The Rocker Binding Revolution
Lets face the facts rocker isn’t going anywhere as technology or a buzz word. Rocker, Camrocker, Camber Rocker Combo, blah blah blah you get the point it’s here and everyone is talking about it. But is it solely limited to being in only those planks of wood and p-tex that we ride down the snowy slopes? Hell no companies are offering various binding options that help to optimize your ride. Now as we all know Rocker isn’t something that’s new it’s just been perfected so following that saying of “what is old is new again”, what piece of binding technology will rise up from the proverbial snowboard graveyard and be brought back to life now?
Well long before Nick Visconti was doing amazing tuck knee grabs there was Rocket Reeves. The secret to his tweaking? Screwing a door hinge to his binding and board. So whom would think in this day and age that bringing this back would be a good idea? Anyone at all? Well someone from Ohio State evidently did because they built this horrible hinged foot clamp.
Photo courtesy of Rocker Binding.
Alright so who wants to go hit a jump with this thing? Hinge pin, hinge, shin strap? Man that sure does sound overly complicated for a device that’s supposed to lock your feet to your board. Fuck anyone remember when Burton made 3 strap grippers? Pretty sure there’s a reason why two straps is the industry standard now. But for the moment lets look past that top strap and concentrate on the hinge. Here’s what their site says about the hinge:
The bindings have a hinge underneath the base plate which allows them to rotate towards the nose and tail of the board. Adjustable rubber bumpers limit the the rotation. I’ve been setting them up with 5 or 10 degrees of rotation. I’ve had other designs which had more rotation (45 degrees) but it was too much rotation because if you get over the tip or tail, the board kicks out. This is a pretty conservative setup with the range on the rotation.
Oh good to know you figured out 45 degrees was too much and 5 to 10 is far more acceptable. Just what you need is to go off a jump and be so tweaked out the board washes out. Then again why is it skateboarders can tweak like that but still land and roll away? Oh yeah it’s because they aren’t fixed to the board! There’s a reason you have more mobility from boots and less from the bindings.
Now back to that third strap this is what they had to say about it:
The bindings have shin straps too which give a lot of support for the toe edge turn over standard bindings. I tried using shin straps without the hinge. It gives the support but there is no flexibility along the length of board and you can’t shift your weight when you are going down the hill. The shin strap provides all of the support for the toe edge turn, it takes the need for support in the boot away which could be nice. I’ve ridden them in tennis shoes before. I think you could go with a much more flexible boot, but I’ve been focusing on the binding.
Oh wow so they even admit that if you were in a standard binding there’s no reason for that third strap. But with their superb hinged rocker binding it needs to be there to leverage toeside turns. Why the fuck would you want your shin restricted? It’s just going to imped ankle flexion which is the main point for steering your snowboard.
Now we all know that skiing just takes whatever trend is cool in snowboarding then turns it up past 11 to some horrible level it should never be at. It’s true we’re the originators they’re the imitators and that’s just how it’s always going to be. Even their horrible ideas for skiing take right from the what the fuck were they thinking region of snowboarding. Case in point.
Photo courtesy of Rocker Bindings not to be confused with Rocker Binding.
Seriously look at that shit 3 straps and a snowboard boot. What the fuck were they thinking? Congratulations you made an over grown ascent ski or giant ski blade. Seriously why do people suddenly think they’re inventing something good for any snow sliding sport? Also what’s up with even shitty ideas getting ripped off by skiers now?
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Didn’t the 3 strappers exist because people used to ride in Sorels that weren’t stiff at all in any way? Now that we have boots made for snowboarding the 3 strap binding is gone.
Somebody needs to invest time in making better boots. Boards are improving, bindings are pretty good (minus the monstrosity above), but boots aren’t that much different from 10 years ago.
Oh yea, what the hell are all the hinges for? Tweaking? I think who ever thought that shit up was tweaking.
fuckin tweakers
Wow what a write up. It’s not endearing but it’s lengthy. How can you be so adamant when you haven’t ridden either binding?
Do you think it’ll cause problems on jumps? I regularly clear 30 ft jumps without any problems on the landings. The hinge is in the middle of the binding. If the hinge was on the side of the binding, then the force of the landing would tweak your leg around, but since the hinge is centered it doesn’t have the tendency to twist either way.
The ski design is not a rip off of the snowboard design. Both of us have developed the bindings separately and independently. We haven’t had any contact between the two of us. The pictures of the ski bindings have been up since January 2010 or so. The pictures of the snowboard binding weren’t up on the internet until a couple weeks ago.
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I don’t even understand what the point is of these.. all I can think of is the time I tweaked my ankle on a hip with it being in a regular binding and how much worse it would have been if my foot could have moved even further sideways.. I still feel a tingle going down stairs from it to this day and it was over 2.5 years ago.
Maybe if “Jake B.” (uh.. maybe Jake Carpenter? ha?) posted some pics of how this is supposed to work? Because I really can’t figure it out..
Haha, it always comes to that. “Well, you didn’t ride it.”
Man, we don’t need to. Those things are a disaster. Bindings today are plenty tweakable without a hinge.
Your logic behind the shin strap is laughable. So basically, because your bindings are so unstable, you need to add a third strap to hinder your naturally ability to flex? Granted, I’m not going to a fancy college ‘er nothing, but I don’t need to go to school to know less is better when it comes to a product. I’d opt for the standard binding and soft boot any day.
You are probably majoring in engineering or something, so here’s a lesson in marketing 101: make sure you know and understand what’s already out there before you assume you can make it better.
Also, can you please when you get a chance post a video of you hitting that 30-footer?
Jake, what is the point of the hinge? That is the question dude. It just seems dumb. Why put a moving part on something that doesn’t need it.
Oh wait, I get it, the point is to make it easier for skiers to break their tib-fib skiing with non-releaseable snowboard bindings. This is a great idea!! I hope you have good insurance for the first (and last due to bankruptcy) product liability claim against your company.
you guys honestly should chill. It may not be the best idea ever but at least people are thinking and trying to progress. if we settled with shit that was “good enough” we’d still be rocking sorrels and fully wood boards that look like long boards. The idea may suck but the guy who of this could possibly make the next revolution in snowboarding
Or we could mock a bad idea that isn’t a form of progressing but regression.
ha, what came first the chicken or the egg? if it werent for skiing, their would be no snowboading, if it werent for snowbarding, their would be twin tip skis /thread
im a skier, who snowboarded when skiing wasnt allowed in parks… i could prolly shred you out on a snowboard, so understand, i once wished for twin tip skis, snowboards with bindings, and railslides/jumps knowing it would eventually happen. now older and wiser, i wish again for something. this time i didnt wait.
with alot of work, these ideas have come to the table. jake^ and i havent made much contact in our developments, but i now understand what hes going for. hes going to push your whole sport. when i ride a board i often feel like im loose up top, and not from tieing my boots loose. a third strap with a three dimesionally pivoting upper binding would be the dopest dope i ever smoked. cereally, add my suspenion to it, and you would be able to ollie higher, press harder, and tweak grabs, on both skis and snowboards.
i already know this works for skiing, when developed, skiers will preload nollie double front flips, nosebutter off cliffs and land switch in pow like it was meant to be. and i already know it would be beneficial to snowboarding as well.
simple minds cant comprehend the unthinkable, thats why they are simple minded.
open minds are what created the snowboard, twin tip skis, and eventually a better boot/binding /thread
nl
Is this Nick Lyons?
#7 Alison
what pictures would you need to see on how it works?
#8 Lou G.
The strap came first then the hinge. Initial the binding only had the strap and it was too rigid so the hinge was added to provide the flexibility. Don’t go fancy college on me. This doesn’t have anything to do with that. Do you think they would let me work on a snowboard binding design for college?
Let me find someone to film me.
#9-10 Ed
I think you looked at the wrong website. That’s the other website. Mine is http://www.rockerbinding.com (no “s” at the end). Mine aren’t for skis they’re for a snowboard. I agree the other website’s design is probably dangerous since they aren’t releasable.
#11 Nikita
Thanks I think. So another vote for suck?
#12 Angry
Something negative? I’m surprised.
#13 Nick
Hey. I’d be interested in what you’re up to. There aren’t a lot of friends out there when it comes to new ideas. I’m working on demoing the binding right now and am going out to the SIA trade show this year. Are you going? or been there in the past?
“if it werent for skiing, there would be no snowboarding, no snowboarding means no freestyle,” like i said before i ski and ride, and ive also watched both of these sports catch the wave and ride it out.
ive used blacksnow snowboards with kick in binding straps, wished my burton air had two tips, and when i snowboard nowadays i want more control. i hate pulling away from the high back and losing control on toe edge turns.
the third strap creates this control when combined with my suspension system. as you lean in, it pulls harder leaving you ready to dig that toe edge in, instead of flopping around. burton used three straps on a fixed binding that didnt flex, as did jake^. remember you snowboarders used to race in ski boots that didnt release…sorry i had to remind you.
my suspension design works for snowboarding, for those who want more control, more stability, and more comfort ability. my design also allows the snowboard bindings to support the movement of freestyle skiing, allowing for a range of motion not yet obtained. the binding design was just to prove that it was possible. my suspension design has been built into a current ski boot that fits the current releasable bindings.
if you dont understand something, understand that your ignorant, and quite possibly stupid for thinking that you could comprehend complex ideas, the general population accepts whats available, incredible minds invent.
Nick why don’t you ride these in Parklane or Freeway? I see you up there every day and yet you’re riding traditional bindings and boots. If you were so proud of this I would think that when you’re here in town you would be riding these daily yet you never are. Incredible minds might invent but smart minds question why something is being built.
I have bindings made up and available for demo now. Let me know if you are interested at general@rockerbinding.com.
http://www.rockerbinding.com/The_Rocker_Binding.html
After seeing this thing in person at SIA I wouldn’t let that death trap near my foot.
Did you meet me at SIA?
I pointed and laughed at you called the binding a giant hunk of shit then walked away shaking my head leaving you to figure out what the hell just happened.
That never happened.
Well since I was there and I did it, it happened. Deny it all you want but there were more than just me mocking your shitty product that looks like a science experiment with an erector set.
Man that ski with the snowboard binding is close to my latest idea, except way less useful, way more dangerous, and way more like a cheap rip off of these
http://www.apexsportsgroup.com/