What snowboard binding is better?

What are different types of snowboard binding and what are purposes for each?

• A novice question. I would like to know different types of binding I can install on my snowboard. I heard terms like strap, step-in, flow-in, etc, but I don't understand what are the differences. Also, are there differences (pros/cons) for regular vs. goofy in terms of binding?

• Answer:

  Goofy and Regular are just a direction in which you ride while standing on a snowboard. Goofy means that your front leg is the right leg. Regular means that your front leg is the left leg. That's all, you can be either goofy or regular, you can't be both. But many riders can ride with rear leg as a front leg. Bindings are the same for goofy and regular riders. The difference is which one (left/right) you put on board as a front leg. As you noticed there are a few types of snowboard bindings. Here is a short review of each (I hope I didn't forget about any type): classic bindings with 2 straps Flow bindings (similar to classic, but company called Flow put some important modifications) Step-in bindings for hard boots I'm freestyle snowboarder, so I'll leave part about hard boots for guys who know more about that. Step-in bindings are a bit obsolete construction because it's not very popular and this kind of bindings is no longer developed by manufacturers. It's biggest advantage was very fast usage. All you have to do is just click your boots on binding and you are done, just like skiers. But the mechanism wasn't perfect and sometimes bindings opened while you were riding, which is very dangerous. Classic bindings are the most popular type and there are two straps the hold your feet and board together. Some years ago there were ideas to make bindings with one or three straps, but 2 straps are ok and this is still the most common type of bindings. Flow's bindings are smart modification of classic ones. As you can see in the picture you can open the part behind the boot (this part is called hi-back). This solution makes using bindings a lot faster, but sometimes it's difficult to close hi-back, for example in deep powder or on very steep slope. Each solution has many pro/cons, what I can advice is not to buy step-ins. As for classic/Flow it's up to you because in many case they are more or less the same (or offer the same stability and safety). Your question is very general and there are many things that people can tell you about bindings and their experience. The best thing you can do is to go to your local snowboard shop and ask people working there to show you what bindings they have.