how to choose Snowboard Bindings
Make sure you choose the right bindings flexibility for your riding level and style. > Make sure you choose the right bindings size for your boots (always buy boots first). > Make sure your chosen bindings are compatible with your snowboards inserts.
snowboard bindings Flexibility
The bindings are what connects you to your board and so their flexibility (along with the boots flexibility) will dictate how your body movements pass on to the snowboard. The flexibility makes the bindings more or less responsive and is mostly determined by the straps and the highbacks, but also by the discs size and the overall materials. Just like the boards and boots, softer bindings are more used in freestyle for their tweak ability and harder bindings are more used in freeride because they offer the so needed support in big landings, hard carves, and fast powder slashes. Looking for a more surf like feeling? Go with some bindings with minidiscs. Small discs a.k.a. minidiscs allow for some more torsion in the bindings base/body and on the snowboard itself, and that gives you that surf like feeling without losing responsiveness. The regular discs, on the other hand, make the bindings feel more earth bound, more like they're part of the snowboard.
snowboard bindings Size (bindings x boots)
Fit Your bindings must match your boots. You don't want your bindings to be too big for your boots and you definitely don't want them to be too small. Get bindings too small and your boots won't fit or you'll get weird pressure points and they may restrain your movements. Get bindings too big and your boots will move inside the bindings, and you get less support from them. If your snowboard boots are touching the sides of the bindings without being squeezed/pressed/stuck, or if you have just a few millimeters between your boots and the sides of the bindings, you're good. So your snowboard bindings size depends on your boots size.
How to choose a snowboard bindings size? You can't go wrong on the snowboard bindings size if you choose the right one for your snowboard boots. How? Try it on a shop or consult the snowboard bindings manufacturers size chart (on their website or on the bindings box) and see which binding size (usually S, M and L) corresponds to your boots size. You may go wrong on the bindings size if you choose a snowboard bindings size taking in account a snowboard size or a snowboard manufacturers recommendations over the snowboard bindings manufacturers recommendations / bindings manufacturers size charts. That's because snowboard bindings sizes are not standardized between brands, a size M of a bindings model may even fit a different boot size range than a size M of another model from the same snowboard bindings brand. So when a snowboard comes with a recommended bindings size on it's specs (lets say S/M) you don't really know to which range of boot sizes that bindings size corresponds, it depends on the bindings brand and model. A boot size recommendation would help more and create less confusion.
Buying online After you choose the bindings you want (depending on the bindings flexibility and your riding ability and style) and knowing your boots size, just go check the bindings brand binding size chart on the brand's website (go through our brands page or search for "brand"+"model"+size chart) to get the latest and most accurate information on your chosen binding's size so you can get the right bindings for your boot size. Do not trust bindings size charts on any other website than the manufacturer's as they may be obsolete (that's why we do not have any bindings size chart of our own). Bindings come in different sizes (usually S, M or L) and each binding size will fit a range of boot sizes (like 8-11). Got boots size, lets say, 9.5? Than choose a snowboard bindings size for a range of boot sizes
Buying at a shop The best way to make sure you buy the right bindings for your feet/boots is to try and put one of your boots on the binding and see how it fits. If that is not possible because you don't have your boots with you ask the seller for the appropriate bindings size according to your boot size or check the bindings box where you must find the bindings size and the boots size range that can fit them. So at least you will need to know your snowboard boots size if you don't have them with you, and then you can try it with some other boots from the shop. But have them with you if you can, or if you're buying boots and bindings choose the boots first, if you try it with some random boots at the shop they may be more or less bulkier than yours, even if they're the same size, and fit differently on the bindings.
snowboard bindings Discs (bindings x snowboards inserts)
When buying snowboard bindings, if you already have a snowboard or if your are buying board + bindings, make sure that the bindings discs fit on your snowboards inserts. If by any reason you end up with bindings that don't fit your boards inserts, you can look for replacement discs for your bindings that will fit your snowboards inserts.
There are 4 types of snowboard inserts to attach the bindings to: 4x4 standard inserts; 4x2 standard inserts; burton 3x3 inserts; burton EST channel system. All the brands make boards with 4x2 or with 4x4 inserts and burton makes boards with all the four types of inserts. Before burton invented their EST channel system and their 3D inserts all bindings came prepared to fit only 4x2 or 4x4 inserts. But because a big percentage of all the boards out there are burton snowboards, snowboard bindings brands have adapted and began to make bindings with discs that match all the 4 types of snowboard inserts, the universal discs. So it's not that easy to get some incompatibility nowadays, and if you do, just get some universal discs. This was all until bindings minidiscs came out. Bindings with minidiscs will only match snowboards with 4x2 inserts, and so they'll render your 4x4 powder inserts useless. Looking for bindings to last long and work with any snowboard? Go with snowboard bindings with universal discs.
snowboard bindings Anatomy / Parts
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How to choose snowboard bindings F.A.Q.
I'm looking for a 154 snowboard "for bindings size M" but my bindings are size L, will my bindings match that snowboard?
There's really no such thing as bindings sizes matching snowboard sizes. The snowboard bindings size must match your snowboard boots size. The snowboard width must also match your snowboard boots size. The correlation is between snowboard width and boots size, and consequently between snowboard width and bindings size, not between snowboard size and bindings size. If a brand says "for this snowboard size we recommend bindings sized M/L" what they're actually saying is "for this snowboard size that has a width of X, we recommend bindings size X" or more specifically "for this snowboard size that has a width of X to mach boot sizes of X to X (that probably belong to people of X to X weight and height), we recommend bindings size X that will match the same boot sizes approximately". So in that situation you should instead be finding out if that 154 snowboard is wide enough for your boots, and also making sure that your L bindings are the right ones for your boots size.
So there's no correlation between bindings size and snowboard size?
There is, because the snowboard width will change with the snowboard size, but it will also change with the snowboard shape and side cut. If a brand recommends bindings size M for a 154 sized snowboard and you use bindings sized L, the bindings will not exceed the width of the board and drag snow, the boots might if the snowboard is to narrow, but not the bindings, with super bulky L bindings the snow drag could come from the boots plus a bit of the back part of the bindings but probably would come from just the boots. And if you use bindings sized S they won't be too narrow for the board either, you would just end up on a wider board.