Closed Toe

Whats the benefits to the closed toe system hyperlite and liquid force are using now? Whats the benefits? Why would I want it on my board?

I think closed toe is pointless it seems like they would be harder to take off and on.

why is that?

I have heard, that they actually are pretty sweet. Guy at my shop was saying he tried them on and they are super comfortable and pretty supportive as well. He hadn't had the chance to ride them yet though, only tried them on up at Hyperlite.

i agree with the first post though, what is the perceived benefit?

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..better toeside edge board control.

Explain that to me?????

..when you lift up on your toes with closed toes bindings added pressure is created from your toes pushed up against the top of the binding.

Paul, I have never had that problem because when I am edging toeside. My toes are pushing down on the board, not away from the board.

(Message edited by malibuboarder75 on October 12, 2005)

I'm off to the gym to do my toe push-ups.

Though I haven't ridden them yet, I think the idea is to minimize movement in the foot, making edging more responsive.

Over the last two years, snowboarding saw a change in bindings when Burton came out with the the toe-cap (or something similar to that name). The toe-cap takes the place of the bottom strap, which typically rests atop the boot's toe. Instead, the toe-cap tightens in front of the boot, pushing the heel back onto the binding. This creates a more stable foot and improves responsiveness. For snowboarders, if you haven't tried the toe-cap, check it out!

I have no clue if the idea of a close-toe binding follows the same principle of the toe-cap. I am merely theorizing...

Peace be the journey.

Paul~ i guess you mean heelside. that still doesn't make a lot of sense. How about putting weight on your heels. thats how you edge

i think they're pointless. someone mentioned in another thread riding in colder weather. i don't know about that either. relating it to snowboarding, Ive never noticed my toes had to hit the inside of my boot to start turning. Also, i think riders will lose some adjustability with the closed-toe fad.

I could see toe lift on a heel edge cut, but not on toe side. Toe side is where you get heel lift, not toe lift.

Well if your lifting up with your toes then yes you are on a heelside edge, but its helping from a toeside part of the board. This is what Shane said. I figure we can speculate all we want but everyone just wait until you have a chance to ride it. Otherwise it's never going to matter. Obviously some riders this year liked it and others did not.

Well I'll try em out but I still like the traditional bindings

i still see lots of broken toes in the near future, it would be nice to see more concentration on ankle support imo.

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Well closed toe is way better then the old directional bindings.

Directional bindings?

Ya the old directional boards its basically just a thick pair of sandals attached to the board

thane ~ hahahahah where do you find all of these things!

What about eliminating the chance of your foot poking through the toe of the binding. I know what you are going to say, if your bindings fit right then there is no chance of that happening. But I have a pair of the older Exo's and now the Alpha's and while the Alpha's fit better on me, I still can feel my foot shift forward when landing on my toes on edge. Not all the time but some of the time. I could be wrong but that would be my first thought when talking about closed toe bindings.

Sure Daniel that does sound better, now instead of your toes sliding forward they will slide forward and jam themselves into the boot. I'm sure that will feel a lot better. If you really wanna stop that you gotta build up some gas pedals under your toes. They may slide forward a quarter of an inch but I'd rather have space for them to poke through than a wall for them to crunch into.

actually daniel you have a point.....on my o4 parks if i came down hard my foot would go there and im convinced it led to some ankle injuries, but i havent had that problem with the zues.

hence my comment on concentrating on ankle support, the zues's lace so much tighter than the parks ever did.

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the new closed toes are a really soft cushiony liner. It's not like they will be jamming into a rubber wall

I think it would keep your feet warmer in the dead of winter

As far as your toes sliding forward I don't know if it's about your bindings fitting right so much as the bindings themselves. It could be that due to peoples' different shaped feet different brands of binding would be best but my experience is similar to Mike's. I had '03 Parks and multiple times my feet would jam really far forward and it would be a pain to get back. I now Ride Nice RG1s and have never had the problem. I doubt I'll

Granted it may keep the wind off your toes, it's not keeping the water out. Your feet will be just as wet as with open toes. The wind isn't the issue for me it's the friggen cold arse water. Gimmicks are sick, i'd love to see the real benefit. Perhaps an actual heel/toe lift test. Whatever, over it.

i hope these closed toe bindings will be as cool & helpfull as wakepants!

keeps your toes warmer in the winter..no haha...i dont really know the purpose of them..

The idea is, like others have said, that you will get better edge response because the toe cap will capture the movement of your toes and translate it to board response. Look down at your feet when you edge on your heels - you point your toes to the sky - with open toe boots, this effort does nothing to actually help you keep the edge up. The capped boot gives you something to leverage against... I can't wait to ride em!

As for the whole closed toe binding. I did ware them back in in the day when Full tilt had them. One yes they did keep your feet warmer in the winter. Also for your toes getting stubbed it never happened. I wore 30/60s and super suckers also and my feet would come forwards sometimes. Why do people put down companies. They are all good in my eyes some have better things to offer in our own ideas. Like in the georgia area CWB was always huge and now its making its move to Nor Cal. I am going Back to HL this year because they have what I want in a board to offer. To me if your putting down a board or binding than your not truly happy with yours.

I play plenty of sports including hockey, baseball, soccer, ski, snowboard etc.....and some of them are pretty stressful on your feet but never have I had a problem with my toes slamming into the front of my boot/shoe/binding. I have heard horror stories of people jamming their foot through open toe binding that did a lot of damage like sprained and broken ankles....I am not saying I am going to purchase a pair in hopes that it will never happen to me, all I am saying is that if it stops any foot from sliding through once, has it not done it's job and cut the risk down?

i'm sure we've all had our foot slide forward a little bit in the binding. i guess if it keeps you from moving around it will be an improvement. i can see how that could reduce injuries. but i still have the versatility issue. they will probably need to make more than 4 sizes of the bindings( s-m-l-xl) so that they fit properly. but, in my opinion, they've needed to do this for a while

Nacho, I couldn't agree with you more....every other sport does, why not wakeboarding?

The Liquid Force and Hyperlite closed toe binding systems both have TREMENDOUS benefits. Benefits for Liquid Force and Hyperlite.

Now all the people that spent $400 last year for the coolest binding, with the "new materials", will go and spend $400 again this year.

people i dont know y we are debating this....only time will tell us the answer

If anything it will definetly keep the toes warmer.

I dont think so. The water will still get in there and then your dogs will be soaking in cold water. When riding in cold water the first thing I want to do when I fall is get my feet, hands and head out of the water. And then of coarse as the boat is going around me to pick me back up I like to be sprayed down with the hot water shower. Especially on me dogs so that I can feel them again.
Saint Thomas with these new closed toe boots.

melanie, wouldn't it be like a wetsuit, where the water between you and the material gets warmed up by your body? Or is the water constantly flushing?

As for the broken toe thing, I know that I have never broken a toe in a properly fitted closed toe shoe!

It maybe is like a wetsuit but then its a baggy wetsuit so how would that work? The material is so thin(i'm thinking they will rip easily) and I remember looking at them and seeing tiny little holes in them. However, I do not know what kind of material it is nor if the water flushes in and out.
They've managed to get us talking about them. Precisely what was intended i'm sure.
Can someone please throw up a pic of these doghouse boots.

Yeah I def haven't seen them in person and am not in the market for bindings anyway, so I have no knowledge of the material.

In the winter I have too wear a bandana around my head so I don't get brain freeze and THAT works and it's regular cotton and whatever else.

Melanie,if anything it will keep the wind off of them making them warmer,just like a binding keeps your feet warmer...same concept.

I Think closed toes boots are about as usefull as windshield wipers on headlights of cars.

I think they're sick lookin'. I'd rock 'em for that reason alone.




and for the record, my toes don't come up at all when I edge heelside.

really i think they are to keep you from having a tan line on your foot

The only good I see in them, is if I'm rinding a rail and some how I fall, and it keeps me from ripping my toe off.

but, I dont know how I would get into a toe ripping postion in the 1st place.

yeah thats probably it

all this negative talk about closed toe boots just gave me a great idea.. i just took every pair of me and my girlfriends shoes and completly cut the toes off of all of them...i think im really on to something.. whos stupid idea was it to close them anyways...

I can think of one benifit- protection.
When I was learning backrolls, I would hit the water leaning too far back, butt-check the water and loose the handle.
In one video I have, the handle (carbon) bounced off of my big toe. You hear a loud CRACK, and the handle popped straight up out of the frame. It was airborne for 45 frames of video. I lost my poor toenail.

So, seeing as how I currently need new bindings, I may try them. If they do not negatively affect my riding I may purchase some.

I prefer camel toe myself

If for some reason you came up short on a raley or on the "yard sale..." thread for instance, where you caught that sweet edge, "The bell ringer", as we like to call it up here in MA wouldn't you more likely than not brake some bones or tear some ligaments wearing those bindings! Don't you need the water as an assistant in helping you release that board from your feet? I wouldn't want to find out the hard way! Besides, I could only see wearin' those things when there is a wind chill of -10* and water just above 32*

The only thing I can think that Closed toe will stop, is going through the bindings on hard landings. When I was learning my Scarecrows, I would land them leaning really hard on my heels. On some of the falls, my foot would go through the bindings. Very painful. Gator Lutgert actually had to have one of his bindings cut open for the same reason. This is the only benefit I see. Guys have been doing 900s and every mobe with open toe bindings. I dont think closed toe is going to benefit much.

the benfit is that you can jam you toes.

People we are not snow skiing so on every jump you would jam your toes.How many times do you jam your toes snowboarding....NONE.

Jamming toes I believe is a none issue!

you cant compare wakeboarding bindings with shoes or snowboard boots. first off your wakeboard binding is pretty wet. water makes things slippery. Secondly you have a thick soft footbed that compresses easily. slippery plus extra space equals sliding forward.

One cool thing is if you don't get all the water out they'll start to stink real bad. gotta love that

I know the hyperlite and believe the liquid force as well have drain holes so the water cannot stay in them. I had the same first thought until I saw them.

Look in a wakeobard magazine and if a rider is doing any kind of spin ecspecially off a double up, where there balance is thrown a lil off, you can see there toes up. Some one find the issue where it showed phill soven landing hte 1080 and then falling over. Its like 10 sequence shots and every shot where u can see his toes, his toes are pointed straight up and by doing that he is trying to bring the toeside edge of the board up... with closed toed bindings he would have more leverage and be able to lift that edge easier. Thats what I think the biggest influence behind them are.