Review: KneeBindings Carbon
We take preventative measures for our health every day: we brush our teeth to prevent cavities; we exercise for our hearts; we wear our seatbelts in case of a car wreck. Prevention is the name of the game, but how many people have gone through ACL surgery and months of rehab after a ski accident? If there was a binding that would help prevent that injury, you’d be interested, right?
Enter the Carbon from KneeBindings. Conventional bindings release at the toe and the upward heel, but when you’re falling backward, bending at the knee and hip, all your weight is to your heel. If you then grab an inside edge, you’ll find your leg doesn’t bend and the typical binding doesn’t release—but KneeBindings will. The Carbon has a third release—what the company refers to as the PureLateral heel—so that as you’re falling backward, and your ski grabs the inside edge, the binding releases laterally at your heel.
Like other bindings, you simply step in and press your heel down to lock into your skis; but each Carbon binding is specific to the right or left foot. My skis are just as responsive as my previous bindings and I’ve had no issue with pre-release—a concern for skeptics. I’ve used them in steeps, moguls, trees, and groomers, all with reckless abandon. The few minor crashes I’ve sustained, the skis haven’t left my boots—but I'll take the release on faith. I'm not going to crash my car to check the seatbelt, and I’m not going to deliberately wipe out on the ski hill to test my bindings. Available at Ph. D Skis. $460; kneebinding.com.
