A Few Fall Days on the Snake
After years of wanting to attend the Summer Outdoor Retailer show the timing worked out last fall. As usual, the road trip to Utah quickly… Read More »A Few Fall Days on the Snake
After years of wanting to attend the Summer Outdoor Retailer show the timing worked out last fall. As usual, the road trip to Utah quickly… Read More »A Few Fall Days on the Snake
One of the awesome things about being on the AASI National Team is the projects we get to work on that impact the whole industry.… Read More »Kids Don’t Have to Learn to Ski First
In this week’s First Chair Podcast George and I talked about the 20 year relationship between Burton and AASI, focused on improving snowboard education and… Read More »20 Years of Burton and AASI – First Chair Podcast
With Burton’s big reveal of the Step On, snowboarding’s worst kept secret of the last year is finally official – the step in binding is back.
For the last few decades, many of us have been deriding step-ins. They were heavy, clunky, unreliable, poor performing, pieces of junk that were just as likely to accidentally release as they were to ice up and refuse to attach. Similar to binding “advancements” that swivel the front binding, add levered brakes, or automatically close the ankle straps, step-ins were just another great intentioned, but overly complicated invention. As a result, they were unable to compete with the simplicity, weight, and reliability of traditional straps.
Despite the disdain mainstream snowboarding threw at them, step-ins found a niche of die-hard followers that put new liners in their beat up old boots, search for replacement binding parts online, seek out gear at garage sales, and post in forums about their love for step-ins.
Originally posted on SteamboatGuides.com
I was back East for a couple of weeks this fall, and took the opportunity to visit the Burton Headquarters in Burlington. In addition to visiting with old friends and touring the Craig’s prototyping facility, I saw a few things that I haven’t been able to talk about. Read More »The Burton Stone Hut