K2 CINCH is the best of both worlds
I dropped by princeton ski last night to check out the K2 cinch bindings. They are fantastic. I'm going to buy them as soon as the thanksgiving sales hit. Jebus they are sweet.
They generally look like a regular strap binding. The clicks on the straps look kind of crappy, but they are standard attachments so you could replace them. I like to ratchet down really tight, but these seem to pop too easily. No matter.
The great thing is that you can easily adjust your binding tightness while riding, just as with any straps.
But the killer application is when you want to get quickly in and out. There's a power cord at the back just like flow bindings. If you drop the lever, you can pull back the highback and at the same time raise the ankle strap. I put on a pair of store boots and tried whipping the feets in and out of the bindings. No problem, plenty of clearance. And when you need to lay the high back flat, you can, just like a regular strap binding.
I currently can't see a downside to these at all. At $210 in a nyc shop they are definitely priced to move. Perhaps I am just dazzled by the messianic glow that seems to emanate from these sacred bindings, yea, for they are the ones fortold in our ancient snowboarder prophecies.
Now let's start seeing some decent lacing systems. Go forth and design ye engineers, and produce them for me!