The world of snowboarding is headed for uncharted territory. The reason is Japanese company Cerevo created the XON Snow-1 which has smart bindings that will help improve snowboarder’s performance. The Snow-1 will send information collected from your bindings to an app on your phone. It may look like something out of the future but it is slated to be released at some point in 2015.
The bindings will have a battery life of six to eight hours and will track a variety of information that can be used to see where riders need improvements. There are four load sensors located in the feet to track your balance, two flex sensors one top-side and one tail-side to track your board bends, an accelerometer to track your acceleration, and four LED lights that light up as you shift your weight.
Aside from looking fashionable the LED lights do serve a purpose. When they light up it indicates what corrections the riders need to make which can be particularly useful when riders are learning new moves.
The Snow-1 will send all of that data to an App on your smartphone using Bluetooth technology. The data is sent to your phone in real time so you can review your runs instantaneously. But the most useful part about this product is the video overlay. If you have someone videotape your ride the data from the Snow-1 will overlay your video. That way you have a visualization of what you look like riding side by side with the data.
The Snow-1 is a product that can be an asset for snowboarders at any level looking to improve their performance. One of the negatives for this product though will be its cost. The price has not been determined yet but the projected cost is $400 – $600. It may be difficult trying to turn people on to this product when they are used to paying hundreds of dollars less for bindings. Only time will tell if the public is ready to invest in such a high tech product but regardless of sales, new inventions such as this one highlight the growing relationship between technology and hittin’ the slopes.