In the infinite quest to find the ultimate performance enhancing binding set up people have gone to lengths to experiment with their bindings. We’ve had baseless, canted, mini disks, etc. etc. to get better feel and along the way we’ve toyed around with what to do with our high backs. Some have stuck with the tried and true form, others went for low backs, and then there’s those that have shunned them all together and been the bad asses of nothingness and gone with the no back. So which does what and why would you want to use them?
Having lived through the 90’s and been stuck in the perpetual time warp that was Western NY I’ve ridden all forms of these at some point or another. At this point in my life I prefer having support of my ankles and am a firm believer in a good boot and solid binding make all the difference in the world. But that hasn’t stopped me from trying out various incarnations of things when I get a hair up my ass that needs to be plucked.
The high back solely exists to give support to the lower leg and allow you to press into it as you leverage your weight on to your heel edge. This also helps with control in variable conditions so if you’re going from chunder to groomed and even pow there you go. Now for those that like adjust-ability you have the option of adding more or less forward lean depending on where you want your knee placement and rotating your high backs to match up perfectly with your heel edge. Both of which I put into the different strokes for different folks category. I have never rotated a high back nor do I ever care to after one experience on a demo pair that killed my lower leg muscles. As far as forward lean back when boots didn’t have natural lean in them and weren’t as supportive as those created today I rocked a few degrees but just enough to give me a little bend, none of this crazy 20 plus degrees bullshit that some people have going on. Now with the advancements in boot technology straight zero works well as the boot is providing the natural lean I need but the high back is still there for when I drive backwards into a heelside turn. Also when jibbing it has enough play that I’m not feeling locked in when going through a kink.
After market Low Backs.
My first real pair of bindings were a pair of metal based Morrow Low backs (circa early to mid 90’s) with possibly the shittiest ratchets on earth. Much like the high back this still provides something to lean back into on a heel side turn and still gives control on varying conditions although with it being lower you can create a crease point in the boot. In the park these things are fucking money as you can set yourself up better on jibs and tweaking shit gets insane. The lower cut of it really does let you get more of a tweaked skate feel but that should be obvious when you just look at these things.
High backs and toe straps are over rated!
Now riding with No Backs is something that should fall into the different strokes for different folks category along with the everything old is new again mantra that’s going around in snowboarding. Yeah Tarquin Robbins did it back in the early 90’s and Mike Ranquet spent the better part of this decade figuring it out then wrote about it for Transworld. So what are the benefits of this? Well as many claim the boot provides all the lean and support you need, sure it provides support and has natural lean built in, but that’s only to a certain point. Sure you’ll get a more loose skate feel and have more play in the ankle which as many claim takes us back to our roots with how the first rudimentary boards rode and how skateboarders do things. So tweaking grabs will be amazing and jibbing should be off the hook. Well news flash people we’re not skateboarders, they’re better than us, yeah I said it lets face the facts they aren’t strapped in but that’s another issue. Also do we really want to go back to the way we rode those first generations of snowboards? I wouldn’t think so. So yeah while you’re getting more play from your ankles you’re also forcing yourself to use more muscles and not having as quick of response. Then there’s the control issue while people rave about this in slush and in pow wow go figure riding in conditions that you could set yourself on autopilot it works awesome. Think about the control you’re losing on hardpacked or icy conditions. I know when I did this back in NY it sucked donkey balls on those boiler plate days. Also this is something most people over look without high back support if you flex back into the heel cup with the way your boot is made you’ll start snapping the back spine of the boot unless you’re using something that’s ungodly floppy and has next to no support. Which was one of the reasons you could get away with it in the 90’s, even the stiffest boot back then (excluding hard boots) would be the equivalent of a low to some mid level boots now.
Whatever your poison is there’s always going to be a pro and con to it. Get out there try it and see what happens. I personally will continue rocking high backs in some way , shape, or form. So what’s your choice?
17 Comments
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nostalgia purposes aside, i really want to try riding without highbacks just to see what it’s like. and, do they sell just lowbacks for bindings? they seem like they might be pretty fun from what you said about them.
disregard the part about individual pairs of lowbacks in the above post, i just found some.
I did the whole noback thing last year after hearing Ranquet’s big speel. you know what, i really didn’t feel a difference other then it’s a lot easier to stand straight on your board, and and it’s easier to tweak and jib, yet your wrecking your boots and eventually i bet you’ll break your ankles.
peace homies.
Have you had a chance to ride K2’s Hurrithane’s for next year? If not, they have urethane high backs to make them soft and flexy and give you that skate feel, but still maintain some control and stability when they’re engaged. I was pretty surprised because I figured you would lose all response, but they actually rode pretty good outside of the park. Definitely worth trying out and adding to the debate!
I’ve ridden em it’s a binding with a high back still. Wasn’t overly impressed with them and I’m honestly pissed at the K2 binding designers.
i’ve been riding with noback for over a year now, and all i can say is that i just prefer it.
Just the fact that you can actually stand straight on your board is awesome. Plus i liked the surf feeling in pow, the tweakability, and it’s globally easier in the whole freestyle thing. The cons are that it’s not easy to stay on your backside edge on hardpack and in the pipe. But it’s far from impossible, it’s a totally different way to lean on your board to turn, you gotta learn the new “move”… When i get back on boards with hibacks, i just don’t feel it, like someone is stabbing the back of my leg, someone or something called a highback ahah.
Hey, maybe you can explaint abit “the move” you told, would be great.
Greetings from Estonia!
I have no clue what you’re asking.
I’m sorry for making such a difficult question, but I was just curious about that new “move” he mentioned. To sum things up, I googled about forward lean and I got lost in this blog, wich is really good. I have rode snowboard about 3 years now, and I was rocking with forward lean almost maximum, now I removed the forward lean and just trying to rich my knownledge in theory. Peace out.
Why are you pissed at k2 binding designers? Is it because they ruined the formulas that you liked so much? What other binding did they ruin? Should I stay away from 2011 autos?
Which autos did they not mess up for 2011?
What year formulas do you have that you like? Maybe I can find them cheap since older model.
I was getting psyched on the 2011 autos w/ cant beds but maybe not so much now. My new heritage needs new bindings. Do you think new heritage would work even better w/ blunted tips and tail like eecco?
Just get the autos you won’t have the problems I’m complaining about.
Thanks! Good to hear. Canted foot beds seem to make so much sense to help out the knees etc.
Hope your summers going good. Not too much surf this summer for us here. We did however have about a week of out of season swell here on the north shore, so little swells like that help us thru the summer until the waves start rolling in again in winter.
fuck you. riding without highbacks is the shit and i’m never putting my highbacks on. If you don’t skate, shut the fuck up and quit snowboarding cause you’re a poser bitch pussy ass faggot who doesn’t really snowboard. dont pretend to know what you’re talking about cause you’ve probably never hit a rail not at a resort. ps. you’re gay.
Why don’t you tell us how you really feel.
I’m a big fan of your reviews and you make a huge contribution to the snowboard community. Sincere thanks!!! You’ve probably heard this before, but maybe give the highback rotation another chance! It really helps free the fore-aft range of motion that we need in the powder while actually increasing leverage in the hard stuff. Yes, it took me 9 years to write this, and yes, I am writing this on a beautiful powder day.
First snowboard 1987, 3 seasons under 100 days since 1996, think I got this dialed.