Binding Angles

Hey Shoeless,
Time for some tall guy tips lol. I’m also 6"5 and about 80kg. Given that you’re tall like me I’m guessing you also have big feet, this is an important factor. What size boots do you wear? I size down into US12s.

Everything mentioned above is pretty on point. No one knows what feels the best with your body except you, so experiment!
Here’s some things you can avoid to save time though:

1. I like what Rider said, at least +15 on the front foot opens you hips, knees and feet towards your direction of travel.

2. DO NOT run zero anything! Knees don’t bend sideways! They must be at least a little bit + or minus so that when the board moves forward and backwards underneath you (and it will whether you try to or not) your knees can bend with it. Otherwise you load your knee laterally and risk tearing your MCL. (Yes there are plenty of people riding zero, but just because they haven’t snapped a knee yet, doesn’t mean that they won’t).

3. I run +15 -15 because I have big boots. The less angle you have on either foot, the more your toes and heels will drag in the snow. So when you bolt your bindings on, check if your boots are overhanging the board too far.

4. Not a rule… just a thought. Experimenting a lot at this stage will likely slow down your progress.
Find a stance that simply allows you to ride (unhindered) and stick with it. Every time someone changes their stance they spend the whole day or many days adapting to the new stance rather than focusing on the riding itself.

And if you want to learn or improve anything, come ride with me!
I’m an instructor at Perisher Australia and Whistler Canada

This is a good topic!

Coming from a skateboarding background, where your feet move all over the board, I’ve found it difficult to find a set angle for both feet snowboarding.  With skateboarding, stance tends to vary depending on if you’re about to Ollie, charging a hill, doing half-pipe etc.  It changes constantly.

From a snowboarding perspective I found my “happy” medium to be +/-15 as it didn’t favor any particular riding style for me but have found it a little awkward.

However, after reading this thread, I started to think about rotating forward more to open up and get a little more aggressive downhill - I’m not really into the parks at all these days.

I have just tried +21/-9 (yes, I put my boots on, getting excited) and it feels like it would definitely open my stance up for easier turns - will have to try it out on the mountain first though!

Thanks for the ideas!

@everyone, firstly thank you all for the input, as always a lot of information and a lot of helpful tips. Exactly why I come too Boardworld for help. I run with 15/0 when I was learning because this is what hire had setup and I didn’t know any better. With that said I was starting my transitions in the last few days of lessons and i did find it more difficult to transition, I found myself really dragging my back foot around.

I wear size 11US boots so have reasonably big feet, being a tall guy who has little to no flexibility. Someone said if you can place your hands on the ground, I can’t even touch my toes. I think I will try 15/-15 and see how I go, I got my tool and plenty of time so I can fiddle as I go.

@PHEDDER, if I had means of keeping in contact while over there I would love to catch up on the snow and maybe even go over a few beginner tips and tricks to improve my ride, my girlfriend is coming with me and its her first time on the snow, so I can take things slow and work on my feet throughout our lessons.