Testing Bindings

Recently, in the fridge at Tamworth, i have fell in such a way i would have expected my bindings to release.
On more than one occasion i have twisted my knee or ankle, not to badly, but with enough force that i was surprised to see my skis still firmly attached.

I am wondering now if the hire skis are just poorly maintained,the din settings advised to me (5.5) are wrong or that i don't really fall half as bad as i think i do.

So with this in mind i asked myself how i should test the release pressure needed. I came accross this document.

http://www.ski-injury.com/prevention/st

Do you ever carry out such self tests on your kit or do you just blindly trust it? Are there any other / better methods of testing the release of the bindings?

Snapzzz wrote:Recently, in the fridge at Tamworth, i have fell in such a way i would have expected my bindings to release.
On more than one occasion i have twisted my knee or ankle, not to badly, but with enough force that i was surprised to see my skis still firmly attached.

I am wondering now if the hire skis are just poorly maintained,the din settings advised to me (5.5) are wrong or that i don't really fall half as bad as i think i do.

So with this in mind i asked myself how i should test the release pressure needed. I came accross this document.

http://www.ski-injury.com/prevention/st

Do you ever carry out such self tests on your kit or do you just blindly trust it? Are there any other / better methods of testing the release of the bindings?

Have a look at this site ........ my din setting came out at 8 and I normally set mine to 7.5
so it came out quite close.
http://www.dinsetting.com/

Snapzzz wrote:Recently, in the fridge at Tamworth, i have fell in such a way i would have expected my bindings to release.
On more than one occasion i have twisted my knee or ankle, not to badly, but with enough force that i was surprised to see my skis still firmly attached.

I am wondering now if the hire skis are just poorly maintained,the din settings advised to me (5.5) are wrong or that i don't really fall half as bad as i think i do.

So with this in mind i asked myself how i should test the release pressure needed. I came accross this document.

http://www.ski-injury.com/prevention/st

Do you ever carry out such self tests on your kit or do you just blindly trust it? Are there any other / better methods of testing the release of the bindings?

Have a look at this site ........ my din setting came out at 8 and I normally set mine to 7.5
so it came out quite close.
http://www.dinsetting.com/

Thanks Ian, that puts me on a 6.
hmmmm

A very simple binding test is to attach one of the boots to a ski binding while wearing the boots and attempt to kick your boot, with the other foot, out of the attached ski binding. You can judge roughly how tight/loose you have your din setting on.

I ski on 7 - sometimes 8, depends what i'm doing :-)

Are you using your own boots? Then type of rental binding might have something to do the problem. Rental bindings often have a relatively crude forward pressure adjustment. The bindings will be set for your boot length, but if that length falls at the long end of the incremental length adjustments on the bindings, There may be too much forward pressure. I would discuss it with the rental tech, and maybe compare your boots length to the rental boot lengths. When they test the bindings periodically, it would probably be with the rental boots.

When you fell, were you skiing slowly? Sometimes, if a fall not dynamic, there can be a slow twisting effect where there is no release, and you can twist a knee. An ankle twist would be more rare, I think.
Next time you are at the venue, see what make of bindings are being used, and then check your DIN setting on the manufacturers website. They do vary.

Trencher: Yes, they are are my own boots on rental skis so i will talk to them next next....thanks.

Dave Mac: Yes, i was traveling relatively slowly. I have been practicing skiing backwards and rotating 360 whilst moving forward and returning to forward movement from skiing backwards.
On all occasions i seemed to be when i caught (dug in) an edge or tip forcing the ski to to point skyward and cartwheel. Thus twisting my knee and sometimes ankle.
Will look at the brand next time i attend. Thanks