[dejason]

Hi, I've read everything I can and talked to everyone I know about active vs. passive bindings, and *I think* I'm starting to get the picture on the pros and cons. However the one thing I'm hearing totally contradictory advice on is what would be best for a beginner, not just new to tele but to skiing as of this last season.

I'm 5'9", 165 lbs. It's probably not ideal, but I'll likely be skiing Jaks (the regular ones) and T1s because I can get deals on them. I'm 2/3 resort and 1/3 bc, mostly in Tahoe, but also some in Utah.

If it makes any difference, I'm more concerned with what will be the best for my technique in the long term, rather than what will be easiest.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[dana]

Beginners will find it easier to learn and have better control with more active bindings. Going for big skis and boots also is a tip toward that direction. Neutral bindings are great for touring, but demand more inherent balance & edge feel from the pilot.

Given near-zero skiing experience, a fat & heavy ski, and moderatly big boots I'd push you toward the Rottefella R8, BD-O2 or HammerHead. Kewl-WAh mag has this great online binding comparison chart to figure out which bindings are the more neutral or active:

http://www.couloirmag.com/gear/telemark/bindings/binding_perf_02-03.htm

(I only wish they would update it sometime- there are some great bindings that have come out since '02/'03, and it would be good to know how they stack up.)

[dejason]

Thanks!

[MPAA]

if money is a problem though.

Neutral bindings are often cheaper than Active bindings.

[XXX_er]

IMO people obsess about this subject WAY too much,given that you can ski any ski with a 3pin which is totaly neutral , BIG like a T-1 boots & fat skis are gona give you the performance you need.After that a releasable binding is more important than an active binding

IMO get something that holds yer boot to the ski and gets rid of the ski when you mess up

[genuflector]

I don't ski on it but if I was after 1 binding for what you do I would get the Voile 3pin CRB Hardwire
Active enough, and can be made neutral when the wire is stowed for the uphill.
I ski the hammerhead and only reservation is lack of releasability - no complaints with how it skis and you can make it as active or as passive as you like.

[Dirk]

[Unruly Baker]

[dana]

[Eric O]

We've lost the grand old tradition of telling beginners that big heavy gear is too advanced for them, and that they need to start on something light and simple that they can manage to get some turns out of. This used to be how we kept upstarts from getting good at telemarking and sold them one set of gear that they'd have to replace with another in two years. Unfortunately now everyone's realized that solid equipment will shorten their learning process and complete grasshoppers are tele skiing like mad in one year! grumble, grumble...

[larrym]

Fist let me say welcome to the world of the tele turn. It use to be that the combination of both burly skis and more importantly stiff burly boots had the possibility of hindering a tele newbie let alone a newbie to skiing itself. It's far too easy to get tippy toe on stiff boots in a netural binding. You will hear over and over again weight the uphill ski and what becomes intergral in getting that weight on the uphill ski is to properly flex the corresponding boot and not get into a too wide stance (fore and aft) aka poodle stance. Active bindings will tend to do two things one: encourage you to tighten your fore and aft stance and two: flex your boots at the bellows and allow you to get your heel on the back ski closer to the ski thus helping you to better weight the uphill ski, by the way a tighter stance also helps. Having said all of this its not only possible but its done all the time on netural bindings its just easier on active bindings. There's another catch that a newbie might want to consider as it was alluded to in a prior posting. We tend to fall more often when we first start out and that will diminish as we get experience or rather should I say we learn how to fall better. Releasables will help in the tib fib injury but acl's upward releases and rearward twisting falls now thats a discussion for a whole other topic in and of itself. Our experiences may differ from one to another I found that hammerheads in the more active positions encourages what has been outlined above. I hope some of this will help and once again welcome.

[skibum]

UB, the 7tm power tour would seem to be what you are looking for. If you really need more active, you could just alpine. If you want neutral, just pop out the pin.

[Unruly Baker]

[genuflector]

Pretty sure I heard on this site that a Power tour from 7tm was being released next American Fall.

[Eric O]

This is true. The Power Tour should be available next season and exists in prototype and testing currently. Karhu and 7tm had just completed most of a season of answering a large number of requests for a combination of Power and Tour features, telling people that yes of course this was underway but it would take some time to develop. And 3rd party pundits had been theorizing that it might take extra time because the tour mechanism appeared to occupy the same space that was going to be needed by the power parts. Then the binding's designer thrilled everybody and even surprised many in his distribution network by showing a skiable Power Tour binding long before most people expected to see one.

My shop's Karhu rep told me that people with the current Tour binding will be able to buy an upgrade kit to convert to the Power/Tour model in the future.