Should You Remove Snowboard Bindings For Summer Storage
Should you remove snowboard bindings for summer storage? Short answer is yes, it’s better for the health of your snowboard if you take your bindings off. But is it worth the hassle? And what could actually happen if you don’t? Is there any case where you can leave them on? In this guide, we’ll answer all of those questions so you can decide whether to leave your bindings on or take them off before storing your snowboard for the season.
What Happens if you don’t Remove Snowboard Bindings
A snowboard is built from many different layers (wood, fiberglass, resin, etc) all bonded together. Each material respond to pressure differently.
When binding is left on the snowboard, the binding screws create clamp force that compresses these layers around the insert area. Different materials reacts to this pressure differently, harder materials hold their shape while softer materials slowly deform around them. This gradual, permanent deformation under constant load is called creep.
Over time, creep changes the shape and flex of the board around the bindings, and in worse cases creates base dimples, which are small sunken spots on the bottom of the board. These dimples mess up how evenly the board presses against the snow, which hurts your glide and makes the board feel less predictable.
Temperature wings make things worse. Each layer of the board expands and shrinks at a different rate when it heats up and cools down. With the bindings locked in place, those layers can’t move freely, which puts extra stress on the board and speeds up the deformation over long periods of storage.
Moisture is another problem. Water gets trapped under the binding plate and pads because there is little airflow. Over time, this causes the hardware to rust and wear down. Heat makes things worse. Warm, moist conditions weaken the bond between the topsheet and the core, causing the layers to slowly separate. This kind of damage is hard to see from the outside, but it quietly shortens the lifespan of the board season after season.
Can you leave snowboard bindings on during off season storage?
If you store your snowboard in a cool, dry, and climate controlled environment, the moisture and temperature concerns become much less of an issue. On top of that, loosening your binding screws by just half a turn can dramatically reduce the pressure on the insert area, lowering the risk of base dimples and long-term deformation.
With a good storage environment and lightly loosened screws, leaving your bindings on will have minimal impact on the health of your board. Most recreational riders won’t notice any difference in flex or glide from one year to the next.
Should you Remove Snowboard Bindings
While removing bindings is the safer option, leaving them on is perfectly fine as long as the board is stored in a cool, dry, and temperature-controlled environment with the screws slightly loosened. The damage we covered — creep, base dimples, and deformation — builds up slowly over time, so one season with bindings on is unlikely to produce any noticeable difference.
That said, Burton recommends doing a clean and inspection before putting your board away for the summer. Removing the bindings makes it much easier to clean the board and gears thoroughly and spot any damage that needs attention. So if you’re planning on doing end of season maintenance anyway, it’s worth taking the bindings off while you’re at it.
Thanks for reading! Check out this guide if you want to know more about summer snowboard storage.
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