Past Season Reviews for Nidecker Supermatic Archives

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Nidecker Supermatic 2023-2024

Hello and welcome to my Nidecker Supermatic binding review.

In this review, I will take a look at the Supermatic as all-mountain-freeride snowboard bindings.

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Supermatic a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how they compare with other all-mountain-freeride bindings.

Overall Rating

Binding: Nidecker Supermatic

Price: $399

Style: All-Mountain-Freeride

Flex Rating: Stiff (8/10)

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium-Stiff (7/10)

Rating Score: 87.2/100

Compared to other Men’s All-Mountain-Freeride Bindings

Out of the 20 men’s all-mountain-freeride bindings that I rated:

• The average score was 84.2/100
• The highest score was 93.1/100
• The lowest score was 77.1/100
• The average price was $360
• The Supermatic ranked 7th out of 20

Overview of the Supermatic’s Specs

Check out the tables for the Supermaticr’s specs and available sizes.

Specs

Who is the Supermatic Most Suited To?

The Supermatic is best suited to those looking for a good speed entry binding and want something relatively stiff, but not too stiff - with good carving performance and surprisingly good board feel and shock absorption. 

Particularly good for those that want that kind of speed/easy entry but don't want to have to get specialized boots to be able to use them. 

Not for beginners, because of their flex level. 

Suitable for boards in the 5/10 to 8/10 flex range, and most ideal for boards in the 6/10 to 7/10 flex range. 

The Supermatic in More Detail

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Supermatic are capable of.

Demo Info

Binding: Nidecker Supermatic 2023, L

Date: February 25, 2022

Conditions

Clear blue skies and perfect vis. 

Temperature: 23°F (-5°C) and no wind. 

24hr snow: 0" (0cm)

48hr snow: 1.2" (3cm)

7 day snow: 10.6" (27cm)

On Groomer: Nicely groomed. Firm but not to the point of being hard and nothing icy. 

Off Groomer: Similar to groomer but with some harder patches and semi icy in some of the shady areas.

Set Up

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 21.9″ (555mm) 

Board tested with: Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker

Boots tested with: Adidas Tactical ADV, size US9.5

Baseplate Length: 9.84" (25cm)*

*measured on the top side of the footbed - a little bit of angle down to underside of baseplate, where it's 9.65: (24.5cm)

Highback Height: 7.8" (19.8cm)* 

Highback itself. From bottom of binding to top of higback is 11.4" (29cm).

Weight: 1240g (2lbs 12oz)

* for one binding, including screws and disc. The average weight of a small sample size of around 60 bindings (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023 models) I weighed, was 913 grams. The lightest was 680 grams and the heaviest was 1,240grams. The Supermatic's are the heaviest I've weighed. However, on snow, they actually felt about normal. Did notice it on the lift, but not when riding. 

Responsiveness

I found the Supermatic struck a pretty good balance between maneuverability at slower speeds and their ability to lean into a heavy carve. They weren't quite as easy to maneuver with at slower speeds than my control bindings, which are softer, but they were able to carve harder at higher speeds than my control bindings (Burton Malavita). 

Board Feel/Butterability

Actually really decent. Which I wasn't expecting. There's no mini-disc or anything else to suggest that the board feel would be anything above average. And they have really good shock absorption, so it's not delivering good board feel because of a lack of padding or anything. It's not up there with the best board feel bindings, but surprisingly good. 

Pop/Ollie Power

Pretty similar to my control bindings, but just a touch less ollie power, if I had to choose, but nothing obviously noticeable.  

Adjustability

Not a huge amount of adjustability, but enough that most boots should fit in well enough, assuming you get the sizing right. 

Heel Cup: No

Stance Width: Good stance width adjustability – plenty of micro adjustability when you run disc horizontal.      

Highback Lean: Yes and tool-less. Didn't seem to be able to quite go to zero lean, but very close. 

Ankle Strap Position: No

Toe Strap Position: No

Ankle and toe strap length: Tool-less. 

Gas pedal/toe ramp extension: Yes

Highback Rotation: No

Compatible with: 2 x 4 | 4 x 4 | Channel (and even 3D I think)

Shock Absorption

Feeling really good on flat landings and for absorbing chatter. Up there for shock absorption. Not quite in that top tier of shock absorbers, but not far off. 

Entry/Exit

This is of more importance to a speed entry binding like this than to other bindings because this is one of the reason's you buy a binding like this - for speed and ease of entry/exit. 

And this is where I was really impressed with the Supermatic - and, IMO, it's the easiest in/out speed entry binding I've tried. 

It takes a bit of setting up. I tried to set them up without using instructions to see how easy it would be to figure out and it wasn't super easy. Once I followed some instructions, I was able to set it up so that they were secure and the performance was good, but they were also easy to get in/out of. So I'd recommend looking at the  instructions from the start, to save time and frustration. 

So how easy are they, once you get it all setup? Nice and easy. Only thing is that the click wasn't super loud but you can hear it - and you've got to give it a reasonable stomp to get it to click, but it doesn't take too much effort. There were a couple of small things with the demo model I got that have apparently been improved as well, so the production model should be even smoother and easier. 

Getting out is easy if you're stationery. Because you've got to release the lever and pull back on the highback and lift your foot up and back, it's not easy to do on the go. But it is easy to get in on the go, so coming off the lift and stomping straight in doesn't take much practice at all, so long as there's no snow build up under where the heel piece is going to click in place. 

Comfort

Nice and comfortable overall. 

Ankle Strap: Conformed well to my boots and no pressure points. 

Toe Strap: ditto.

Canted Footbed: Yes

Padded Footbed: Good bit of padding, particularly around the toe. The swinging heel piece naturally has to be relatively solid as you stomp down on it, but it does have some padding to it. Less padding down the middle. 

Highback: A bit of padding on the highback, but main thing is that I didn't experience any calf bite.

Ankle Support

Felt like the ankle straps sat in a good place and did a good job to support the ankles. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.

Overall, I was really impressed with the Supermatic. As far as easy/speed entry bindings go, I found these the easiest of any I've tried. And they've got good performance too, which is of course the most important thing!