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Need new bindings? Jump on the bandwagon early cause in ten years conventional strap bindings will go the way of the short lived step-in.

      As is the case with most snowboard oriented technology, conventional strap bindings arent efficient as they could be. Think about it. The heel strap pushes down on the ankle area actually flattening the natural arch of your foot after a while. Also strap bindings have a considerable delay the time between initiating movement and the board actully responding when chinging to the toeside edge. The only part of the binding which responds to leaning toeside is the heel strap which is not acted upon by the force of your ankle until the boot material is compressed to the point where energy transfer can take place.

   This is where the Flow system shines through seemingly by accident. Beyond their simple marketing campaign focusing on the power triangle and the 'triple threat' garbage, there are some real advantages to the flow binding. For one, the problem of delayed reaction time of the board after the rider initiates a change to the toeside is solved by the foreward pressure the highback puts on the back of the boot. This pre-loads the entire strap with energy. that is force is being put on the strap and it is pushing back with equal force. Because of this tension created by the highback pushing the boot foreward into the binding, the delay in toeside edge changes in greatly reduced. 

   Eliminating Arch deformation is probably a complete fluke on the company's part. Just because of of the way the highback pushes the foot foreward into the strap there isn't nearly as much downward pressure on the tarsal-metatarsal area (where the long part meets the ankle). 

Now somebody just needs to come up with a sidecut standard that makes sense, a boot that fits properly and some kind of consistency in mounting screws and snowboards will be just as scientific as golf clubs.