The Theory of No Highbacks by Mike Ranquet
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The Less I Have The More I Gain
Words and Photos by Mike Ranquet
If necessity is the mother of all invention then holding an idea in contempt before consideration is the dead-beat dad and progression becomes a proverbial Dodo bird. The idea of riding without highbacks draws such an overwhelmingly, unwavering rejection that I see it as a compliment. Trying something pales in comparison to the strides taken in order to avoid the inevitable.
When I started doing switch runs in contests, no one saw the logic, including the judges, as I literally wasn’t scored. Furthermore most of my contemporaries saw no point either, so I find it amusing that I get the same reaction now as I did then (verbatim); “you can’t ride like that.”
In the 80’s boards were wooden (sometimes drywall), edgeless, had ropes tied to the nose and we rode in socks with metal skags (whatever the fuck those are); so any support was welcomed. Unlike the west coast; Europe, Japan and the US east coast had been predominately ski influenced (into the mid 90’s). Predicated on the likelihood that the competitive forum would be racing (like skiing), the wide acceptance of the highback and stiffening of boots is put in perspective.
The lame-duck two-piece ski boot/binding design has remained unchanged (essentially), representing the best we can offer since 1986. The design factors of forward lean, stiffness and rigidity are taken from ski boots; which in and of itself is a testament to the importance of drawing influence from skating and surfing (wake boarders figured it out), not skiing. Let’s not forget; until the fish shape opened the doors to off center, directional boards, eventually leading the way to rockered bases; skiing also blessed us with camber.
In skating and surfing, maximum control is achieved by minimization of what’s between your foot and your board. Just as TV and junk food prevent people from being in touch with nature; the highback prevents riders from being in touch with their board. The loss of progression is put into perspective when you realize how much our mobility and balance have not only compromised our ability to manipulate a snowboard but remain untapped.
Before you convince yourself that you can’t turn on a heel edge without highbacks ask yourself how do surfers & skaters do it? They use their body to lean into the turn; without boots and in the case of surfing the boards are 18” wide, they’re working against a current and they’re barefoot (savages). Snowboarders can’t absorb kinks on rails because their ankles are locked; whereas skaters absorb kinks with their ankles. To allow this progress inhibiting, ski boot influenced piece of plastic to dictate every aspect of riding is embarrassing (I think).
Heels withstand weight and ankles are the pivoting point of balance; thus the use of highbacks cuts off the ability to balance and distribute ones weight. Theoretically your toes need support before your heels would. I’m sure someone is developing a halo like structure to ensure you don’t have to try at all.
The overdesigned, forward-leaning snowboard boot already does the high backs job for them. Boots ensure an unprecedented amount of ankle immobility; the stiffening support to the degree of non-movement is where it stands today. Riding with highbacks is comparable to limping years after an injury; your body works around the limp and doesn’t truly recover.
The marketability and overdesign of the highback is matched only by there uselessness, in short; highbacks are archaic, expired training wheels that are rolling the sport into an evolutionary cul-de-sac.
PS: Using lowbacks ‘back in the day’ has as much validity as using step-in (shit) bindings; they both inhibit the flexing of the ankle.
Standing up
You wouldn’t ever think of it, as it’s never been an option; it’s so nice to strap-in, stand-up and go without sitting or crouching. No need to dig a strap in pit when in the backcountry and easy toe to heel edge hops (visa versa) when compromised by steep conditions. I sacrificed so much comfort and stability over the years in order to let a 6” piece of plastic dictate how I much I could control my board. Every movement you make is predicated on the highback; the false sense of stability (via burning your quads) is of no advantage to the rider.
Turning
The feeling of digging in your heels so deep with all your weight then releasing the energy, rather than absorbing it, allow for more powerful, tighter turns than thought possible. Over-rotating heel turns and allowing the tail to dig in and the board to whip itself back to forward. Also you can absolutely destroy frontside lips, bashing the shit out of anything with all your weight on your heels.
Traversing
When forced to traverse on the heels, even a caveman will learn to ride switch. Traversing burns your quads because you’re squatting, flexing the ankles (like on the toe edge) allow a higher traverse sans the pain associated with heel traverses.
Mind & Body
The natural flow or chakras (look it up dummy) of ones body is skewed; ankles locked at 90° kink the body (ankles, knees, hips). The highback doesn’t allow the energy to be distributed throughout your body while on the heel edge. When applying pressure to the heel edge, most of your energy is apportioned to holding the squat position. Essentially you’re applying what energy is leftover after burning your quad muscles. The pain one feels after riding has way more to do with squatting all day than it does with riding. The psychological dependence on highbacks is strong, but the physical is nil.
Transitions
Halfpipe runs are predominantly ridden on the toe edge, as it’s easier to generate speed due to the flexing of the ankle when riding up the wall. Ever notice on quarter pipes and heel edge walls that riders are locked? The highback inhibits the rider from pumping the wall (hell edge) or springing off the lip; instead riders float off the lip (not pop) as they run a flat base on heel edge walls. Take Danny Way; he goes just as high as the best snowboarders with half the speed (after landing a back flip) because he pumps the transition then pops off the lip, snowboarders have only momentum.
Landing
In the air, your ankles want to flex (slightly) to keep balance; highbacks inhibit the natural balance resulting in snowboarder’s “opening up” before landing. Staying tight by minor ankle adjustments is how skateboarders do it. On frontside walls, instead of having to be over your board, you can push the board in front of you (stalefish, lien-crooked cop). Then your feet can adjust for the transition easier when your board in front you; like a proper FS Ollie when skating It also literally answers the age-old question of why straight airs are so hard.
February 2004
I rode a snow-skate (RIP) once at Snoqualmie Pass; Mike Olsen let me take a run on his. First thing I noticed was that I cold push my back leg out on a heel turns. It made me wonder, as my balance wasn’t compromised why snowboards even had highbacks.
January 2005
I needed to commit myself to the concept, so I clipped my highbacks off with shears and strapped in. I realized that if I can skate 20’ (coffee in hand) to chair 7 without falling, then I’ve proven that I’m able to ride without highbacks. The very first thing I noticed is that I didn’t notice anything at all; no really… I can’t stress it enough, nothing, zip, nada.
December 2007- April 2008
This is when it evolved from shits & giggles to being an absolute benefit to snowboarding. Reason being; I rode everyday and was able to utilize this factor to change the way I stand on, turn, jump and land a snowboard.
Ranquet’s blogging to...ranquet.transworld.net
Tags: Mike Ranquet, No Highbacks
Current Issue: April 2009
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damn, pretty sick
pretty interesting, i gotta try this one day
so is he saying use lowbacks or no backs at all?
either way i want to try this out, and as a longboarder in the summer, i can see how it makes sence.
yeah im confused. is he saying to just remove the back of your binding all together, or transfer from a high back to a low back?
nah he said low backs are just as useless as step in bindings
yeah sounds like a cool idea! but it would be more convincing if you didnt cherry pick examples to fit your argument…..
Longboarding: the dopest dope you’ll ever smoke
Reuben Anderson, anyone?
if i had the patent id be rich uuhhhhhhh son
who are you jp walker?
so true screw highbacks
Mt Baker is so sweet. Those pics make me happy.
well put, well said. nice job mike, you’re almost convincing me , keep going please.
highbacks are for people dumb enough to buy burton cartels, kooks
that is an interesting thought, i say go find out for yourself and take what feels best for you
sure it’s a cool idea to tear down the nostalgic highback but why don’t you build your case. I’m not even sure what you’re fighting for. Only what you’re fighting against. I’ll pick my own poison.
I should have read this comment before wasting my time reading the article
yeah sounds like a cool idea! but it would be more convincing if you didnt cherry pick examples to fit your argument…..
I’ve been thinkin about riding without highbacks for so long!!! Now that I know other people are thinkin the same thing I’m going riding tomorow without them. [[ Start The Trend ]]
no highback is garbage. get your game tight
THIS IS NOT NEW YOU DUMB A#$ PEOPLE HAVE DONE THIS FOREVER
i read the heading and was like ‘whatever’ but your half convincing me mike, i kinda makes sense…
Not to be a noob. But what exactly are highbacks? Are they just boots that come to about where normal boots come to? midway between the ankle and knee? Or are they bindings that support boots of these sizes? a little info would be greatly appreciated.
high backs are the back of the bindings that go up behind your boot, they make it so that you dont really have to try to make a heelside turn.
oh alright. so a low back would be basically just a binding that keeps your foot in place but provides no support to the back of your boot?
almost…
low back is a high back…
cept it’s only like 2 inches of support…
instead of a normal highback that is like like 6 inches long…
(low back = shorter than normal highback)
yeah!!!!!! I rode for a little bit with out a high back… Its pretty interesting
Aren’t you supposed to NOT kick you back leg around to turn? Snowboards are not skateboards or surfboards and thus are designed differently. Back in the early days board were ridged and the concept of torsional flex (allows you to turn) had not been integrated in to board design. Therefore kicking your leg around to turn was a necessity. Now that torsional flex, which skateboard and surfboards to not have, has been integrated into snowboards we can use our edges to initiate and make more efficient turns. Conversely, I do see the point made about riding pipe, however it is extremely difficult to hold a stable heel edge turn at high speed in the pipe. Accordingly, while you may be have the more mobility to do tricks you will not have the speed to go big. But I bet it would be sweet to test on a quarterpipe. I strongly agree with the notion that highbacks on rails it ridiculous for all of the reasons mentioned above. Lastly, I pose a question, how does having no highbacks influence jumping e.g. stability of landing on larger kickers and effect on tricks such as a FS cork.
agreed completly
i dont know about this. i cant stand big stiff highbacks that come on all burton bindings but im pretty sure something back there is needed. also i found a pair of third strap highbacks and mounted those bastards up for a few days this summer on hood and it was awesome. i had so much response and could just whip my board around with ease. id still use them but they were too heavy because they were old as shit.
skateboarding is similar to surfing asnd surfing is alot of front foot like poumping and stuff and snowboarding is alot more back foot u catch my drift
Someone should go try it tomorrow with their friends. After lunch, bring a screw driver up and take em off and post a video link to vimeo or youtube here. Anyone down?
Im in whistler tomorrow and ill see if some friends will be down for it.
cooool beans
i do high baks all the time,getn blazed and doin flips
You’ve brought up some good points, and every knows you’re a beast on the mountain. My question would be in the comparison to surfing and skateboarding. In these two activities you have complete mobility of your feet so when you are making a powerful heel side turn you can move your feet thus allowing a different balance point and center of gravity. I would be skeptical that the board would react for you in the same manner if you are not allowed to reposition your feet for different turns, which is where a having a back is somewhat beneficial, because you balance point is stationary on a snowboard. It seems that if you want the full freedom of foot mobility and want to whip you foot out on a snowboard you would ride a No Board, because you could never get that full spectrum turning on a snowboard. It’s an interesting concept and topic and it’s nice to see a post on here that isn’t just a bunch of idiots talking about some kids pants not being tight enough.
Thank you for this valuable information. It seems like this guy rules!
Matty V… who the hell can move their feet when carving when surfing(that is what sexwax is for..) and skating(grip tape!!).. You can readjust but not in the middle of carving or doing a handrail.. that it so stupid what you wrote… landed right on your face!! POW!!!!
youre a moron, he was saying that before you perform different moves you ahve the ability to change your position on the board thus altering your pressure points, dumbass
This is about as new as 92. Tarquin Robbins. “Badman Tarquin wears no highbacks”
mike ranquet, you do not ride ice day in day out. come out and do the slip n slide with us and you’ll want as much leverage as you can get just to hold an edge.
I tried this in the 90’s and it wasn’t cool. I found that on heel edge traverses I had to straiten my legs to hold an edge, which totally ruined any chance of absorbing any bumps with my legs, and had to compensate by bending at the waist. I like the theory, just not the practice.
For the two that couldnt grasp the concept.
And the one who thought is was an argument.
Snowboarding has been a wild game of trail and error. The idea of taking off your highbacks seems ridiculous now but back then it was something to try, something worth checking out because no one else had. the “no backs” was something that I will never forget because it was just simply a step through innovation that had to be figured out. Snowboarding is the most fun thing in the world, so stop trying to analyze it so hard. Take the fashion show elsewhere and have fun. If not, get a nine to five and beat your kids.
Good read.I can see what you are trying to get at. I surf skateand snowboard year round and i think this is definetly worth trying. I am headed up north tommorrow and i will take a video and post it up for all of you who are curious.
LOL, he’s thinking outside the box… GET HIM !!
jk jk
Beofre u kock this guys hussle and valid points, try it. You too will deem the allmighty highback unessecary and a total waste of money. Each highback translates into a extra 20 bucks atleast for a pair of bindings…
* as burton assembles a secret gang to kill those who despise the highback to eliminate further thinking outside of the box *
I know totally, burton hasn’t even thought of anything sweet in a long time, except toe caps (burton & t9 04/05′), living hinge, infinite ride, est, ics, interchangeable bed cushions… super lame I know (you’re only core now and days if made your bindings out of paper mache’ in art class)
to “????”: colter mckay never made any statement in his comment that burton hasn’t made “anything sweet” in its years of business, or the notion that burton makes crappy products. he only said that burton likes their highbacks, and that burton would be willing to kill to keep high backs alive if this “no high back” theory becomes more popular - because thats what burton is know for: their exclusive, really big, plastic high backs, that include burtons signature all, or mostly plastic binding technology. you don’t want bindings that are durable, you want them to break ever season so you can buy burtons bindings every single year and get the newest technology from them that lets you strap in faster, have infinite stance width, but to do that you need one of their boards of course. being able to have a stance as wide as you want it to be, and being able to change the bed cushions and strap in faster really progress snowboarding and make people able to do. and plastic is awesome. i fucking love plastic. its like riding on paris hilton.
i want to see a video… i want to see someone without hbacks fall on a big kicker and see if there ankles explode…
i could see this working in pow but idont really know about jumps in the park and ice, i ride Hbacks all the time then again i dont ride powder cause there isnt any in ontario. and they are working fine in the park me so..
okay this sounds sooo weird to me, it could maybe work in powder but not that many people ride that because its not around them, and if highbacks were soooo terible then why is every company trying to improve it each and every year? by now at least one company would have a non-highback model and this could possibly make sense but it doesn’t! the idea is foolish. sorry whoever thinks its a good idea to this
i still have a ranquet w/ lobacks.. good stuff.
i dont think it makes a difference
Last night I read this article. Today, I rode park, Pow, jumps, and rails with out high backs. On Ice It was sketchy i even slipped out once. On rails it was more up right feeling. On heel side traverses it was nice. my back and knees liked it. Hiking was sweet cause my board was lighter. high speed pow felt the same. But when it came to jumps the back ward ankle feeling was great. I think tuck knees will be the new hot thing. I would like to try it on a big jump then the test will be complete. Love
oh and pipe with out high backs will be interesting. Watch the heel drag!
Good for pow probably, but on hard pack (park jumps) you’re ankles will snap like PRETZELS!
The Number one and two snowboard injuries, (ACL and MCL) are replaced by masses of people tearing Achilles tendons. Wouldn’t recommend that, you’ll have a prescription induced high for months to deal with the pain.
its makes sense sure… but you can come up with enough reasons too keep highbacks also… and its all relative with or without high backs… a sport gets pushed to its limit regardless. yupp
untill i see someone do something sweet that i can’t do with highbacks, i’m keeping em’
ok, so i ttried this today and for park i loved it felt more balanced, but powder AND ice both sucked without, (well ice blows either way), heelside turns were fine but my toeside turns were about half as good as normal, theyre going back on tomorrow
gotta call out this bs reply - toeside turns do not involve a highback whatsoever - unless your using the forward lean to help bend your knees, in which case i think a lesson would do you more good than highbacks will
oh
video, please…. at baker
Read it last night and tried it today. I have never tweaked out a front three stale so hard in my life!! I can definitely see grabs being easier without the high back. For those who compete… mixing up grabs with different spins is definitely important. No highbacks makes grabbing so much easier. It was harder for me to spin cab and frontside but it was a lot easier to land. I was a little hard to speed check going into the jumps. I could see halfpipe being really hard without the highbacks
Yes! Way to think out-of-the-box.
“they’re working against a current and they’re barefoot (savages)” is HILARIOUS.
barefoot = savages. Nice comedic ear.
i see what you did there…
Hi there!
At monday we have about 30cm of Fresh and I deside to try nohighback riding. Pretty fun:) Just a little strange. Backside turn little overloaded, but I think thats’ cause withou higbacks binding become little smaller (just for thickness of the highback), I thing I need just a little tuning and all be fine:)
One more plus is a lighter setup:)
Don’t know how it’ll be at the crud or ice but in powder works fine!
I saw peter line rocking no highbacks at Baker.
He means no high back. Low-back is still a high back. Remove it, get it gone. and he’s right. We’ve finally come to realize that riding an oversized ski is not the best way (rockered boards, thank you Mervyn). It only makes sense that we’re boarders, not sideways skiers. I could see a big mountain rider being more interested in a high back, but what do most of us do with it anyway? We move it back as much as we possibly can and leave it that way. Worth a try, right?
Snow_samurai96,
You think mervin came out with rocker 1st?
My 1988 Look Lamar trick stick had rocker. They made it that way for halfpipe. On top of that K2 came out with rocker on the new Gyrator the same year as Mervin and had the rocker on the Pontoon the year before Mervin had it on any boards.
Mike I would like you to ride a 4 hour day at least without highbacks on hard pack. I see it working maybe in pow. A human leg and foot do not have muscles to stand on the heel. try standing on your heels for more than 1 minute and see how you feel. Then stand on your toes for 10 minutes and see how you feel.
With a skate board you simply shift your weight and the trucks tilt and do the turning for you. Try a skateboard with axles that do not move and see how easy it is to control the board.
surfboards are moving on water that gives way and like when you are on a skateboard when you shift your weight the board edge sinks into the water much like the pivot you get on a skate board. Yes your idea may work on a freshy pow days but not on hardpack condition’s like what it was up at the summit tonight. back when I lived at Baker in the early 90’s there were a few dudes on libs that rode without highback and on top of that they cut the toe straps off. Yeah these dudes were riding the day glow yellow and pink Sims bindings and actually had to cut the toe straps off because the two straps we made out of on piece of plastic The idea obviously did not go anywhere. I am sure you know who I am talking about as you were there sporting your 15″ stance on your super flexy butter board back then.
I am definitely not talking shit on you and I do think you have a lot of knowledge with the board sports. You have been in the snowboard industry longer than dirt. But I would like to know how many days/hours you have on hardpack with this “old idea”?
My My My Either Mr. Ranquet hired himself a ghost writer to get this article published or he has aquired some knowledge over the past ten years……….
i agree with him. i took my highbacks off a couple days ago. and have only tried it on hard pack. i love it really. i have magne traction. and i can still slash ice and get face shots on groomers. i didn’t find really anything wrong with it. other then i loved it. nosepresses felt so good nice and balanced. grabs are funnier, and it just feels more comfortable. and about traversing, fuck why would you traverse on your heels? just switch it up. just try it out. find out for yourself. if you like it rock it. if you don’t rock your backs. just enjoy being out there. all that matters in this world. just having a good time. thanks mike for the read.
I started riding in 93 and there’s been HUGE improvements in the equipment. Try riding on a 166 Mike Estes Barfoot in sorrels and duct tape for a season and see how your feet feel. A good supportive boot, and bindings that don’t break into little pieces are more appreciated once you’ve had an ankle surgery. If you want more freedom in riding adjust your highback forward lean to be a little less forward. When you go riding tighten your straps loosely so that your feet move around a bit. This combo works very well on powder, slush, and bumps as you are more dissconnected from your board. When it’s icy tighten your straps. I love icy days too. Ice challenges you to be technically correct. Once your good on ice there are NO bad days on the mountain! MBHC
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