The (binding) future is NOW! - Now Bindings
Meh, I’d say they’re only vaguely similar - and only aesthetically. There’s a slight similarity is the angular hourglass shape, but that’s all. They’re a lot shorter, and the way they mould to the heelcup is completely different.
There’ll be two riders (DCP and Devun Walsh) on NOW bindings in the Red Bull Supernatural comp. For a comp like this, if that’s not expressing total faith in a product, I don’t know what is.
It probably would’ve been three, if Travis hadn’t recently signed with Union.
Yes, “the force [exerted] is the same regardless of whether it’s concentrated at a point or distributed along an edge” - BUT any force that’s “concentrated” on a smaller area places much more pressure on that area than if the same force is “distributed” over a larger area.
Open your mouth wide, and and breathe out as hard as you can. Then repeat, but breathe out as hard as you can through a drinking straw instead. Same force exerted - MUCH more pressure.
Okey dokes, I agree with you that pressure = force / area, but how does that concept make these binding better?
They allow you to exert more pressure where it’s required, with less effort.
How?
It’s the hinges. Imagine the binding is a see-saw with its ends at the toeside/heelside edges. The fulcrum is fixed to the board via metal brackets extending from the binding disc - which extend up to the axis point (the round fluoro circular thing). With regular bindings, pressure is spread more evenly across the width of the board, but with NOW bindings, it’s focussed on the edges.
That’s great. Really looking forward to eventually testing these bindings.
i am intuiged to say the least, would kill to try some out.
Another review:
The big deal with these bindings focuses on the way that they connect with the board. It gets a little weird, but I will try and explain it. The only parts of the binding that contact your board are the disc, and four urethane pads on the corners of the baseplate (the bright green pieces you see in the photo). This gives the binding the ability to absorb some of the natural flex and movement of the board, which cuts down on chatter and foot fatigue. When I heard about this change in binding technology my first reaction was that they would be un-responsive and a bit sloppy feeling, my fears were not justified. These bindings felt just like any other high end binding in respects to their responsiveness, where I noticed the difference was charging through the cruddy snow (that ski hills seem to have an abundance of). In the crud, these bindings seemed to offer a more controlled ride that gave you the confidence to keep your speed up and not worry about where you were going to initiate your next turn. Think about them as the difference between riding a regular skateboard wheel down a rough Cranbrook street, and the feeling of riding a softer longboard wheel down that same street. One is going to rattle your fillings out while the other can absorb some of that chatter.
The real standout to me was the quality of the straps and ratchets. Usually when a new binding company jumps on the scene, they seem to take a few years to get their straps and ratchets figured out, but not Now, they nailed it. The ankle strap was fairly minimal in comparison to some of the mega pillow straps that are out there, but was just as comfortable. The good thing about this is you aren’t wasting all that weight on needless straps. The ratchets had a really nice feel and held on tight, there isn’t much more you can ask for there.
Overall these bindings rode well and are filling a very important space in the binding world. It is always nice to see a company that is owned and concepted by a snowboarder (JF Pelchat) doing something different and getting such a glowing response from the industry (they received the ISPO new product of the year award).
vewy intewesting…
Can’t wait to test these at The Shred!
im in your boat, cant wait to see if this tech is all its being hyped up to be, if so i may just semi retire the 390 Boss’
Jeremy Jones posted this on his Instagram page - he’s riding NOW bindings on all but his splitboards.
Now that is one nice lookin board!!!!! 