“I rode the Burton Step On Bindings in combination with Burton’s Swath boots for one day, primarily on piste with a few side hits along the way. I was excited to give these a go, I had heard a lot of good things about this new game-changing technology and I couldn’t wait to experience righteous feeling of sailing paste my friends while they’re scrambling to fasten their straps. Which came true straight away, getting my foot into the binding was super easy and you can do it on the move with very little practice. After exiting certain lifts I could even start my run without having to stop at all, at least until I decide to wait for your mates.

However, once I adjusted the high back to have more forward lean it was a slightly more difficult to fully lock my foot in. I was using my first heel side turn to fully engage both clicks, which was fine on piste but I wouldn’t have been as confident riding powder without fully locking my heels down before dropping in. After testing these bindings I did some research and found out you can move the footbed forward to eliminate that problem. So I would recommend allowing some time to set these up perfectly for your style of riding.

“It was impressive to feel so secure without having any visible straps”

Getting out of the binding is also really easy in the right conditions. All you have to do is release the back latch and twist your foot. But, when I wasn’t in the best conditions I actually would it a bit more difficult to release my foot than a tradition binding. If I was already sitting or kneeling and I wanted to take my board off I found it really awkward to twist my foot out of the clips. I also didn’t find it as intuitive as a traditional binding to release my foot before I had to a stop as the twist motion could send you of course.

The ride feel was good, it was impressive to feel so secure without having any visible straps. The heel fixture works particularly well and eliminates any chance of heel lift between the boot and the binding. The only downside is an occasional click from within the fixtures that sounds like your foot has come loose mid-turn although it definitely hasn’t, which can be quite un-reassuring to begin with.

I liked riding these bindings and there are definitely advantages to Burton’s Step On system, but also a few new quirks that would take me a little while get used to before I could fully enjoy strap free riding.”