The setup of your bindings can make a real difference to your riding performance and comfort levels.
This article will discuss the best binding angles for freeriders. Check out the links at the bottom of this post if you are looking for bindings angles for beginners, freestyle or all-mountain riding.
What is a Freerider?
Before I get into the best angles I wanted to define what I consider a freerider. This is because the term isn’t necessarily used in the same way by everyone.
My definition of a freerider is someone who likes to ride steep, varied terrain, often in the backcountry. They like their riding fast, with hard carves and like to take aggressive lines.
For more on what freeriding is (in my books) check out this post on what is freeriding?
The Best Binding Angles for Freeriding
O.k. with that out of the way let’s take a look at the best angles for a freerider.
This is definitely something you should experiment with because everyone is different, both biomechanically and in terms of their riding style.
But if you’re not sure where to start these are some good starting points.
Can I Use a Duck Stance for Freeriding?
I never like to say to say never for anything and you can try whatever you like – but generally speaking a duck stance won’t be well suited to freeriding.
A duck stance means that there is a negative angle on the back binding.
This is uncommon for freeriders. Although in saying that I have heard people say they prefer duck stance in the backcountry because they feel they can crouch lower which helps them when riding through trees. But this would be the exception to the rule.
Related: What Snowboard Binding Angles Should I Use
Which Forward Stance Should I Start With?
Like I said it’s always a good idea to experiment to find that sweet spot that suits you the best – but to narrow down that starting point here are some binding angles to start with.
Forward Stance +18/+3
Forward Stance +18/+6
Forward Stance +21/+3
Forward Stance +21/+6
Experiment
Because everyone is different one of these may not work for you so it’s really important to experiment.
For example you could start of +18/+3 and then try +21/+3 and then try +18/+6 (if you preferred the +18/+3) and then and so on….if you prefferred +21/+3 then you could try +21/+6 or even +24/+3 etc etc.
Move further into the direction that feels better and when it feels worse again then go back to the one before (if that makes sense?!). So if you were to start with +18 on your front foot and then went to +21 and that felt better it is a good idea to then try +24 – if that didn’t feel as good as +21 then go back to +21. And then try out what feels best on your back foot.
You may find that no forward stances feel good to you, in which case you should experiment with a duck stance (negative angle on the back foot). Everyone is anatomically different so experimenting is important.
Over to You
Thanks for reading and I hope this has been helpful for you. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
Related: Binding Angles for All-Mountain Riders
Related: Binding Angles for Freestylers
Related: Binding Angles for Beginners
