why no release bindings?

this is my first year doing some intermediate level wakeboarding. i am amazed as to how many ways you can mangle your body, knees, arms, shoulders, etc. just reading these chats and looking at all the Pro's wearing knee braces has me wondering. why are there no binding systems where you step into a boot then click into the board? Like Skiis... I am quite sure it's because performance would be sacrificed in some way. But one the less I was wondering if it has been considered.

i'd imagine its because there's no need to take the bindings off the board.

its a summer sport and generally done in areas where people walk around in bare feet there's not much point having another mechanism on the board to allow for clipping in/out, it would just add weight to the setup.

generally if your body is twisting etc your feet will come out of the bindings due to their design.

with regards to skis, you need the solid boots so it wouldn't be possible to release from them so they design them so the bindings release when the torque gets too much

Also, most times when you come out of your bindings, both feet come out, (with some exceptions). If it was the binding that came off it would be much more likely for just one binding to come off then both of them. This would cause alot more serious injuries to the knee and ankles and the rest of the leg due to the board twisting. Not good!!

When the board releases it becomes another thing to dodge when landing!

I think it would cause more injury than it would prevent. Unless they could both release at the same time. I ride with the boots loose. So I come out when I wreck hard.

Yeah, I learned to ride like that too. I mess up my ankle because I had them really tight and when I wrecked, I my ankle only came half way out and then the board twisted, kept me out of the water for a couple weeks.

same here. half way out is an ankle killer.

my ankle still isn't right today, but, you deal with it.

I am just the opposite. I rode for a while with mine loose and one foot came out and screwed up my knee. Now, I tighten the s*** out of them!

I think that the biggest reason for not designing releaseable bindings is that there are too many different directions which you get torqued in. Releasable bindings are usually designed to release in only a few directions. Due to the stance of the average rider and the types of tricks performed, most people crash at an infinite number of different positions and angles. Not to mention that the rider applies force to the board in a variety of directions when cutting, spinning, flipping and landing. Combine this with the fact that the two bindings are placed so far apart that designing them to release at the same time would be incredibly difficult.
Releasable bindings wouldn't solve all the knee and ankle injuries either. I know alot of people tear their ACL's by just landing too hard such as landing straight legged on the crest of a double up. Releaseable bindings really wouldn't solve this at all. As mentioned above, injuries would probably get worse if only one binding released. Maybe a better option would be to move to a fully nonreleasable hardshell similar to a snowboard where you are fully unable to come out of your binding which is totally unable to come off your board.
One thing that could save some people injuries would be to place their rope on a trick release. This would allow you to release the rope if the rider strung an arm through the handle or got wrapped up in the rope somehow.

The only way that would help is if someone was always sitting there with their hand on the release. Which just isn't practical.

Trick releases are used all the time in trick skiing when doing toe tricks. There's a rope that attaches to the release so its really not that hard to do, but yes, the observer would actually need to pay some attention to the rider when riding.

I don't think I would like people sitting around in my boat with wake boots on! I think the reason snow skis, boards etc. have release boots is it would be pretty cold coming out of your boots in the snow.

There is a company is Utah that is working on a wakeboard release binding mount. It only releases on rotation, like one foot coming out and then any rotation would cause the binding to release. Might help in some crash situations.

I also now ride with my binding Very tight. I found rinding with them loose that only one foot would pop out, which leads to bad things for your knees.

Snow skies have bindings that release, primarialy because you can have one ski going one way and another ski going a different way and you need something to give! Even so, they don't stop all injuries, and let me tell you that it can REALLY HURT when the binding releases when you didn't want it to! I have been still in control, biting an edge into hard snow down a steep slope and had the !@#$#% binding release!

When you get right down to it, wakeboard/water ski bindings are release bindings. You fall face first and you come out. Works great.

When you get hurt is when you fall sideways and catch one knee in the water, and have that knee spin you around.

You can also get hurt when just one foot releases and then the board twists the other foot.

A few weeks ago my son was attempting a Raley. When he hit the wake the water slapped one foot out of the binding. We have video of him in mid air, half into the Raley and you can see that only one foot is in the bindings! He was hurting from that fall!

i'm on board with rob i now tighten the •••••••• of them. i used to ride loose but just easy falls on a 3 twistign the wrong way would only pop one out. this happened a couple of times nothin really happened but i know how bad it could've been. also look at snowboards they don't release unless they break since snowboarding is more like wakeboardign than skiing then i woudl think it would be less injuries if they didn't release cept on really hard falls. plus its alot harder to hit urself in the head with a board if its attached to your feet.

i want wake boots! they sound cool

(Message edited by edward on September 08, 2004)

(Message edited by edward on September 08, 2004)

All so if you hit your foot on the board with a heavy binding you could cause some serious damage to your board.