet in a comfortable position, no wider than your shoulders. Move the bindings closer together, which allows you to push the board with more strength than with feet spread far apart. Close your bindings as much as it feels comfortable.

    • 3

      Determine your footing angle before adjusting your binding plates. If you plan to ride mostly terrain parks, set the bindings so both toes point to the front of the board. Snowboards equipped primarily for half-pipe sometimes feature duck stances -- where the front toe points toward the tip of the board, while the rear toe points toward its tail.

    • 4

      Adjust the binding plates to set your bindings at an angle appropriate for your stance. For a forward stance, adjust the front side binding at an angle pointing forward between 20 and 40 degrees from perpendicular with the board, and the backside binding between 10 and 20 degrees from perpendicular. A typical forward stance sets the front binding to 30 degrees and the rear binding at 15 degrees. Duck stances, used for half-pipe riding, typically employ a mirror binding setup -- with the front side binding pointing 15 degrees from perpendicular toward the board’s tip, and the backside binding 15 degrees from perpendicular, pointing toward the tail.

    • 5

      Adjust the bindings so that the heel sits at a higher position than the toe – in the same angle as a shoe with lifted heels – on both bindings. This angle makes it easier to hold an edge when carving in terrain than a flat angle.