Description of Burton Escapade Snowboard Binding - Women's:
Burton hooked up the Women's Escapade Snowboard Binding with B3 Gel heel cushioning to reduce chatter on the hardpack and soften your landing on the terrain park's biggest hits. This all-mountain, medium-flex binding locks your foot in place with the Ultra Capstrap toe strap, so you can squeeze every speck of performance out of your new board. Burton added the Canted Living Hinge highback to the Escapade Snowboard Bindings to provide nearly limitless adjustment without tools. Dial in your fit and rip every corner of the mountain. - Fall 2008.
Bottom Line: More padding for overshot landings and chattery snow.
These year after year are my favorite bindings. I wear a size 6.5 boot and mediums can adjust down small enough and smalls can adjust large enough. I choose to go with the mediums so if people need to borrow bindings and have normal sized feet they can borrow mine. The flex on these are great. offers awesome support and cushioning. I am stoked on the top caps for this years bindings. Just offers a better fit on the toes. I use these bindings for everything. powder, park, pipe and kiteboarding. Great dampening in the heal and foot. You don't feel every little bump or whomp in the snow. Stomping landings don't hurt in these either. you will love life in these bindings.
I had some issues with the ankle straps when I took them out the first day (see the question I posted below). However, after some adjustment, the discomfort went away. By moving the ankle strap one notch up, the pressure points on the inner side of my feet went away. These Burtons fit very snugly with my Salomon boots. The toe strap on the back foot sometimes becomes loose during riding, but I think that's because of the fact that they fit really snug, and when I sit down to strap on the back foot, the foot doesn't get all the way into the binding even though I crank down the straps tight. This can be easily solved by standing up and let the gravity do its job, then tighten the straps again. My setup is stiff bindings, stiff boots, and stiff board. This translates to precise carving turns on groomed trails. These bindings are so responsive compared to my previous bindings that I no longer have to worry about catching an edge due to sluggish response.
The color teal/zebra is not as sky blue as the burton website shows and is even a bit darker than this site shows. It is a darker green/blue - teal color.
The heal strap this yaer has a bubble padding as opposed to squishy padding. We will see how the bubbles hold up this season. The material the air bubbles are held in seems durable. The hea straps and toe straps are easier to adjust length on this year as opposed to last years. I have a year over year comparision on burton escapades over the past 3 years on my blog.
