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Burton channel system & EST bindings advice

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi all (newbie here!)

So I'm looking into buying my second snowboard and I'm considering a burton with the channel system and the EST bindings, just wanted people's opinions on this system please as I've not used it before.

I have been riding since 2008 with week long holidays once a year but I've also done a season in Tignes (2015/16) and heading out there again in a couple of weeks. My current board is a Salomon spark with union bindings.

Thanks in advance
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
used it on an board about 5-6 seasons ago and didn't like it, I thought at the time it would be good for quick adjustments but in reality it didn't work so well.

why do you want est? why not just buy another board that you can use your existing bindings on?
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
My current bindings are broke Sad and I feel need a better board after gaining more skill/confidence whilst doing my last season.
The bindings I like come either in EST or the normal set up so the board doesn't have to be the channel system....
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oh ok. I found them to work just as well as normal bindings, I was thinking that i'd be able to quickly set the board back while on the hill but in reality it didn't work as it just clogged up with snow and ice.

i'm not the biggest burton fan (putting it mildly!) either so I wouldn't buy it again.

that being said though, if the bindings you want are est, then burton will always have a suitable board to match the bindings and your riding preference so go for it Smile

i'd probably just buy the standard ones and look at other makes of boards though Smile
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Thank you, appreciate your honest response.

If you don't mind me asking what is it about Burton boards that you don't like? As I said this is only my second board so I don't have much to compare with!
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
i'm full of hate and cynicism so don't listen to me lol. There boards are good, there's a reason (other than endless marketing) that so many people ride them.

I just take issues with some of there business decisions like the way they canned the old fourstar companies, knowbuddy etc. They do a LOT of good things for snowboarding, I just see them as the corporate giant that cuts and slices to the will of the board.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
That's fair enough and again thank you Smile
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Both of my boards are Burton EST boards. I would be very reluctant to buy a fixed binding board and if I did, it would be something specialist like a split board.

I find EST adjustment to be simple and easy. If I'm out on the Vapor, it takes seconds to set back 75mm. If you find a flat area, you don't even need to unclip to do it. Best of all, some days, you just feel like having your feet slightly different to the last time you rode. Really steep pistes or jibbing and larking around? Set forward 10-20mm and the board will turn with thought alone. Soft spring snow or powder? Set back a little or a lot and float everywhere.

Apart from that, the wide mounting of EST bindings makes them very stiffly connected and makes your foot sit very close to the board surface. This gives much better edge control when carving. I'm still using my (much loved) CO2 bindings. I keep thinking of getting some new ones, but they are still faultless, after 6 years (20+ weeks) of use and mega stiff.

As for hating Burton, if Burton hadn't made the snowboard patents 'open source', there would probably be no snowboarding. They've done a lot for the industry and I find they are only hated by people who are too young to have been around when snowboarding started. People think because they are big, they must be a corporate giant and therefore deserve to be hated. There are plenty of small companies that have made some really rubbish boards and bindings, with no customer support when the products have failed. Strangely, these small companies are still revered by many who don't know better and only see the marketing image. It's a strange world.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
I would avoid the Channel. Only 2 screws holding the binding in place it is easy for them to come a little loose and the binding to move. 4x4 gives a more secure fix.
If you are going to buy Burton bindings (and I would) buy the Reflex rather than the EST. You can put the Reflex on a Channel board as well as regular 4x4 so you are keeping your options open. If you buy EST you are stuck with a Burton Channel board.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
snowrider wrote:
I would avoid the Channel. Only 2 screws holding the binding in place it is easy for them to come a little loose and the binding to move. 4x4 gives a more secure fix.
If you are going to buy Burton bindings (and I would) buy the Reflex rather than the EST. You can put the Reflex on a Channel board as well as regular 4x4 so you are keeping your options open. If you buy EST you are stuck with a Burton Channel board.



The bolt thing is just another myth punted out by kids in shops. The EST bolts are bigger diameter than the standard bolts (for fixed position/threaded inserts). They take a much higher torque and simply don't come loose or slide around. No one ever ripped a channel out of a board, but plenty of people have ripped out inserts, or cross threaded them.

You can buy adaptors for EST bindings and non channel boards, but I wouldn't use them, just as I wouldn't use adaptors for non EST bindings on an EST board.

Following that statement above, you could just as easily say if you buy non EST bindings, you are stuck with non Channel boards. Very Happy
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
bar shaker wrote:
They've done a lot for the industry and I find they are only hated by people who are too young to have been around when snowboarding started.


not really, i'm old enough to remember back to when he tried to get half pipe banned from competition.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
I've never heard of that before, when was that?

An amazing irony considering that Shaun White (the Half Pipe God) was a Burton rider.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
The bolt thing is not a myth. I work as a snowboard instructor in the winter and have had several clients and friends whose bindings keep moving from the initially set position, sometimes despite repeated efforts to re-tighten.

If you buy Reflex bindings you get both 4x4 and Channel discs in the box. The Channel discs are not adaptors you have to pay extra for.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I ride quite a lot of Burton powder boards. I don't have a problem with EST - I ride with hard boots so I can guarantee that I crank those boards harder than you do, and they've been rock solid season after season.

My race bindings are of course stiff, so arguably I don't get the flex benefits jibbers may find, although I'm sceptical of that.

I've never had one of these shift around on me nor have I seen anyone having issues with them.

I don't find these much different from standard bindings to muck about with. There's no real advantage.

Technically then it's no issue.

"Hating Burton" isn't really for snowboarders: Jake's a boarder, he was there early, he's popular, and he's well known in the business. Burton's professional support and warranties remain the best in the business. I have ridden with some of the people whose companies Jake took over, and they all did very well out of it, thank you. It's business.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
bar shaker wrote:
You can buy adaptors for EST bindings and non channel boards, but I wouldn't use them, just as I wouldn't use adaptors for non EST bindings on an EST board.


No, no you can't. You can buy adapter discs for non-Burton bindings to use them on Burton's channel boards though.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I've ridden EST for a couple of years (20 odd years of riding) and found them great. Super easy and quick to set up. Rock solid and no problems with coming loose......despite only two screws.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:

when he tried to get half pipe banned from competition.

That's a bit disingenuous - The story goes that during the early 80's rivalry between Jake Burton and Tom Sims, when events were organised by the local teams and when the direction of snowboarding was still very much open to interpretation - Burton wanted it to be more race orientated, Sims more like skateboarding. Sims home hill at Tahoe had, by accident more than design, created the worlds first half-pipe when some bulldozers were moving snow around. Sims and his team riders began sessioning the feature and Sims had the idea to include the feature in the national competition. Come the competition, Burton and his team riders pitch up on the west coast, and are confronted with this half-pipe which they'd never seen or ridden on before, and were expected to ride as part of the competitive event. Burton protested, saying it wasn't fair on his riders and it should be excluded, and that's where the "Burton tried to BAN halfpipes" story came from.

It all worked out in the end, Burton moved away from his pure race ideals and within a couple of years of Burton and Graves starting the US Open series, halfpipe was a standard event, and Burton was luring riders like Craig Kelly from Sims freestyle team into his own (which is where a LOT of the animosity between Burton and the rest of the industry stems from, and the meme that Burton poaches all the talent from other teams and Borgs it into itself, and that riders are disposable assets)
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Thanks all for your input.

I'm picking up the new board and bindings tomorrow. I have gone for the Burton deja vu with lexa bindings; channel system and EST bindings Smile
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